Need Help New Driver

Several of the replies you've made in this thread you started suggest you don't understand the seriousness of what happened. It's not always easy to turn things you know into words on screen, so maybe that is mostly responsible. But a company wants to hear how you will avoid getting the same results next time, you accept responsibility, and you are paying much more attention to what is around you when you are on the roads. phrases like "it's not too bad...", "who knows if that car was involved or just trying to get money" may make you feel better, but they will ring alarm bells at a trucking company. The world and the industry doesn't owe you anything. This event and any other events in your past didn't just happen to you. You were involved and may have helped them happen or not. SOME of the anger you may feel hearing very experienced drivers analyzing what you've told us would not be happening if you drive in a way to have a clean record. A clean record is normal and expected. It's not some lottery type mythical event. Today's new drivers seem to accept they will be getting tickets or accidents every month because the cops, customers, DOT, are out to get them.

 

Your time and effort isn't wasted yet, but just wanting to do something doesn't mean you should do it. You may or may not have the attitude and skill to do this job safely. But focusing on how the mistakes you've made hurt you is selfish and immature. Work any job, even McDonald's and when you get in the truck drive it like your whole career is hanging by a thin string and ANY bad event is the end of it. It's not literally just barely still alive, but if you act like that and make decisions like that you will get better results than if you act like getting and keeping a good job is mostly just about having a good excuse or a possible explanation for what other people are probably doing. Some dump truck companies seem to hire people with problems, not that dump truck drivers are walking problems, they aren't. The time to be super serious about your situation is BEFORE you have any, or the next, accident. Make decisions like you care about the outcome, not just assume if you complain loud enough to the right person the consequences will fall on someone else.

 

I'll chime in here with my thoughts on this statement.
With that attitude, " It wasn't that bad my car and the car in front of me where toataled" you come across as a entitled azzhole who thinks he did nothing wrong and are not accepting any blame for what happened. YOU were driving aggressively and to fast and are what is wrong with way to many people on the road today. Lord forbid you get a driving job and do that with 80000 lbs. You need to mature and learn to drive defensively before you end up with a vehicular manslaughter. As you are now I am quite happy to be on the other coast and nowhere near you behind the wheel.

 

Being a company driver at a great company means inexpensive health insurance, steady work, great paychecks (all of that check is profit), and great equipment maintained by a big shop that knows what they are doing.

It takes more than a sassy attitude to succeed. Every customer & other people you will deal with has years or decades of experience. You don't read a book about winning poker, sit down at the World Series of Poker and take home most of the money.just because you have big dreams & want money. If you don't know what you are doing, doing it does not mean you will make money. You will live with your decisions whether you like the consequences or feel they are fair or not. How do you think you will find customers or freight? Loadboards are full of cheap freight. You cannot haul cheap freight and make money unless you are more efficient than most drivers. Good luck being very efficient on your first try without working as a company driver until you see what inefficiencies are in the process.

Obviously you don't need anyone on this forum to give you permission to become an owner-op. There are some very experienced owner-ops commenting. I worked my whole career as a company driver. My dad was an owner-op for a handful of years. He found it was more stressful & didn't bring enough more money to be worth the 2-3 extra jobs required to be an O-O. You drive, find freight, perform or supervise maintenance, are an accountant or pay one, and comply with back office paperwork for IRS, state, etc. For all of that work you might make 50-200% more income than a good or great company driver job. Your customer & expenses make most of your decision, not you. Maybe I'm wrong?