Employee negligence, who should pay?

[Wawrecker]

We have a couple company F-150 fords that are assigned to supervisors and last week one of them rear ended another car. Everyone was ok, very minor, there was $1,500 damage to the Subaru my truck hit and the same to our 2005 F-150. The employee was off the jobsite at 330pm and the accident occurred at 530pm within a couple blocks of his home. This drive from the site to his home conservatively should not take more than 1 hour max. The employee also had his 12 year old son in the truck with out authorization. I asked him why he was still on the road 2 hours after shift and he said he had to fuel up and stuff. I am not one to just go off and call B.S unless I have a smoking gun but this really stinks. I have asked the employee to pay the damage on the company truck and he agreed only to come back to me 3 days later and tell me why that’s not fair. What are your opinions or experiences with these situations?

[dayexco]

he is an employee, it was your truck, your ins. you allowed him to drive it home, although it sounds as though he's using it and your fuel for his personal use. i think legally, you're stuck this time. i guess i would tell him now that the vehicle will be at your shop, and he can pick it up at that point to get to work, and will be left there at shift's end. i allow my super to drive our stuff to and from jobsite and home, and i know there are times it's used as a taxi. but, i guess that would be my personal response should something like that happen to me. i'm going to print this off and have him read it.

[jperfect]

unfortunly you as an employer you are the one responseable for the repairs. even though it was several hours after work. if the guys are not reponseable then end of the day breing the ruck back to the shop. an employer cannot make an employee pay for the repairs. at least here in mi.:(

[tylermckee]

Is the guy normally a liar? Do you have any kind of written company policy adbout personal use of company trucks? I'm assuming since he is a supervisor you value him as an employee and he wouldnt just be out screwing around in the company truck. If i was in your situation i would just take care of the damage. If you are worried about it you could always have them park the company trucks at the shop/yard every night.

I drive a company truck where i work and if i have stuff that i need to do on my way home from work im going to do it on my way home from work, as long as its not somewhere really out of the way.

[Steve Frazier]

Labor laws prohibit you from collecting any compensation from the employee. You can take the truck away, suspend him or fire him, but not collect damages.

[N.B.CONCRETE]

I agree with Steve on this one. You are on the hook. Just pray the person he hit wont sue for injury later. Has happend to me 5 years ago. As of that no personel takes a truck home anymore. Magicaly I'm using alot less fuel too.

[mtb345]

Labor laws prohibit you from collecting any compensation from the employee. You can take the truck away, suspend him or fire him, but not collect damages.

to bad companys dont post this kind of info along side of the ones they do post

[surfer-joe]

Yeah, you're stuck! But hopefully you had him do a drug screen, and entered a written tick in his personnel file. The comment about him picking up his work truck at the fleet yard for the next thirty days or so was bang on. This works well as an incentive.

Not everyone does it, but I've found a three strikes and you're out policy works very well, with increasing sanctions on the second hit. Third strike and the culprit hits the bricks talking to his lunchbox. It's tough love, but a company can not afford repeat accidents of this type. Legal fees and awards will eat you alive.

[Dozerboy]

Steve is that a fed law or just a state?

[Dwan Hall]

Labor laws prohibit you from collecting any compensation from the employee. You can take the truck away, suspend him or fire him, but not collect damages.

This is the same in Montana and Alaska that I know of.

[mtb345]

the company i work for has g.p.s in all trucks big or small. one of the sups took the truck to the bar and when left to go home the truck would not start the company owner shut the truck off from his lap top that he has in his truck. sometimes it works to your advanage when your getting short on hours check the g.p.s to see when the truck left the site. they know when you left the yard where you stopped for coffee and what time you got to site you dont get paid till you get to the site .

[digger242j]

Big Brother is alive and well, and he doesn't work exclusively for the government...

[Wawrecker]

Big brother showed me my new estimator not leaving his house for 2 days when he was telling me all these great contacts he was out meeting all over town. GPS phones saved me 2 or 3 months of paying this P.O.S while I found out 1+1 wasnt equaling 2. Got him in and out in 2 weeks.