Advice for a felon with accidents in a rut right now.

What does manual labor have to do with the basic operation of a tractor-trailer? Don't hit crap.

I truly hope you can find an OTR job, please come back in 7 months and tell me how easy it is.

My "advice" is to stop making excuses. Any employer can smell a dodge like a fart in a car. U hit a sign day 2, cuz no experience... but hit a sign month 7 cuz ... ?

I'm not saying **** doesn't happen, but truck driving is a self-leadership position. And an OTR company is looking for someone they can trust with high dollar equipment and high dollar loads in high stress situations without supervision.

Convince them that is you.

 

I apologize for sounding like such a jerk. I think you were screwed by someone convincing you that local beverage delivery was a good job for a rook. I've only been at it for 7 years and you couldn't pay me enough to do what you've been doing. I salute you, brother

But now you're in a situation where your record is tarnished. Some people on here will tell you not to admit anything that can't be found, but in my experience-- everything can be found. And there's no real way to see what can or can't be found.

Be honest and own everything. Trust is the only currency you have with any carrier, mega or small.

 

What I see is "I unload a lot of freight myself so its ok that I seem to run into something on a regular basis."

Not many are going to hand you the keys to a $200,000 dollar truck and say "Hit something with our truck now, welcome to the family!"

Don't quit your job unless you have another one lined up. Right now the driver market is tight, GOOD drivers like myself are having a very hard time finding anything local, and I have a perfect driving record and 7 years of experience.

 

Yea it is different, you get to go home and see your family every day and sleep in your own bed. I haven't been home in almost a month and I'm stuck in a truck until Tuesday to get rid of this load.

Food service also uses MUCH shorter and easier trailers to back. I'd take a pup trailer long before this 53' monster on my back. I've backed into places where there was 57' of room between the face of the dock and a fence. With a 53' trailer I had to hit the dock at a full 90 degree jackknife with less than 3 inches between my drives and the fence.. OTR doesn't mean backing into easy docks all the time, in fact these AC deliveries I always do are some of the worst ones. I've had my entire tractor blocking a 2 lane highway while I was unloaded, again, in almost a 90 degree jackknife not to end up in the ditch on the side of the road. At a delivery in Atlanta, I had to back into a dock completely under a building, and then BACK back out, up a ramp, blindly into a park lot between tons of 4 wheelers that got parked under the building while I was being unloaded. It took me 45 minutes just to get out. But I didn't hit anything.

There is no excuse for hitting things. You have to get out and look. I do, it sucks and looks like you're a newbie, but you bump the dock and nothing else. That puts a smile on everyone's face. You're paid by the hour, you can take forever if you need to. I'm not. All that backing and crap is unpaid but I still have to do it.

Loading dock is down in there:

 

Easier to back IF YOU HAVE ROOM. You don't back a ton delivering to gas stations and such. Just a trailer length or two. But many places we go the docks aren't designed for these longer trucks and trailers.

I have told many food delivery drivers in envy them, not because of them having to back trailers without hitting stuff, but because they have to manually unload their own trucks.