I was terminated last week for 3 preventables. I only have about 9 months experience. These are my accidents:
1. February 2007- Completely my fault. I underestimated my space to go under a train trck overpass in NYC.
2. July 15 2007- In getting off an exit, I found it was very narrow.Driving slowly, it seemed I was too close to the edge and tried backing up slowly. My flashers were on. A bus tried to go around me and I bumped it. No damage to eithr vehicle. Bus driver admitted fault. No ticket or citation from officer.
3. July 29 2007 Was on I-90, followed a road which ended up being a dead end. There was no sign reading dead end. I took pictures of that. I sent out a qualcomm for assistance. Sent out another after 10 minutes. Received no answer for over 45 minutes. No cellphone reception. Felt I had no choice but to try to turn the truck around. In turning around truck got stuck. Company said I should've waited as long as I had to for dispatcher to respond and fired me even though I got the load on time, got the next 2 loads on time and wasn't even supposed to be out since I had requested home time and they kept me out for 2 weeks beyond the date I requested.
I tried to explain that being stuck in a dead end, with no cellphone reception, in the middle of the night, receiving no response for assitance, I had to make the call to try to get out o there but they fired me anyway, even after reviewing the qualcomm records and seeing the many messages I sent and that their reply only came after over an hour, asking if I was okay. So now i'm unemployed and in desperate need of a job. I've called a few companies but they don't want me because of the 3 accidents. Does any one know of any company that might consider me? Anything otr, regional, dedicated, local (I live in Bronx, NY). I'll take anything.

 

What Company fired you?

I would probably look for another line of work for atleast 3 or more years. The reason being, there are only a handfull of companies that will even consider 3 preventables in that length of time. Most companies will not consider that many preventable accidents until they are atleast 3 years old. Even then, most will want 2-3 years safe driving since the accidents.

I really hate to say this, but, maybe trucking is not for you... If you had 3 preventables in 9 months, you either need trained better or there is a problem somewhere. I'm not trying to bash you, but what you wrote tells a big story of irresponsibility, and lack of training.

 

The good thing is that you were'nt issued any tickets for your mishaps. So your driving record should be pretty good. So, your best bet would be to try small local companies for class A or B work. IMHO you probally would be better off driving a Class B vehicle.

 

I would pull my DAC report to see what is actually included on it. I have read here that if you feel a DAC report is incorrect, you can dispute it and tell your side of the story. If you dispute it, the company may not even respond which would remove the incident if it does exist.
BOL

 

go find a trash service. might have better luck with a Class B vehicle

 

before I filled out any more applications, I would get a copy of my MVR, and see what is on it. And ONLY report what shows up on it! They dont need to know anything extra.

 

I'll be quite blunt with you.

You hit an overpass! That's right up there with rolling the truck over. It shows a complete lack of good judgement on your part. If for some reason the bridge had no height marker, then you should have found another way around.

Then you had a backing accident when you hit the bus. Enough said. You're at fault.

The third incident of getting the truck stuck was also your fault. You should have waited as long as it took for the answer on the qualcom.

I hate to say it, but I don't blame the company for firing you. You had three at fault incidents in nine months. Too much of a risk for them to keep you around. Check your DAC and see if they reported you. But I think any potential employer will find out your driving record when they call to verify driving experience.

 

I think you are out of luck with this driving record. I had couple of incidents and I was out of driving for 4 years.
Good luck!!

 

:shock: Me thinks this is a "Joke" posting.....to see which keyboards twitch.

 

I think your trainer should've explained more about overpasses, and probably a few other things. I think it'd be scary to even come up to one of those, and know you don't have enough clearance. One thing I'm glad my trainer did is explain overpasses and how high my trailer is. When carrying a 13'6" trailer, I want at the very least 13'11" clearance. When carrying a 14', I hide it somewhere and say "I never knew i had it" :lol: I don't like 14' trailers. But one way of knowing you're getting one, is the number will start with 14. Then look at your map, and it'll show you any low clearances in the back, for every highway, and interstate in every state. These are some of the things the Schools alone should teach students. And the School I went to didn't help much with backing. This advice might be useless, seeing that you might be out of luck. I'd go for a class b job though, if possible. I honestly wouldn't mind driving those fed ex straight trucks that have the sleeper. I'd have a lot more freedom to stop at more places. If all else fails, I know Swift is pretty good about hiring drivers. But their pay isn't good, and I hear not a lot of people like them. But then even they will only tolerate so many accidents, and I think hitting an overpass can be pretty serious. Best of luck.