Just got fired....now what?

Five you’re alive, nine and you’re mine, is what one trooper told me. Also part of the reason for that is if you get a ticket for four or 5 mph over there’s a high probability you can get out of that ticket by fighting it. But when you’re going 10-20 mph over? That’s gonna stick!

 

Ok, let's break this down for a minute

Or, you could consider a sign from above

From the time the headlight burned out till you were ticketed, did you report it to the company? Is it documented on a pre-trip, Qualcomm, somewhere that you reported it? And if so, what was the companies response? For the future, if you report something to the company as defective, do it in writing or electronically. If you do it in writing, take a picture of it with your phone and save that photo for one year, even if they fix the item 20 minutes after you report, save it. If you submit it electronically, via qualcomm, peoplenet, ELD, whatever, take a picture of the submission, AND, if there is an electronic reply take a picture of the reply, again, save it for at least a year. If you submit the report via email (phone, tablet, laptop) and it's your personal email account, create a separate "Folder" and store the sent email and reply for at least one year. If it's the companies in-house email system, CC your personal email account in the submission, and forward the reply to your personal email as well.

Unless you are regularly hauling super fragile items, or items that easily load shift, I despise that companies hold these "events" against drivers, shizzle happens, especially in city traffic, if you are recording hard brake incidents cruising down the open road, OK, there's a problem, but if it's stop/Go traffic in a congested city/urban area, it's very likely to happen and companies holding against you, that's stupid. When we first went on E-logs as an exp., my boss had it setup so he could see these things too. The problem was, he was getting so many email hard braking incidents, 95% because of city traffic, he was forced to turn that feature off. And these new trucks with collision mitigation systems makes it even worse. U-turns??? Ok, they happen, there are thousands of videos of truckers safely (and SWIFT drivers unsafely) making U- turns, I've probably made 2 in the last week, they happen. If you do them safely, who cares, there are a myriad of reasons why you might need to make a U-turn.

If they fired you for speeding, and you were never cited by law enforcement, regardless of it being an "at will" employment state, I would be talking to a lawyer. If CRE reported that speeding ticket to DAT, CSA, etc., and it never happened, that's called slander of credit, and they could be liable for thousands in penalties.

Other than the windshield, were these inspection items things that the shop should have found while the truck was being repaired? Were you aware of these items before you and the truck left? Go back to my first comment, had you reported these items to CRE? 10 yrs back, middle of winter, I developed a crack in my windshield after a rock chip. Told the company, put it in writing, they said that unless it got too big, they were going to wait until spring to replace it, as they didn't want to chance losing another one in the winter. The crack stayed about 6" long from the bottom left of the windshield, honestly, from inside the truck you really didn't notice it, 3 weeks later, Nebraska trooper stopped me for something else, while at my window talking to me, he noticed it and pointed it out. I told him that it happened about 3 weeks earlier, the company was aware of it, but as long as it wasn't interfering with my ability to drive, or growing, they were going to wait till spring. He understood why, but did remind me that it was a violation, he didn't bother to write it up though. Two days later, I hit a huge pot hole, crack literally tripled in size in a split second. Company put a new windshield in the next day.

Ignorance is not an excuse, but, you are correct, the company at some point early on should have "coached" you on issues. But, in this day and age, where they are constantly looking for new "mirror foggers", you were just another in a long line.

 

unless you've got no experience and nobody else will hire you i dont understand why anybody would want to work for cr England

 

Oh please, you sound like god almighty.
His only problem was going to the worst possible
Mega training company there is.
Herded through school, pushed through training
With some guy with 6 months experience,
Then dumped out on his own.

That's the end result of the cr England assembly line.
I see these clowns out here everyday,can't even back
Into a parking place at the truck stop, they have no
Clue what there doing, but they got that CDL.

Can't blame them,it's the blind training the blind.
Chew them up and spit them out.
They'll never admit it, but they got rid of him
Because he wouldn't lease a truck.
He was a easy target.

He'll get job, making more money,and he'll be
Parked right next to us at the petro.
Probably the best thing that ever happened to him.

Who cares if another mega won't hire him,
That's a good thing.
He didn't hit anything, roll the truck over or kill
Anybody.
There's thousands of drivers still driving who
Done one of those 3.

 

Snide remarks about that carrier aside. What weighs more? A ton of feathers or a one-ton weight? I have seen at least 3 comments made that have attempted to minimize this situation as being minor. In 10 months there is no telling how many times someone in that carrier's safety dept had to enter into their master record what was done EVERY time something even as simple as a burned-out light hits them! This issue is minor is NOT the problem. In 10 months there are just too many of these "minor" issues. People in this forum seem to think these carriers sit all day long coming up with ways to screw a driver over then fire them! This is not the truth. When a carrier fires a driver in almost every situation the driver has done something that called for being fired! It is what it is. Making snide remarks about that carrier or calling people like me names is NOT going to change this!

This thing has become a dang merry-go-round today. Go to work for carrier A, get fired then go drive for C, then get fired again by C and go get a job with D. Then people in here want to blame and make snide remarks about the carriers. Also forgetting in almost every situation the person that got fired is NOT telling the entire story! This OP has taken responsibility and I am NOT talking about him!

 

Where are you located? Do you live in Texas? May have a job for you that pays great

 

This lady was fired for speeding in a construction zone and back to work for another company within a few days. That wasn't the only ding on her record either.

Fired from Bolt Express.