Please Help This Veteran

Topic 32619 | Page 2

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Ryan B.'s Comment
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I expect that you are going to have to sit out a while to allow those accidents to age. You need to be to the point where you have no more than 2 incidents in 3 years and no more than 3 incidents in 5 years. Depending on how far they are spaced out, you are looking at maybe 4 years. With only a year of experience, most companies will want a refresher.

You really need to figure out how to pay better attention to your surroundings. I get the impression that you are too busy with things in the cab while driving. You were found using your phone once while driving, but my intuition tells me this was far from the first time and far from the last time. I am willing to venture an educated guess that you have often tried to driving (and backing) while allowing your attention to be on any number of things besides driving. The evidence of this is how many incidents you have, plus a ticket for using your phone while operating the vehicle. My personal opinion is that sitting out a few years will be good for you to really reflect on your driving habits and how to improve.

You may be able to find a company willing to give you a shot, but I suspect that there is not a company out there with insurance willing to cover a driver with your record.

HOS:

Hours Of Service

HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.

OWI:

Operating While Intoxicated

Pianoman's Comment
member avatar

I agree with the above responses about applying everywhere and needing to be more careful. I messed up my own driving record pretty majorly a few years ago by getting a massive speeding ticket in my personal vehicle. I’m pretty ashamed of it and don’t talk about it much but thankfully I was able to get back into trucking after a couple years off and a changed attitude. I’m very very thankful for a second chance at this career and I learned some valuable (and painful) lessons that I am committed not to forget.

If there’s anything I can say it’s that you seriously need to start taking responsibility for your mistakes. Everyone and I mean absolutely everyone makes mistakes and trucking companies know that, but there is no justifiable excuse for the number of accidents and tickets you’ve had in such a short period of time. There is no question that there were conscious decisions you made to not GOAL as many times as needed (if you got out at all) and pay attention to your surroundings. If you can’t accept responsibility for the choices you made that led to your accidents, no amount of second chances or time off is going to make any difference if/when you start trucking again with a different company. Your track record will continue.

The only other possible explanation is that you did everything right but you’re simply not competent enough to drive a truck. Only you can answer this but I think it’s way more likely you were too complacent about important steps like getting out and looking as many times as necessary and checking all of your surroundings as many times as necessary. I also know for a fact from my own experience that taking responsibility for your actions and being honest with yourself and the companies you apply to about why your accidents happened and why they’re not going to happen anymore will get you a lot further than saying they happened because the docks were too tight.

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