A truck driver who lost his job after a load of ice cream defrosted during a delivery run and cost his employer more than $100,000 has been pictured for the first time as experts issue a warning about the common mistakes Australians should avoid.

Jeremiah Manly was dismissed by ERH Refrigerated Transport days after a December 2025 trip in which a trailer carrying the frozen products was set to the wrong temperature, ruining the shipment bound for Sydney. 

The Fair Work Commission heard that the refrigerated trailer was carrying almost $74,000 worth of frozen products destined for Sydney.

Despite the mistake, Manly was not a novice driver. The commission heard he had completed about 600 trips for his employer since he started in 2022.

He travelled from Wagga Wagga to a cold storage facility in Truganina, Melbourne, where he collected a load of ice cream destined for a Sydney customer.

The load sheet specified the trailer should have been set to minus 22C.

However, Commissioner Damian Sloan found that ‘throughout the entirety of Mr Manly’s trip, the temperature in the trailer had been set at minus 1C’.

By the time the error was detected and remotely corrected by ERH’s night manager, the ice cream had already defrosted.

Jeremiah Manly (pictured) lost his bid to reclaim his job after the Fair Work Commission found he failed to properly monitor a refrigerated trailer carrying almost $74,000 worth of ice cream

Jeremiah Manly (pictured) is a keen participant at his local parkrun in Wagga Wagga 

Mr Manly was not a novice driver, completing about 600 trips for ERH Refrigerated Transport (pictured) after joining the company in 2022

‘The entire load for the trip had to be written off and disposed of,’ Commissioner Sloan said.

The ruined shipment was worth almost $74,000, with disposal costs adding another $30,000 to the company’s bill.

During proceedings, Mr Manly maintained he set the trailer to the correct temperature but could not explain why it later rose above the required level.

He argued he was not solely to blame for the melted cargo, claiming the cold storage facility had a policy preventing trailers from being loaded unless they were already cooled to at least minus 12C.

He also noted he was not the only worker blamed for the costly mishap, telling the commission that the second driver responsible for transporting the ice cream from Wagga Wagga to Sydney was also dismissed.

Commissioner Sloan noted the claim was correct but found it did little to excuse Mr Manly’s own conduct.

He also found the driver missed six separate opportunities to identify the problem before the load was ultimately destroyed.

Commissioner Sloan noted Mr Manly’s error was a ‘one-off’ mistake and he had an otherwise stable employment record but said the consequences of the error were ‘foreseeable’.

Commissioner Damian Sloan (pictured) found that ‘throughout the entirety of Mr Manly’s trip, the temperature in the trailer had been set at minus 1C instead of minus 22C’ 

Professor Kerry Brown warned workers who are continually late for work, lie on their resumes about their experience or use company vehicles in an unsafe manner could face dismissal 

Professor of Employment and Industry at Edith Cowan University Kerry Brown described Manly’s matter as an ‘interesting’ case.

She said it exemplifies the type of ‘grey-area’ disputes that often appear before the commission, rather than dismissals involving serious misconduct such as theft, fraud or safety breaches.

‘Employees do have responsibilities to be trained for the job, to be able to undertake the job but it’s in a grey area under what conditions they are responsible for,’ she told the Daily Mail.

‘Are they responsible for the whole act of checking the truck and monitoring and delivering that ice cream to its intended recipient?

‘I think the ruling [showed] it was the responsibility of the driver to check on the load and make sure it was safe and be in a state that was able to be sold at the end.’

Professor Brown said common workplace mistakes often stem from ‘what people do outside of working hours but within the working context’. 

She said workers who engage in drunken behaviour, use company vehicles in an unsafe manner, are continually late, lie on their resumes or fail to secure a property resulting in a robbery could face dismissal.

‘These days the line has been drawn tighter and tighter into the fact that an employer is responsible for an employee over the course of a work experience like a Christmas party or lunch,’ she said.

‘If you made a mistake like you over-ordered something or were rude to a customer and have a poor performance, you can mitigate that. 

‘It may be something that goes on your record but you should be performance-managed through that and given training opportunities.’

Professor Brown said it was ‘really important’ for the employer-employee relationship that both parties acknowledge mistakes and complete training to ensure they do not harm careers in the future. 

Mr Manly and ERH Refrigerated Transport have not responded to requests for comment from the Daily Mail.