Stuck

Your biggest impediment to getting another job isn’t the accident, it’s your inability to take responsibility for it and learn from it.

If you start equivocating about it to a potential employer like you have been on here you have no chance of getting hired. Man up and take some responsibility, you hit another vehicle and it was preventable.

 

Exactly......It's the easiest choice in the world to make.....the one not do do drugs of any kind except those prescribed to you , or the choice to not drink and drive.......simple.

 

Yep we are the blue meanies.......

 

Rookie.... when you've got the experience to back that one up come back and try to discuss this. I'm sorry you got involved in a rear end collision..in the trucking business that more often than not can , and will be attributed to following too closely/or driving way too fast for the road condition/s. That has just been proven to you. It's gonna take a while for you to over-come that bad choice...not mistake mind you , but bad choice. You should've known , even with what small amount of driving a cars experience you have , that icy conditions warrant a very slow amount of speed , or better yet have the patience to wait until conditions improve...that's driving 101...not just truck driving. "If" you would've practiced either one of those...you wouldn't be making this thread. Grow-up , put your " big boy " pants on , and go find a job...it won't be impossible...might be hard , and the job you do get probably won't be with a stellar company...but you'll be getting the time and miles in to enable you to learn the skills of this profession. Quit trying to play the victim card around a group of veteran drivers , that have more time driving than you have on this planet...we're all happy to help you.....help yourself...but you must be ready to take responsibility for what happens, and not blame other drivers /weather/road conditions for your plight.

 

I was going to add my two cents worth but I am not even going to bother.

This whole post has just proven the point of how the industry has turned into Americas trash can .

It makes me sad to see just how bad it is anymore .

 

Really wish you would marmonman...this rookie needs to hear from those who know...

 

I'm going to touch on a couple of things, here:
1) If you have a passion for this career, then you need to learn that you, and you alone, are responsible for your actions. YOU are the one that's supposed to be in control of your vehicle. Period. Not the driver to your front, rear or side. YOU! You screwed up. Own it, learn from it and use the lesson to your advantage in the future.

2) You say that you ran on bad roads after the preventable accident and couldn't get it to slide, even when you tried to. There are a couple factors that come into play here. Listen up, because there's a lesson here:

What was the temperature when the accident happened compared to when you were experimenting? If it was near 32° during the time of the preventable accident, but was substantially colder during your experiment, that goes a long way to explaining why it was easier to slide in one instance than it was in the other. When the road is snow-covered/snowpack/ice and the temp is anywhere near 32°, a layer of water will form on top of the snow/ice, which will make things much slicker. When the temp is substantially lower than that, there is less chance of the water layer being present and the tires will grip better. Another factor is the amount of traffic on said roadway. Even in the colder temps, if there is enough traffic, the friction from the tires and the heat from the vehicles will cause the snow/ice to melt, resulting in the aforementioned layer of water on top of the ice.

Bottom line is; whatever the conditions, there is no such thing as too much following distance. Never put yourself into a position where you have the potential to come into contact with another vehicle. If you have a good following distance and someone fills that void, back out of it to increase the following distance. If someone else fills that hole, back off again.

Something to think about: This scenario is but one of many that you will encounter in this business. It is up to you to be in control and THINK. It is YOUR responsibility to maintain control and keep from hitting someone.

 

Tony I would but I am just tired of trying to help the helpless.
The massive amount of new drivers out here anymore is wearing me down.

I try to keep telling myself we all were new once but I can honestly say I cannot remember a time when there was the amount of stupidity that we have going on today.
It isn't the fact that I see crappy drivers out here every day.
It is the fact that all it seem like I see are crappy drivers out here ever day.

These new guys have all this training that we never had 33 years ago and they still act like they have no clue at all .
I mean my god between driving school and all the time with trainers and they still do stupid crap all the time .

I could understand if you were handed a set of keys and told to just do it but they have all the breaks in the world and they still act like they have their heads up their butts .

I guess it is not the stupid that gets me I guess it is the amount of stupid that gets to me anymore .
I get to where I feel like I would be better off talking to the wall than trying to help another new guy GET IT .........it is just wearing me down ..... OK off my soap box and back to drooling and saying well back in my day .......

 

I put the comment I'm replying to in bold.

Yes, there are "schools" and "trainers", yet these are so lacking in real training it's painful. In many cases, from what I've seen, the "instructors" at these "schools" are lacking in real experience and it seems that the "trainers" have barely more experience than the student they're training. I'm right there with you, though. It's tough to actually want to give your time to try to teach these new "drivers" when it seems like the last thing they want to do is learn.

 

Must be the Soccer mentality in effect here for fhe OP, everyone should should win and get a trophy. No disappointment and no accountability.