Please Advise my DAC reported as a preventable accident

Go to work for the cement company. You'd be home every night.

 

So why did it take you that long to stop? The football field isn't the "following distance", but the distance required to stop a loaded tractor trailer from 55 mph.

From the CDL book (this one is Texas...but EVERY state is pretty similar)

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/ftp/forms/CDLhandbook.pdf

If there were no problems with your brakes, perhaps the problem was you weren't paying attention to what you were doing.

If you are paying attention to what you are SUPPOSED to be doing, there is no reason you should not have seen something going on ahead of you and got stopped BEFORE making contact with any other vehicles....provided you had left yourself enough following distance.

Hang up the phone. Take your feet off the dash. You are out here to do a job, and the consequences of not taking your job seriously are severe. People get hurt or killed every day because some knucklehead isn't paying attention to what he/she is doing while behind the wheel (car/truck/ANY vehicle) and it makes life that much more difficult for the rest of us who make our living on the roads. If you are in a CMV when you screw up, it makes things more difficult for every other professional on the road...new regulations...stricter enforcement...stiffer penalties for even minor infractions.

Fact is, for whatever reason, you didn't get your truck stopped in time to avoid contact. Whether that was 3 car lengths or 3 inches is irrelevant...you made contact with the vehicle in front of you, and you aren't likely to get that changed to a NP on your DAC, since it could have been prevented by maintaining a proper following distance, looking far enough ahead, or perhaps even not driving as fast.

 

Nancy, don't fret. I was fired from Marten after 1 week of employment and it was my fault. I failed to GOAL at a tight dock while backing, I bumped an intermodal container. ZERO damage, not even skinned paint. The JB Hunt driver submitted an accident report and I was canned the following Monday. Luckily I was on hometime, so I had to drive back up to Ontario and empty out my truck.

They couldn't slam my DAC fast enough. Just because this is the way this industry is now, doesn't make it right. No flexibility, just rigid retribution. I got a job with another mega 4 months later, the DAC info wasn't a problem.

I'm about to go to a smaller carrier, no DAC or QC, lesson learned about mega carriers, esp Marten!

 

Nancy, from your posts, you seem to be a very careful and diligent driver. I doubt you will have problems finding another job. Try to go to a smaller carrier, not a mega. If enough drivers keep doing that, they would have to change their ways or close their doors.
I just left a mega on Sunday, the dropyard was so full of turned in trucks, I barely had any room to turn in my trailer and cleaned out truck, lol. The drivers are dropping like flies and they steadfastly refuse to address the issues, so they will continue to churn drivers through. 50+ drivers quit the week I was in orientation, they keep the stats on a whiteboard like the latest stock prices.. lol

 

It'll never happen. You rear ended another vehicle. They don't CARE what the extenuating circumstances may have been. The way they see it, you could have avoided the contact by 1) not following as closely, 2) looking a little farther up the road, and/or 3) reacting quicker to the situation around you. You could hire all the lawyers in the world and fight it all the way up to the SCOTUS, but the only thing you will get out of the deal is a huge legal bill to pay...and the preventable will still be on your DAC.

 

This is what trucking has become, a dumping ground for the unemployed and with one small incident, you are virtually done. I see chewed up trailers, poles and curbs everywhere trucks go and I have to wonder how many drivers are out of work because of it. They try to legislate safety into trucking without any attention to driver wages (declining for 20 years). No wonder drivers have to push themselves just to make a barely sustaining wage.
I'm not saying all drivers are in this category, but I believe the majority are.

Any driver that tells you that they have never made a mistake is either a liar or very lucky!

 

Nancy, not sure where you live, but if you are out west, you might be interested in a co I'm going to. No qc or DAC + loose leaf logbooks. PM if you are interested.