Help Please

Typical BS on Swifts part.

Many companies don't even consider bending a fairing as an accident any more. They just take it out of your safety bonus.

Since you have been out of trucking for awhile. You will have to apply as a student. Just drop a few applications and wait.

You may need to go to a school for a refresher. Ask when you speak to recruiters.

 

Without sounding harsh, I think you might have to be stuck with this one. How much damage did you cause to your rig? It may have been more expensive then you think. Technically, it would qualify as a preventable accident depending on the dollar amount of damage. I know with some companies any dollar amount UNDER $500.00 is classified as an "incident". Anything OVER $500.00 is classified as an "accident".
Swift had a right to terminate you and your trainer. Your trainer probably had other incidents/accidents with students that you were unaware of. By him allowing you to do a maneuver that cost a considerable amount of financial damage to their equipment, he was not that great of a mentor.

As for your career being over, it is not by any means. Sooner or later everyone is going to cause some sort of damage to their truck. You might want to see what exactly SWIFT put on your DAC file. If they put something on there that you know for a fact is false, then dispute it. But if they put "preventable accident" you may just have to swallow it. Start submitting applications to companies. If they bring it up, be honest and tell them. You may get another shot at truckin!

 

The man was in training,I don't think he should have got fired what the hell was his "trainer" doing??????

 

Just because someone is in training it does not give them a free pass for destruction. Of course when a person is in training a little leeway is given. SWIFT had every right to terminate his employment. I don't care for SWIFT's reputation but they are allowed to run their company as they would like.

 

True his trainer should not have placed him in this situation, but if I owned a company and this case happened I would have fired them both also. Not because the incident occured but because they did not report it. I do not like it when people think that they can get away with something and don't own up to their mistakes and that is why I would have fired the newbie. The trainer would have got it either way. Just my thoughts.

 

I'm not sure we are getting all the story here. Seems to be that if Swift were called and informed that the accident happened right away. Then maybe they would have said ok, it will go on your record and it will come out of your bonus. But to fire you and your trainer. I just think there is more going on here than we know.

 

I have to agree with you. Not all the story.

After reading it again I have to wonder, Did he actually damage the back of the tractor? Or simply bend a fairing?

If he actually got into the cab, that tells me his trainer was in the sleeper. Or, he just plain did not care and deserved firing.

 

i too will agree .. there has to be something more than meets the eye here on this one ... if he came to a complete stop, why didnt the trainer ask him what he was doing ... was it a dead end road that he didnt want to back up the 2 miles... there are a few times a week that i have to drive 10 miles out of my way to get turned around .. better that then to try a u-turn anywhere but when it is listed for a big truck to do so which is hardly ever or on jug handles ... i would have fired him based on how he didnt want to back up or try and look for a turn around ...

here is some advise as well, sometimes when you are on a backroad and need to get turned around, look for a on ramp and a off ramp to a highway, sometimes, you can enter the highway stay in the right lane and get right back off within a hundred feet ... that is what i look for unless i am in the middle of nowhere then i look for a large building or parking lot that is empty ....

 

Great information Darth, Thanks!