I feel lower than snake crap right now.

Agreed. When stuff happens to me I tell myself "quit worrying about what you can't change, they're not going to throw you off the planet".

 

Again, why were you moving the trailer if they were using it for storage?

My advice - grow up.

Your title says you feel you were at fault for this, while you may have been, it is just a job, you are not tied to them through an indentured servitude contract or became a slave when you were in CDL school.

So forget this crap of self-guilt, get back into the truck cab, find another job which may be a little difficult - not because of you but the market - and just keep moving forward.

But never forget your mistakes, learn from them, be honest with yourself and next time get a flashlight and do a pre-trip.

 

Look at southern haulers, ever done end dump work before? I’ve done it for some years now and thoroughly enjoy it, it’s challenging work but it doesn’t have the same hassles of trucking general freight; minimal wait time, familiar faces once you’ve been at it long enough, and seems to stay pretty busy for me despite the down economy. Sucks about the circumstances, but maybe you’ll find something even better?

 

kind of my thoughts on the matter…as if they couldn’t figure out who the last person that handled the trailer was if they wanted to. So something either doesn’t add up here or these people are total bozos.

 

Some observations to offer, going forward:

• Whenever I back into a dark hole -- I have bright magnetic flashlights attached to BOTH sides of the back end of the trailer;
• When a trailer has real issues (obvious fresh significant damage) -- I will photogragh it from different angles with my cellphone -- BEFORE I pull the trailer.

Beyond that....

I live in an area that is basically a "doughnut hole" for good driving jobs.

You -- on the other hand -- are in/near Mobile, which is actually a pretty darn good place to look for different CDL opportunities.

For that reason -- I sort of envy you.

Mobile is actually a small gold mine for hazmat tanker (& other) opportunities:

• Ergon
• Transwood
• I hear Airgas has a terminal/facility there now
• for home daily -- fuel jobs abound
• because of the ports -- home daily intermodal jobs are always there

-- L

 

Man I'm sorry they did you dirty like that. It feels like getting punched in the gut. You know you did everything right, but unfortunately they decided to make you the fall guy anyway.

Have you asked the company when you will be rehireable? Maybe they'll take you back after 6 months or something, especially if you've been with them for a while.

 

I can't believe they didn't have a service truck set up to go fuel the trailer instead of pulling it out, going to the truck stop and having to respot the trailer.

 

you grocery boys work hard. Anything else you do will be a lot easier I think you’ll be fine. Good luck.

 

Some of us carry a flashlight for when it is dark.

Even being dark and you may not be able to get all the way back to the tandems, a flashlight would shine some light back there to show you if it is safe to move or not.

And if you can not determine that, maybe it would be better to wait until there is daylight?