Imagine driving a really big truck, and you’re supposed to make a delivery to a residence. If you knew you would damage the yard and driveway with your truck, would you refuse to drive into the driveway, or would you pull into the driveway anyway?

In this story, one truck driver is in this situation, and he has no choice but to pull into the driveway. He knows he’ll do a lot of damage, but he also knows how to make sure he’s not held responsible.

Keep reading to see how the story plays out.

No problem, sign this.

In this episode I am driving the twin stick R model Mack boom truck. The largest in our fleet. This truck was big, heavy, and it had an usually wide turning radius.

At that time I delivered construction materials. While we had residential and commercial materials. I often focused on new construction and commercial sites due to the truck being so large.

Every once in a while, I would get a residential delivery. Mostly these deliveries I could make from the street without having to pull on the property.

This is not one of those stories.

He knew this was going to be a tricky delivery.

So, this one day I am told I am doing a residential roofing delivery to the roof of the house.

My radar is now on because I am familiar with the roads in that area and they are narrow Delivery to the roof means I have to enter the property and get right up to the house.

I get loaded and get to the job,

As I approach the jobsite the road is narrow, barely 20 ft wide. The house is on my left and facing the property the driveway is on the left. Important in a second.

He pointed out the problems.

I stop and go find the person in charge. He says “Your right on time. I need you in the driveway and boom across the roof”

I say, that’s great but there are several issues.

1 all the vehicles parked on the street need moved down past the neighbors house for me to fit down this road.

2. I cannot make the turn from the street onto the driveway without driving across the lawn, backing up 2 or 3 times.

3, I cannot guarantee that driveway can support the weight.

He agrees to comply.

He shouts,” I’ll move the trucks and you just get your truck in here”! In a very demeaning tone.

I say ok I will.

As I back down the street to the intersection, turn around, and back up the road, he gets all the trucks moved.

I get into position to pull on the property and stop. I grab my clipboard and jump out.

This is quite important, and I’m assuming it will come into play shortly.

I walk up to him and say, “I need you to sign this”

We carry legal forms in the trucks that when signed makes the signee or their company responsible for any damage to the property, truck, load, or towing fees to get the truck off site.

He signs and all but throws the clipboard at me.

Well, ok then. Game on!

There’s a lot of damage to the yard and driveway.

I turn into the yard and pull across the driveway and back up 4 times to get the truck completely on asphalt.

Once in the best position I could get, I got out and looked at my handywork.

8-inch ruts all across the front 29 feet of yard from the street. Each edge where the tires went from grass to asphalt or asphalt to grass the driveway collapsed and the and broke away. The rest of the driveway had several 6-inch ruts that were at least a foot wide on most of the driveway.

But I am not done yet.

It definitely gets worse.

I have to put down my outriggers to stablize the boom.

Because the driveway was as wide as the truck meant that when I put them down, they would be in the lawn.

I carried large blocks to enlarge the footprint of the outriggers to get stability on soft ground.

This left 2 more 10-inch holes in the yard about 3-foot by 4-foot square.

The homeowner was NOT happy!

I delivered the entire load with no issue.

Then the homeowner came home as I was climbing off the boom and started screaming at me for the state of his driveway and yard.

I calmly turned and pointed to the job foreman, and said.” you need to talk to him”. Then turned back around and finish wrapping up the truck.

I could hear them as they were screaming at each other but could not understand what they were saying.

It got even worse!

The final insult, I had to ask them both to move their vehicles so I could back out. And yes, more ruts were made leaving.

I paused on the street for a minute to check out my handywork. It was bad!

I got back to the warehouse and the bosses cornered me before I could get into the office.

The contractor’s boss gad blown up my boss’s phone with threats and complaints.

But he had the signature!

I quickly explained and pulled out the signed affidavit.

Boss said “Well ok then, we’re covered, and I heard nothing more about it.

That affidavit has saved me a lot over the years, and has afforded me some great, and funny malicious compliance over the years.

Wow! That signature definitely saved him! I’d be upset if I were the homeowner too, but there was no way around it for this truck driver.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

Apparently, some people refuse to believe anything bad will happen until it’s too late.

This person knows how important these forms can be.

This is a very good point.

Another person has been in a similar situation.

One signature can make a big difference.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.