Help, new driver fender bender!

Too late now, but when the other driver asked if he wanted to report it, he should have said "no", then forget about it as if it didn't happen. Now he will probably have a mark on his DAC report because he snitched on himself.

 

Trainers may know more, but I think if you are upfront with Roehl and the accident was his fault and it was what most in trucking would consider minor damage, then they may put him through some close quarter training. I've put a scrape on my bumper that I have no idea how it happened, (I assume something hidden in a snow bank last winter.) Point is literally, live and learn. Drivers are moving large vehicles and sometimes things happen, take a look at most of the trailers on any given lot.

I was with a different company, but my first week out in my own truck I forgot to slide the tandems. That meant they were all the way to the rear. I was in South Carolina and completely frustrated and tired. I was trying to make a tight turn and you guessed it, bad stuff happened. I knocked down a stop sign and brushed a light pole that caused the power lines to the stop light to arc. That tripped the circuit breaker knocking out the traffic light. One of the cops picked up the stop sign and tapped down the ground to hold the sign up. The city came out and reset the lights, the state trooper got tired of hanging around and declared he was going to go "write some tickets." The investigating officer cited me in the report as a contributing factor in the malfunction of the traffic light. I put the tandems where they should have been. I did not get a ticket. I called safety to report what happened and the only memory 10 years later is a note on my DAC.

 

I've been hit by a driver backing into me from behind felt like a fork lift and told him it's a company trailer and I don't see any damage....and I've hit a bridge both with Werner as a new driver and didn't get fired carp happens.chances are they ate going to say ok and have him watch a safety video

 

Remember Roehl is a training company. They are use to newbies making mistakes. Roehl would not train people if they weren't willing to take the risk. His error was minor compared to what Roehl has to deal with at times like totaling out a new truck or worse. He probably will not be fired. Roehl will route him through a terminal where he will go through some safety material. Might have to take a drive with a instructor. We all cut things short when we are learning the "big picture" of just how much room you need to swing and just how long 53 feet of trailer is. Sometimes we squeak by and sometimes we hit. He will be fine. It all comes with learning. None of us were born knowing how to move 70 feet of truck trailer around.

 

If I nudged another fellows truck, and he was cool about it, I'd grease his palm and go to bed. Wouldn't even worry about the wagon.

 

He's not going to get fired. They expect this kind of thing with new drivers.

 

That might work with other companies but not with Roehl. They regularly inspect their trucks and trailers, so the damage would not have gone unnoticed. And when they found it, and saw that it hadn't been reported, the guy would have been in much more trouble. He did the right thing by reporting it. Which looks worse on a DAC -- having a minor accident, or getting fired for not reporting one?

 

I wouldn't worry about minor incidents on a DAC report. Trailers and sometimes tractors constantly get scratches and scrapes so it is impossible to keep up with everything and frankly I've had times when safety told me to have equipment photographed and fixed by maintenance. When I got to the shop they looked at me and asked what they were supposed to do. When in doubt report it, but they don't go over their equipment with the white glove treatment.

 

I know this is late, but that's not always true. Someone I know here, at Roehl, tried to do that thing and put it as a preventable accident on his record. Preventable.

 

Every time it comes through a terminal, it gets inspected. It's saved my *** a couple of times.