We hope all our Pinnacle drivers stick around for a long, long time.
So, when you read, “return your transporter plate,” we don’t mean right away. We hope it’s a long time from now. But…when the time comes that you close the book on the Pinnacle chapter of your life, you really want to remember to return your transporter plate.
And here’s why.
Recently the Elkhart police department found one of or transporter plates. They found it during the course of an investigation into multiple robberies. A security camera caught a transporter plate on the back of large van that was leaving a robbery site.
The plate had belonged to a Pinnacle contractor who had suffered a break in of her own. Her vehicle was broken into, a few months back, and many items were stolen including the transporter plate she had been assigned. She filed a police report right after the break in.
When the police saw a transporter plate on the back of the vehicle at the robbery site, suspicion set in. The vehicle just being at the robbery site was reason enough for suspicion but also displaying a transporter plate raised suspicion more because the vehicle obviously wasn’t being transported.
When they ran the plate and found it had been reported stolen, they knew they had the vehicle being used by the perpetrators.
That story has a happy ending thanks to our driver who reported her plate stolen. Had she not reported her plate stolen, she could have been a suspect in the robberies.
Keeping track of transporter plates is serious. When you de-lease from Pinnacle, you must return it or lose $250 of your escrow. More importantly, when you return it you will be released from any responsibility regarding the plate and where it ends up.
Some drivers think they can keep the plate and use it while transporting their own or other property, but that is illegal. Transport companies report unrecovered plates so the company is not held responsible if any wrongdoing is executed with one of their plates.
Happy trails,
Brian M.
