What is an accident?

Standard window for most companies for accidents is 3 years.

An accident is anything involving you and another person or you and property(landscaping included). I received a non-preventable once but I'm trying to get even that one scrubbed off by DAC because my vehicle was towed, so I'm not sure if that counts.

Minor scratches involving just you and no property damage don't have to be reported.

 

Let me preface this by saying, I am not yet a trucker. There is a man on the forum who is in management at one of the big tucking companies, and the way he explained it, if the company has to pay for any damages (he gave an instance where someone put tire ruts in someone's lawn and the company had to pay to fix it), then that is an accident. From reading on the this forum, I think you may need to work for a smaller company before you go back OTR, but I could be wrong. I wish you the best of luck

Baseball Sweetheart

 

I worked for a company for many years that also had internal points system.If the offense,regardless of whether law enforcement was involved,was determined to be preventable ,we as drivers were issued points.If we accrued too many in a short amount of time we were terminated.I do hate that word terminate.It sounds like they take you out back and shoot you.I had a safe driving record for 5 years until I had a local delivery where the trailer hit a stone wall.I dislodged one rock from the wall.No trailer damage,but it was ruled preventable.Four years later,I was on a narrow two lane.A small garbage truck came around a bend too fast and in my lane.I drove down into the drainage ditch to avoid him.I didn't hit him but the tractor sustained $7000.00 in damage.I was able to show the officer who responded that driver left me 6 inches of space in my lane.How?The driver of the garbage truck left tire marks on the roadway in my lane before coming to a stop.He was ticketed for failure to keep right.My company ruled this non-preventable.
So enough with my mishaps.Back to your questions.
Most companies have a safety department that has set up guidelines to determine whats preventable and whats not.These rules may vary by company.Some have strict rules,others might be more flexible.When setting policy they may take into account national industry,federal government and insurance standards.Most new drivers when they are hired on don't bother reading a companies manual on policy but it would be wise to do so.

Definition of a preventable.I'll give three sites.
1.FMCSA,Search all and type in(Preventablity of accidents)Hit on accident counter mesasures.
2.Search for the National Safety Council.Once there,type in the search box,preventable accidents.Scroll down to FAQ's.Once there,scroll down to motor vehicle.
3.Last,Search for HNI financial services,once there,scroll down to transportation at the bottom of the page.At the next page,hit on accident prevention.

This info should help answer your questions.

 

Am accident is an accident. Get a copy of your DAC report to see what is sez