I Got Fired, Now What Do I Do?

Also, I found the way you worded that quite revealing. Instead of taking ownership and saying "I forgot to set the brakes which caused the truck to roll into a parked vehicle," you put the blame squarely on the truck and removed any human responsibility from the equation. A subtle difference, yes, but if that's any indication of the attitude you took when you spoke to your company about it, I'm sure they were, uh... "less than thrilled."

I agree with Persion here. All three were preventable and like he said the third one was rather serious and if the circumstances were different could have been catastrophic and life changing not only for you but innocent bystanders.

For all you newbies on the forum this is a great example of why a driver must always have their "head in the game" and never lose focus.

Even if they were not "DOT Reportable" (exceeding the damage or injury threshold), they all certainly resulted in someone having to PAY for the damage caused.

While new drivers are almost expected to have a "minor incident" when first starting out - 3 over the course of 5 months is a bit much.

Especially "jumping a kingpin" - not that it doesn't ever happen, but is usually the result of improper setup while coupling (trailer too high or 5th wheel not centered). "Forgetting to set your brakes" is another one - take truck out of gear, set brakes, turn truck off - kind of a no brainer.

You probably could have gotten away with the "fender clipping", but in combination with the other two MAJOR NO NO's, in such a short time frame.

Trucking may or may not be for you - but if you get another opportunity, I would advise you pay WAY MORE ATTENTION TO DETAIL (and take nothing for granted).

It's either just a string of rotten luck (in a short period of time), rushing or overconfidence - or just plain negligence.

Rick

Eric sorry we are so hard on you but I am certainly glad you came here for some answers. Hopefully just talking about it here helps others. I think if the shoe was on the other foot I would probably hang up my keys for a while.

I know it would also be a difficult decision for me as well. I don't know your age but maybe just taking a break for a while doing something else will give you a clearer picture on your future. Perhaps on the future you can revisit driving again