Small incident with huge ramifications

I've had my foot slip off the clutch before also. That is why this lifelong tennis shoe wearer started wearing work boots quickly after I started driving. I also concentrate to get my foot firmly and squarely on the clutch pedal when in tight places or while backing. Thanks for sharing this event so others will know this is a risk to watch out for. It is a scary event that can bite you. I doubt any old timers would have thought to warn newbies about this, I sure wouldn't think of it until your message.

I won't describe my worst incident, but it didn't cost me my job, thank God. Your best hope is you keep your job. If that happens, stay there as long as possible to get time on your side. The next employers will know almost nothing about this incident, except the word "accident" or "incident" "preventable" and the date. If you keep your job where this happened that will minimize, as much as possible, the seriousness of the event.

I try to be a stone-cold perfectionist and have had the great luck to have almost all of my mistakes not be too serious or to have happened where it was safe to screw up. I've made almost every mistake it's possible to make except for running into the back of another vehicle or dropping a trailer in the road. The most important thing is not that you can be perfect, but you have to be deliberate and careful about what you do, and more important take every event and close-call as an opportunity to change your practices to make those close-calls and mistakes never happen again.

I won't harp on my previous experience in another industry, even I get tired of mentioning, but they don't just train you to do things, but you have to do those things in the same carefully thought out way every time. Hell, I've had trainers give a long lecture on what ink pen to use. You make the very best way to do something your habit and that habit works to keep you from forgetting the small details that can cause problems.

The short-hand to that is you must do things like the cops and the boss are always watching. We shouldn't do things the way we like, or the way we've always done them, do them the best way. One habit is about as easy to adopt as another habit, but a good habit doesn't come back to haunt you. Nobody cares about your career and license as much as you should. No dispatcher can take away tickets or criminal penalties. A driver is a fool to thik the company will sacrifice itself to protect your license. Even a good company will flush you in an instant rather than accept a company-threatening event to save a driver. They are not your friend or family they are a company.

Try to get someone responsible in the company to make their best guess if you will eventually be fired for this. It's probably better to resign, but only if you will be fired. You should even offer to resign at the very start of any serious meeting you suspect is meant to fire you. "Before anyone says more, I want you to know I'm willing to resign now if you think I can't work here anymore. Otherwise, I will do whatever will demonstrate that I understand the seriousness of this event and my willingness to learn from it." It's not a character flaw, it's a mistake. The character flaw is dismissing it, blaming it on something comfortable, or ignoring it. The bad drivers don't even lose a wink of sleep no matter how big is their event. You seem to have the right attitude.

 

Very wise words, thank you for the the reasoning to go along with it explaining.

 

We had a driver that got an award for quick thinking by throwing his bunk mattress under a diesel leak after a similar incident.

 

as to the fuel leak, I'd be willing to reach into the fuel tank and put something over a hole if I could. What the fuel will do to your skin is pretty minor. The warnings about the fuel are like the 90 seconds of fastly-spoken warnings about drugs on TV commercials. Yes, someone, somewhere may have had X, but almost certainly not you unless you. In this instance you probably couldn't reach inside tank.

A ziploc bag, aluminum foil, even lost of paper may be useful to keep the leak smaller than running because someone's told you the truck will blow up or you'r going to turn into a mutant if fuel touches you. Heck, I hardly even hear the voices anymore after years of contact with the stuff.

 

If the employer you're working for still keeps you on, that is a good sign to the next employer it's not that big of a deal. The current employer has all the details the next employer will have to guess about. They assume drivers are lying pretty often so they may not believe words over actions.

 

First off, let me assure you that you are not the first or last to screw up, you just got it done a bit earlier than most.
Canada's environmental laws are considerably stricter than in the US. City works folks don't usually handle hazmat spills. Yes, diesel fuel is hazmat, so is anti-freeze. That's why the trained fire dept showed up and yes, they reported it. Enviro will check the site out and they will have final say on remedial procedure. You may be looking at replacment of the surface down to about 2 feet. Gonna be expensive.

A few years back a friend in Sussex NB had his truck parked in his own paved driveway. He'd filled the tanks a bit too full and over the weekend they "drooled" onto the ashphalt. A "neighbor" noticed and called enviro. He wound up having to dig up the entire driveway and underlying gravel, pay for trucking it to a "contaminated soil"site and a nice hefty fine.

 

A fuel spill isn't a light matter, but what the consequences will be for you depend on your relationship with your company. If you are a driver that they want to keep around then they may call it an incident. If you are on the bubble, then you may be looking for another job. If you are in Canada things could be quite different than in the US. In the US trucking companies get huge fines because there's too much dust coming from their parking lots.

 

Good luck Swiftey. I am not yet a cdl driver, but in my personal truck I have had my foot slip off to the left of the clutch if I was not centered. It seems like it could be common I hope all goes well.