I BLEW IT...and ended my career!!!

I'm a rookie, only driven 9 months now. I dropped a trailer in the yard back in November, then in December, got stuck in city limits twice by following GPS and ended up causing damage to trailer dolly legs on first one, and broke fairing on cab on second one and got fired. Now, no one will touch me cuz they see I was fired. Don't do what I did you rookies, call the police if you get stuck, they can do a lot more then you can on your own. Now I'm screwed and have only myself to blame. Good Luck!

First Accident: I hooked up to trailer in the rain, thought I'd just do a tug test cuz dispatcher said to get load to receiver yesterday so I was in a hurry and soaking wet. Tug test was great, pulled out, turned corner, trailer fell off and bent both dolly legs backwards, dented reefer fuel tank.


Second Accident: In small town GA at midnight. Passed employee parking lot but saw no entrance for trucker deliveries. Went up to stop sign, had to button hook to get around corner as it was all just one lane roads around here with very steep ditches. Turned corner, went up driveway on the left, dead ends to a fence with a circular driveway to exit out but it's not big enough for a rig to make it unless you go in the grass which I did. Turns out there was a concrete curb further up that I missed cuz of tall grass, crap, there went dolly legs on passenger side.


Third accident: Had to go to Blue Beacon to was out trailer, they were too busy, plugged in shipper's address and drove past bb and went around curve in road. Turned out to be a dirt road with lots of ruts and water covered holes and low trees. Didn't look like a road I needed to be on so I did a U-turn where another dirt road junctioned into the one I was on. Made the turn, although it was tight, BUT, my driver's side fairing broke in half. Had to report it because of damage and so now ya'll have all the details.

Although I have no tickets, no DOT's, no accidents with other vehicles, I'm a menace with my own #### equipment and so I got "disqualified" as it was termed.

 

why does it say you have driven 35 yrs then?

 

Trucking certainly teaches patience. Try a local company maybe you'll have better luck.

 

Can you explain what exactly happened?How did you brake fareing in city limits?What city did this occur?Where was you heading and what did your GPS tell you where to go.As you know now never trust a gps.Calling the customer for directions is the best routing system.I have never got steered the wrong way unless it was because of construction the customer wasn't aware of.Howd you cause damage to the trl legs?Did you not dolly up high enough and hit a pot hole or rr tracks?Where did you get stuck and what did you try doing on your own?Yes these accidents are recent but don't think companies won't hire you.Somewhere some place there is a company that'll give you a chance.You just have to keep on looking and maybe get retrained.

 

I usually look at the avatar,missed this one.

 

By any chance you didn't star in this video, did you?

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...e/227079-you-thought-you-were-having-bad.html

 

Just checked older posts, and looks like her husband has the 35 years of experiance.

 

His/her career ain't over. I've done all those things mentioned and then some. If someone never screw's up in the trucking industry, he's not doing enough. I'd be more prone to hire someone that's been there and done that, as opposed to hiring someone that has a spotless record and never been there and done that.

 

A cautionary tale about how helpful police sometimes are:

I was following directions from my GPS and my Qualcomm trying to find the IKEA warehouse in Perryville, MD. The Qualcomm told me to turn right (wrongly), and I did, and too late I realized I was on the on-ramp to the Hatem River Bridge. The Hatem River bridge has a time restriction - big trucks cannot be on it from 8am to 5pm. It was 4pm. I pulled over into an area where they used to have toll booths, and flagged down a cop. I told him the situation and he told me to go on ahead over the bridge and he'll follow me with his lights on. I did and he did. After we exited the bridge, he pulled me over and gave me a $230 ticket for going over the bridge. I asked him to give me directions to the IKEA warehouse and he did.

What should I have done? Sat in the old parking / toll area until 5pm. Then go over the bridge, and try again to find the IKEA from the unrestricted bridge on I95. If a cop had come along and given me a ticket, it would have been a non-moving violation of some parking code most likely. But I was a rookie. I had always been told that if I get into trouble, go find a cop to help me out. It took something like this to realize not all cops are friendly, and not all of them will help you out. They are much like any other segment of the population that way.

Anyhow, it's worth a shot to try and get help from the police, but you must also use your head. And in a case where you need to back up, your triangles or cones if you have them.

 

I've been seen on the top of Peterbilt 70" sleeper trying to find where I was going. It's not always fun. But when you have a bunch of idiots blaring on the CB and you can't get out it's a pain. It used to be you could grab the mic and have directions in 10 minutes.