3RD DAY on the job, My trailer hits the back of a parked pickup

Don't take this as me trying to be mean but you cant really shift the blame onto your company. Doesn't matter if you had no training or 50 years of training once you take those keys and move that truck you are responsible for your actions. If you feel like you need more training speak up to the company and say that or ask other drivers. I wasn't really trained when my first company turned me loose with a truck and I learned ALOT of lessons the hard way. Honestly at first I blamed my company but I really couldn't because truth be told because I was learning as I went I should've been way more careful than I was at the time and I wouldn't have had most of the issues I had. Take it as a lesson learned and try very very hard not to have any other issues.

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You have got to be kidding me right. Your company's fault 100%. Okay so its your companys fault you didn't see the truck, its your company's fault you hit the truck, its your company's fault that you didn't get out and look to make sure you didn't hit anything. Sorry I call b.s. here. You cannot blame a company for everything when a lot of the blame needs to be placed on yourself. Should they have trained you yes, but you should have done a lot in this situation as well from what you have described. In my year of driving I had a total of...about 10 hours behind the wheel 100% empty. Learned how to back, secure loads, turn corners in the real world everything by myself. It can be done, but when you are in that sort of situation you MUST be more cautious. When you learn by yourself you have to learn to goal more often and be more cautious. Don't ever rely on your company, don't rely on a spotter, you have to learn to rely on yourself and only yourself. Guess what I'm trying to say is they threw you to the wolves on your first day, why didn't you bring a gun with extra clips and ammo to be prepared your second day and third day?

 

I hit something too when I was fresh out of the gate. I believe it happens to everyone at some point, at least you got it out of the way now and hopefully learned something. That aside, I can't tell from your description why you think is the company's fault, did they ask you to do something you don't know how to do? When it comes to clearances we make mistakes but that is on the driver. You are the one that should have been watching the trailer and you are the one who should have gotten out and looked if there was any doubt about your clearances. If you felt it was going to clear and it didn't (and we've all done that) then I can understand you made a bad judgement call confounded by having no experience but that isn't the company's fault is it? You may get lucky and find that it doesn't show up on any reports, that depends on who the incident was reported to and what your company reports, but normally if the company can keep it internal then that is what they prefer because incidents like this hurt them as well. I'm sorry if this sounds harsh but from one noobie to another if you don't feel capable you need to step away before you really hurt someone. If you think you need more training then go get it. I know how hard it is to get your foot in the door but you can't take risks or you'll do more than find yourself looking for work you may be liable for something huge.

 

It is not the end of the world by any means, unless things are totally different than they were a decade ago. The end of my first year, someone was signaling me blindside into a tire shop. The dock was unprotected (just a bare wall). As is the classic mistake (my fault totally), I misread one of his signals and went 6" too far, pressing into a brick wall. Weeks later I found out it was a $3000 claim.

At the time I was making .21/mile and yet a few months later was hired by JB at .40/mile. If I remember correctly, they told me the amount was under their disqualifier, at the time was something like $5000. Like others have said, you need to learn from your mistakes, but don't get too down about it.

 

Don't worry too much, we all been a rookie once, I know how do you feel. You're in Canada, not US, we don't have that stupid DAC report sys. This happened on a private property, so it won't be on your record. Most likely, your co will just give you a warning... They can not make you to pay the insurance deductible legally, so they may give you a 'pay or quit' option. Drive carefully, this s***t happened once will be OK, but 2nd time...

 

You your self say you were to inexperienced to do this job,why even try ,what would you be worried about if you would have killed some one instead of taking out a tail light?

I hope no one tells you to jump off a bridge because you may not have enough life experience to tell them NO. ok now i am busting your balls.

 

Don't worry too much, we all been a rookie once,

Yes i was a rookie once and i am a kinda born again rookie now since i haven't been behind a wheel for years,but i never one time blamed my company or any one else for any mistake i made.

 

You can't turn a Child loose with a Rattle Snake. Lack of training, Can't teach a person in 6 weeks. These are not toys. 4 weeks, 2 weeks, take the money & run. Saw a video of a nice young man that had no biz driving a truck today. That's todays world. Took me a solid year to learn. These things are hard to Master. They act different all the time. Best you can hope for is to get a load there, & get another one out. There are good drivers, and dead drivers. Safety is the key. Just an old driver.