Hello all.
I work for Werner and I had my first accident as a solo driver earlier today. I've only been on my own for literally 2 weeks. I'm on the .99 cent store account in SoCal. My first solo run was from Denver to San Diego. But immediately after that I went on a .99 cent run. I was warned by other drivers that it can be tricky at some stores and so far they've been right but nothing happened until today. I'm at the store in Berkeley and I took out the bus stand. I made a right turn into a place new to me. I went around the area 3 times looking for the way in and I did everything by the book. The right way it turns out is on the other side and in my defense all I saw were spots reserved for the people in the apartments next to the store.
Now the police even said I'm not the first Werner driver to do that and I got at his suggestion store employees as backup saying it's a bad spot. I wasn't given any citations and I told him and my dispatcher I'm new to this area, first time here, and I had no training on this type of run. So far I've been learning on the fly and so far so good.
Now, I had a less of an incident when I was with my trainer a couple months ago in Wyoming. I had to do extra hours. No problem. My dispatcher told me he fully knows that this store is not meant for big rigs and realizes that I've never been here before. He did give me pointers and I admitted I could've done more.
Believe me when I say I am scared ****less about being fired. I worked too hard getting my CDL and this job. I'm trying to sleep during my 10 hr break but until I hear something next week I'm literally shaking with fear.
Do you think I'll be able to keep my job? I really can't lose this. It's all I have.
Scared Out Of My Mind
Discussion in 'Questions From New Drivers' started by Newtrucker79, Mar 24, 2017.
Page 1 of 7
-
-
Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds
Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.
-
You'll probably be OK if nothing more happens over the next couple years.
It might be a good idea to get off the dedicated account in favor of OTR.
That would give you some much needed experience without the worry of those hard to get to places, for the most part.NavigatorWife, G13Tomcat, dca and 9 others Thank this. -
You need to be route planning and looking at Google maps/ street view ALOT more or even calling these places up.... if you have to just set your brakes in traffic and figure it out but don't run stuff over if you aren't sure..
marnium, DRAGON64, NavigatorWife and 7 others Thank this. -
Trust me even at 3 years of doing multi stop deliveries in many cities if I'm not sure of where to go ill spend a hour figuring it out by making a bunch of calls and looking at street view... because once you're in the moment and you're trying to wing it you'll find out REAL fast that you've messed up...as you've already found out
marnium, DRAGON64, NavigatorWife and 3 others Thank this. -
if you don't know how to get in to a spot. Stop the truck, throw the 4 ways on and walk your ### on into the store and find out how to get in there.
2nd rule of trucking: don't hit nothing STOP before you make the problem worse.marnium, NavigatorWife, G13Tomcat and 10 others Thank this. -
I like that you are honest and conscientious about it. That should go a long way in your favor. I think you'll be ok, stuff happens.
jbatmick, NavigatorWife, G13Tomcat and 4 others Thank this. -
I talked to safety a few minutes ago and from what the guy read from the report I'll most likely get probation extended. Nobody was hurt and no citations.marnium, NavigatorWife, G13Tomcat and 4 others Thank this. -
NavigatorWife, tinytim and Ke6gwf Thank this.
-
As a seasoned school bus driver trainer...my advice: when in doubt, stop, 4-ways and figure it out! Absolutely nothing worse than being in motion and guess-timating your clearances...while your eyes are roaming, you could have a pedestrian or bicyclist go under some duallies :-O ---Can't get in trouble when you aren't in motion! Stay safe and tomorrow is a new day!
NavigatorWife and tinytim Thank this.
Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds
Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.
Page 1 of 7