Should Drivers Be Blamed If Criminals Or Shippers Put Illegal Cargo In Their Trailers?

According to statistics compiled by border patrol agents and independent investigators, drugs and other illegal cargo are routinely found somewhere in,on or attached to trucks and trailers coming out of Mexico. Would you haul anything out of Mexico?

Yes, but you better believe I would know what was in that trailer. And it doesn't matter if I am in Mexico or any state in this nation. I know what is on my Truck and Trailer. It's part of the job.

I dislike criminal activity, but know people makes mistakes. Should someone be held responsible for their load? YES. Because 8 chances out of 10 he knows it's on their anyway.

I've seen too many drivers back to the dock and go to sleep. I know they are tired. I have been their. But my job is to know what is on my trailer and I am going to know. Yes, I have been to places where you can't enter the warehouse and the load is sealed. The cargo is not a legal issue for my at that time. Only the transport of it to its destination. Making sure your papers are correct, signatures, seal numbers...etc.

If you get somewhere and the place doesn't feel right to you. Let your dispatcher know. Cover your bases and your backside.

It's all in a days work.

Tracey nailed it.

You, the driver, will be held responsible. Once you sign that Bill of Lading all the cargo becomes your responsibility.

It's always a good idea to watch your trailer being loaded. It helps you drive when you know how it looks inside there. But it's not always possible and not always allowed. Obviously, if you're picking up from a reputable place you don't really have to worry. I'm not going to go to a US Cold Storage and worry about drugs getting on my trailer.

But if you're picking up in Mexico I'd definitely have that on my mind. Before you leave the facility it's always a good idea to examine the BoL with a toothpick. Read every inch of it. I actually had a delivery in Nogales, AZ. The inspection station that I went through was the one in "Meet the Smiths" movie that came out a few months ago. When I made the delivery I was very cautious in that area. I searched my truck and trailer to make everything was fine. Didnt want someone hitching a ride illegally.

When you pick up a trailer that is loaded and has a seal on the door, you are not responsible for whats IN that trailer. And even at a shippers, if they put their seal on that trailer, you aren't responsible for the contents, whether you watched them load it or not. You can ask, when you get to a shipper , if they will put their seal on the door. If they do, go take a nap in your sleeper, cuz it won't matter to you, legally. Our only issue while pulling a reefer , was whether the load was HazMat or not. We had the company we were leased to load our trailer at their dock. We hooked up, and put our lock on it. This loaded in NY. It delivered in GA. The BOL just said x amount of 55 gallon drums of bla bla bla Since we didn't know what the bla bla bla was, we didn't question it. When we pulled in to the battery plant in GA to off load, I pulled open the doors...and every barrel in that trailer had HazMat stickers all over them. We hadn't flipped our placards at all for that load !! We were VERY lucky. And that was the last load we hauled for that company. The BOL had no Hazmat warning on it, and we didn't look in our trailer. Had we gotten stopped and the trailer inspected, we would have gotten ah HUGE ticket, because our lock was on the trailer. So if you lock it, you better look at it.

IF YOU LOCK IT......LOOK AT IT!!! EXCELLENT STATEMENT.

Starcar is correct. Once the company you are picking the load up from puts the seal on, the law considers that company liable for the cargo contents. And that's the way it should be. Drivers need to remember that they are just that-drivers only. Drivers are not loaders and do not work for the company they picked up from. They simply transport cargo from one point to another. As far as the knowing what is in your truck part, there is no way a driver could know exactly because the driver would have to open and inspect each and every box or barrell on the truck and that is not feasible. Most companies these days do not allow you in the plant, indeed many are closing off even their restrooms to drivers and having them use port-a-potties or the nearest gas station. They certainly don't want drivers at the back of a trailer while it's being loaded by a 3 ton forklift.

I'm new to all this, haven't even started school yet so this may be a dumb question. But if you can't watch them load how do you make sure it's loaded properly concerning weight distribution?

I'm new to all this, haven't even started school yet so this may be a dumb question. But if you can't watch them load how do you make sure it's loaded properly concerning weight distribution?

Once it's loaded. Move the trailer tandems to a spot where it would be legal and where you think it would be best. Then go to a CAT scale and scale yourself. It'll show you the weight on your steers, drive axles, and trailer tandems.

After you do it for awhile you'll start to know exactly where to move the trailer tandems.

I'm new to all this, haven't even started school yet so this may be a dumb question. But if you can't watch them load how do you make sure it's loaded properly concerning weight distribution?

Once it's loaded. Move the trailer tandems to a spot where it would be legal and where you think it would be best. Then go to a CAT scale and scale yourself. It'll show you the weight on your steers, drive axles, and trailer tandems.

After you do it for awhile you'll start to know exactly where to move the trailer tandems.

Sorry for raising some of these threads from the dead, but it doesn't make sense to me to start a new thread on the same subject. If it is preferred, let me know.

Anyway, I had the same question, but also, how do you know if the load is properly secured in a sealed trailer?

I'm new to all this, haven't even started school yet so this may be a dumb question. But if you can't watch them load how do you make sure it's loaded properly concerning weight distribution?

Once it's loaded. Move the trailer tandems to a spot where it would be legal and where you think it would be best. Then go to a CAT scale and scale yourself. It'll show you the weight on your steers, drive axles, and trailer tandems.

After you do it for awhile you'll start to know exactly where to move the trailer tandems.

Sorry for raising some of these threads from the dead, but it doesn't make sense to me to start a new thread on the same subject. If it is preferred, let me know.

Anyway, I had the same question, but also, how do you know if the load is properly secured in a sealed trailer?

Hey GOM, if you pick up a sealed trailer, you have no liability if the cargo wasn’t secured properly. The only thing you’re responsible for at that point is sliding the tandems to make sure you are legal at weigh stations along your route.

I had a load where the load assignment said “SLC” which means shipper load & count which makes it the shipper’s responsibility to load it properly & count it too. I go in the office & they have signs everywhere that driver has to count load. I refused. When asked to initial if I counted or refused to count? Of course I initialed that I refused.

This in one of my pet peeves with job. They want me to count thousands of boxes that most times are sealed in cellophane on pallets. Del Monte in south Jersey insists the driver “counts” the load. Again, the lumper is coming with 2 pallets on his forklift, how am I supposed to count a full pallet that’s stacked in whatever way they want.

If they want us to count properly? We’d have to be there for 8-10 hours watching them sort & stack each pallet. At a receiver, they had 1 lumper off load me. ONE! He would take out a pallet, break it down, count it & then sort it on separate pallets. Almost 10 hours I sat there.