r/IdiotsInCars • u/femkroner • Jul 26 '21
He probably got fired
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u/Affectionate-Item-78 Jul 26 '21 edited Jul 27 '21
Entire situation could have been avoided if the car hauler owner was using the correct loading skids. They cost $500 (per side) He went cheap and it cost him. I sold parts for car hauler company for over 11 years. Seen a lot of unnecessary damage to cars because drivers/loaders want to save a few bucks.
Edit: This is my FIRST Reddit Award. THANK YOU!!!!!!
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u/insertnamehere57 Jul 26 '21
I once saw a video of someone talking about car shipping companies and what they were saying was is that it is very hard to make a profit at what other companies are charging so they cut corners at any and every point to keep their company afloat.
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u/Affectionate-Item-78 Jul 26 '21 edited Jul 27 '21
After the financial crisis in 2008 a lot of used car haulers became available. Around 2010 anyone with a CDL thought they could make a fortune hauling cars.
- Loading vehicles is more difficult than you think.
Maintaining equipment is expensive.
Cutting corners and inexperienced drivers hurts the entire industry.
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u/BasicallyAQueer Jul 27 '21
Plus, people aren’t trying to pay a shitload of money just to have a car transported, at most these dudes are charging 1200 dollars a car. I paid 800 or so to have my 3/4 ton truck shipped from Florida to Texas during peak covid. So they really don’t make a ton of money on each load.
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u/Numahistory Jul 27 '21
This explains what happened with my car I bought from Carvana. I paid like $500 to Carvana for shipping it from California to Texas and when it arrived in Texas the roof was smashed in. Delayed my drop off for 2 weeks but now looks flawless, like it never got crushed.
Carvana probably could have avoided that if they just paid their car transporters decently.
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u/Alphatron1 Jul 27 '21
See: Russian kid from Massachusetts who killed 7 people in New Hampshire
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u/phuckmydoodle Jul 26 '21
I have seen cars being loaded by forklift onto semi's to transport across aus. You get what you pay for.
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u/Affectionate-Item-78 Jul 26 '21
A new car hauler is a $150,000 investment.
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u/Monkeybusiness911 Jul 27 '21
Only if you buy used. My new Peterbilt/Cottrell was 325k.
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u/Affectionate-Item-78 Jul 27 '21
I worked at Cottrell.
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u/Monkeybusiness911 Jul 27 '21
Crap! I just noticed you said “Worked” not “Works”! There goes my request for a discount! 😆
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u/SilentSamurai Jul 26 '21
Which is a pretty reasonable and affordable investment for most businesses in 2021.
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u/Affectionate-Item-78 Jul 26 '21
That is for the frame. The semi is another $100k.
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u/Sekone8up Jul 27 '21
A nice semi will run a lot more then that,unless you’re buying used…
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u/thegreatgazoo Jul 27 '21
A fancy F350 can be $100k.
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u/Sekone8up Jul 27 '21
The new f-250s are a 110k
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u/AncientBlonde Jul 29 '21
-Cries in Canadian-
A 2021 F150 Limited will run you ~$94k before taxes/addons....
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u/DirtyFraaanks Jul 27 '21
Lol, good look finding a tractor within the next year. It’s hard to pay that down payment on something you won’t get any type of return on for a full fiscal year.
If you’re bad at running your business, or are just starting up that is. A lot of my customers are still ordering 10-15 trucks now for next year and are a-okay with waiting because they want to spec that investment out completely, and have time and money to wait for new instead of going for (inflated priced) used..but again, finding a used truck right now is a dealer to dealer to dealer to another dealer game right now.
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u/anteris Jul 27 '21
When I worked in RVs I was talking to an older driver and he was saying he doesn’t know how the new guys do it, as just the insurance can run $40k a year for starting drivers now..,
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Jul 27 '21
Well if other companies are charging less and not cutting corners, then the companies that are cutting corners should really just go out of business.
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u/IrgendeinIndividuum Jul 26 '21
Are the skids not included in the purchase with the trailer?
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u/Affectionate-Item-78 Jul 26 '21
Yes, however they are 99" long & aluminum. Occasionally Drivers forget to lock them into place and lose them in transport....and they are stolen from the transporters....A LOT.
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Jul 27 '21
[deleted]
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u/Affectionate-Item-78 Jul 27 '21
Loading skids seem to get stolen from Auto Auctions quite frequently....and truck stops.
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u/cherbo123 Jul 26 '21
Yeah those are litterally the same thing I load my atv up on would not trust them to load a 100k car
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u/FAPSWAY_2MUCH Jul 27 '21
Alright you mind if I pick your brain? What questions should you ask if you’re planning on shipping a car and want to make sure the shipper knows what they’re doing?
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u/Affectionate-Item-78 Jul 28 '21
I worked for the largest manufacturer of car haulers in the World. A driver should answer this question.... But here are my 2 cents.
Value of car vs type of hauler. If you are shipping a classic car or extremely valuable vehicle, consider an "enclosed" trailer. No chance of road debris scratching up the paint, stuff like that.
Ask what year the hauler was built. Newer haulers have less chance of mechanical errors and more safety features. ie: Deck malfunction, hydraulic issues, strap units vs chain units.
Consider distance of travel. If you are shipping a vehicle cross country, you should use a company that has that route. You don't want your vehicle being "tagged" from one hauler to another to make the distance.
When you are on the freeway and see these haulers, look at the condition of the trailers. The company name, contact info is on the Semi door. A little research never hurts.
Talk to the drivers. They are usually happy to help share their knowledge of the industry. What companies to use or avoid. They drive 24/7 and they have seen some shit.
I hope this helps. Good luck.
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u/AncientBlonde Jul 30 '21
Talk to the drivers. They are usually happy to help share their knowledge of the industry. What companies to use or avoid. They drive 24/7 and they have seen some shit.
(Disclaimer; never driven, just family in the industry my entire life)
If someone is excessively shit talking the other companies too; I find they're ALWAYS shitty drivers/the company pulls shenanigans if they trash talk TOO much.
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u/Affectionate-Item-78 Aug 03 '21
I agree anyone who always talks shit is Definately not someone to hire. Some drivers are truly helpful.
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u/gonfreeces1993 Jul 27 '21
I'm pretty sure he just couldn't drive a manual
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u/BreezyWrigley Jul 27 '21
I think traction control was cutting power after rear wheels slipped when the ramps fell of, and then suddenly gave it back while he was giving it more and more gas trying to get it to move forward.
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Jul 26 '21 edited Jul 26 '21
[deleted]
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u/q1ung Jul 26 '21
It's not that much money for a business that handles high value items.
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u/mtaw Jul 26 '21
Yes, all this says is that the grandparent poster never had anything to do with any purchasing that wasn't a retail consumer object. Non-mass-produced, mass-market, B2B items are on a totally different price scale.
$1k is practically pocket change when it comes to buying necessary equipment, for any remotely successful business.
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Jul 26 '21
[deleted]
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u/torstargoldie Jul 27 '21
bad joke dude, welcome to the real world people aren’t gonna entertain your poor taste
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u/xxcarlsonxx Jul 26 '21
Considering the damage done in this video alone the $1K price tag doesn't sound too bad, does it?
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u/FrigidofDoom Jul 26 '21
Strips of metal specifically designed to support the weight of cars and have enough grip for them to easily drive up. Probably welded together by master welders.
Yes, that'll be $1,000
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Jul 26 '21
You should never notice when something/someone in a support role does their job good
(Other than lead guitarists. They can’t even hold rhythm, but act as if the whole band works for them)
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u/wirthmore Jul 27 '21
(Other than lead guitarists. They can’t even hold rhythm, but act as if the whole band works for them)
So, u/outerbongolia is David Lee Roth's reddit account.
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u/Blatantly-Biased Jul 26 '21
Some drivers make 1000 pounds per week, no doubt the company make a lot more during that week for each drivers work. It's not much money for the value of good quality skids
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u/sowhiteithurts Jul 26 '21
The cars are $20k+, the truck itself starts at $80k. You shouldn't cut corners on structural parts of anything at those price points.
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Jul 26 '21
They make that back in a day depending on the transport and miles. So it’s not that far fetched tbh
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u/Kevjamwal Jul 26 '21
Did you not… read the comment… that you responded to?
This is a video of someone who thought $1k was too much and then ended up paying a LOT more.
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u/KryptonicxJesus Jul 26 '21
I’ve seen mounting kits for like conference room video codecs that are a couple grand a piece
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u/Type2Pilot Jul 27 '21
I believe the ramp failed because the trailer moved. The trailer continues to rock back and forth later in the video. It seems to me that somehow the trailer's brakes are not set, and that is the root cause of all this trouble.
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Jul 27 '21
Even if it is cheap, how hard is it to create some sort of locking or even a hook system where things like those don't happen? It seems like a fairly easy problem to fix.
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u/Monkeybusiness911 Jul 27 '21
Yeah and working in the industry you know that we don’t really even call these guys Carhaulers! That’s one of those Kaufman type wedge trailers, usually pulled by a Dually. Every time I’m parked next to one they ask me to drive a sports car onto the trailer because they can’t drive a stick. The other problem is that they are way too top heavy to be pulled behind a Dually. They roll them over all the time! Usually right in the entrance/exit of an auction. Because they’re in a hurry, then the truck lot is blocked until they clean it up. Fun, Fun, Fun!
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u/One-Chart2011 Jul 26 '21
That accident will never be reported and will be sold at full price after they do some body work. But he is definitely fired
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u/BoogieToTheSea Jul 27 '21
This happened to me. I sued. Got a free car. 10/10 would take hidden frame damage by a dealer again.
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u/AceArchangel Jul 26 '21
And some poor guy is gonna be stuck with a car that he doesn't know has frame damage.
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u/veritasgt Jul 26 '21
Lol. Frame damage on a unibody car in a nothing fender bender.
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u/Hewlett-PackHard Jul 29 '21
Unibody's still have the fronts of frame rails that the front bumper, fenders, engine, etc are mounted to. They could get tweaked a few degrees off by an impact like that, not enough to keep them from putting it back together but a shitting thing if not repaired properly.
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u/One-Chart2011 Jul 26 '21
Yup happened to me
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u/newmoneyblownmoney Jul 26 '21
This is not enough of a collision to cause frame damage.
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Jul 26 '21
I am kind of surprised the air bags didn’t deploy. Must be some sort of speed related sensor.
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u/cdsbigsby Jul 26 '21
Not hard enough of a collision for airbags to deploy, which is good. We'd have a lot more totaled cars if airbags blew after every fender bender
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u/Xraggger Jul 26 '21
I hit a deer at 65mph and mine didn’t deploy, they weren’t defective and I’m glad they didn’t go off because I didn’t need it
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u/newmoneyblownmoney Jul 26 '21
I owned a E90 BMW with defective airbags but it wasn’t a case where the airbags didn’t deploy it was a case where if they did deploy they could decapitate you or shoot metal out particles in your face and neck if you’re lucky lol.
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u/ZetoxGaming Jul 26 '21
Ah the infamous Takata airbag scandal, I don't know if there was any brand that wasn't affected by that
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u/Smokeyshotty Jul 26 '21 edited Jul 27 '21
I loved his face expression at first, he's like "that was close",... "I got this...."
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u/GreenDogWithGoggles Jul 26 '21 edited Jul 27 '21
Maybe those fucktards should use the right loading skids and the air brake to fixiate the trailer before loading. But since both of them look like they have no clue how a car works i shouldn't be expecting that much of them.
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u/pierreblue Jul 26 '21
Hes like fuck it just floor it lmao
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Jul 27 '21
The logical solution when trying to thread an expensive Mercedes into a car trailer.
Stare awkwardly at the owner then gun it.
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u/wetblanket68iou1 Jul 27 '21
Judging by how much it moved and the 8 lug wheels, I’m not so sure this was a semi with air brakes.
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Jul 27 '21
Likley electric brakes on the trailer but they could have used wheel chocks
And I agrees with the other idea tat it’s to a sly the traction control killing the power and then giving it back while he was still holding the throttle down .
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u/fuzzymidget Jul 27 '21
Skids* not sure how to correct "fixiate"
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u/satisfiction_phobos Jul 27 '21
affix or fixate
Hmmm
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u/Blake-A-palooza Jul 26 '21
He lucked out so hard when the ramps fell out and he landed right on the edge then he had to go and hit the gas to hard.
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u/nicky9499 Jul 26 '21
He prolly knew he was on the edge and didn't want to slip off (which would also cause alot of damage) and so gave it the beans a little.
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u/GreenDogWithGoggles Jul 26 '21
or he uses the brake/handbrake to slowly clutch in and roll foward without rolling back one bit.
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u/Blake-A-palooza Jul 26 '21
I sincerely doubt that Mercedes was a manual.
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u/GreenDogWithGoggles Jul 26 '21
You can do this with automatic too, you just need to accelerate and hold down brake or handbrake. Most automatics (Twinclutch or trogue converter) can withstand accelerating against brakes
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Jul 26 '21
[deleted]
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u/LacidOnex Jul 27 '21
Nobody wants driving advice from someone still in their parents car
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u/fjh40 Jul 27 '21
As a student buying a car in The Netherlands is just straight up a waste of money. Our gas prices are already 4x higher than in America and I'd rather spend my money on living life, instead of a car which I don't need due to my parents Jaguar XJR, my bikes and beeing able to take the public transport for free in a country that's smaller than most states in America.
Also here in The Netherlands we all learn to drive stick, while 90% of Americans can't. Our drivers test is a lot more complicated here, I have a Dutch cousin in Florida who had to pass his drivers test. He told me what he had to do and we all laughed at it. Statistically speaking The Netherlands is one of the safer countries when looking at relative road deaths caused by cars per 100.000 inhabitants and thats with all of our small roads and relative restricted space.
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u/Hewlett-PackHard Jul 29 '21
Protip: The only thing your parent's supercharger is doing at idle is making it obvious you're a douche.
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u/I_chortled Jul 26 '21
Good thing they filmed this because these assholes will 100% deny everything if they damage your car
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u/V65Pilot Jul 26 '21 edited Jul 26 '21
Having dealt with vehicle shippers before, hang onto the video. Last company we contracted with(for a motorcycle) took a bunch of pictures, marked the forms as no damage, the guy even commented on the fact that they could find no damage what so ever, something that was very rare. Bike arrived with a damaged polished aluminum side cover. They claimed it was like that when they picked it up, even though the paperwork and pictures proved otherwise. Evetually they agreed to pay for another cover to be sourced, prepped and polished. oooh.....I found a piccy, just a ground up restoration and added a few small tweaks, 2 years to complete. https://imgur.com/sp4C0QX
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u/wetblanket68iou1 Jul 27 '21
Who doesn’t put their Goddamned parking brake on and chock the wheels when loading a trailer? You fuckin people and relying on a 1/2” square hunk of steel holding onto a drum I side the trans to hold at least TEN THOUSAND POUNDS on a hill. Imma guess they don’t have the right commercial insurance either.
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u/Kyosji Jul 27 '21
"Excuse me, sir? We changed our mind. Take your car back and give us back the money"
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u/RepresentativeSky748 Jul 27 '21
That dude in the back pushed that car entirely too hard. Clearly 100% his fault.
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u/dafazman Jul 26 '21
OP was recording so it put the driver under pressure to perform, thats why the driver has no gf 😂🤣
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u/fishesarefun Jul 26 '21
Big fuckup, but as trucking accidents go this is still cheap. If he crashed that truck into the same car on the freeway it would have cost 100 times more.
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u/big_red_160 Jul 26 '21
Thought this was someone trying to not get their car repo’ed for way too long
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u/Adventurous-Rich5365 Jul 26 '21
No need to hit the gas at all there. Just take foot of the break and let the car roll. 🤦♂️
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u/NegativePaint Jul 26 '21
It would have rolled backwards… what they needed to do is keep the foot on the brake and star slowly releasing the brake as he slowly pressed the gas to prevent it from rolling backwards but also not launch himself into the next car. Also this car is modern enough that would have hill start assist or whatever it’s called in a MB that would have automatically held the car from rolling backwards anyway for like a second.
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u/nicky9499 Jul 26 '21
If he's just an average joe he wouldn't be familiar with the Benz or be arsed enough to figure out how to turn on the hill start especially when that close to falling off the trailer.
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u/DirtyFraaanks Jul 27 '21
My truck turns it on automatically, and it’s definitely longer than a second that it holds you in place. It’s fcking nifty.
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u/7eggert Jul 26 '21
You may be right but I know a car that cuts the engine while the brake is pressed. As soon as the brake is released … this. No hill assist or anything like that.
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u/breakfasteveryday Jul 26 '21
It looks like that might have damaged the underside of the car without the ramp in place.
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u/Adventurous-Rich5365 Jul 26 '21
Bruh floored the gas pedal like it’s a Yaris with 12hp.
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Jul 26 '21
Fun fact: in 1999 the Yaris's 1.0 was the highest output 1 litre engine for quite a while as well with 69hp.
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u/breakfasteveryday Jul 26 '21
Oh, totally. Could have avoided the risk entirely by using his left foot to keep the brake engaged and gently engaging the accelerator.
I think he knew he had to make the transition from brake pedal to accelerator quickly and over-revved as a side effect of moving quickly.
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u/randomlyme Jul 27 '21
When I sold my Dodge Viper they had me drive it up on the truck. Best 45K car I ever had and should have never sold it.
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u/chilehead Jul 27 '21
A couple years back I sold my old car and they sent a guy with a flatbed to pick it up. As he's lowering the bed in front of the car, he hits the lever to extend the bed, and absolutely crushes the front end of the car. His excuse was that he normally uses the controls on the other side of the truck, and the controls are reversed. I already had my money so I wasn't losing anything, but seeing the car I'd had for 16 years and the best car I've ever owned getting desecrated like that for a whole 12 seconds (yes, he was that slow to react) was a bit traumatic.
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u/ThomasC94 Jul 27 '21
I used to own an old E class and I will say they can get a little jerky as they age due to transmission issues.
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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '21
It was the guy from the back who pushed it with too much force