Hello all. First time poster, long time lurker here and like the title says I need some advice.
Last year in late October I decided to leave my decent paying job and get a cdl (paid out of pocket). After 3 weeks of class I graduated and found a company that hired recent grads in late November. I went to orientation for 1 week then had otr training for 2 weeks.
The company treated us great at orientation and I got along with my otr trainer very well so the 2 weeks flew by. I tried the best I could to soak up everything he taught me and i learned a lot in the short amount of time we were together.
When the time came I was able to pass the company road test and I was assigned my own truck the week before Christmas. I had my fair share of learning experiences the following month taking time to practice backing whenever I had the chance and I even started building a small amount of confidence but still was very intimidated being solo.
In the beginning of February I found myself on a rural 2 lane road about a mile and half away from the receiver I was headed to. I didn’t route plan the last leg of the load properly and at this point I was following the gps and got into a mess (I did look the route over on google maps but I didn’t verify the route with my road atlas like I was trained to).
I came to a small intersection a bit down the road and some low hanging power/cable lines ahead made me stop and explore my options before I proceeded. To the left a dirt road that led to a business and to the right a residential road with a small ditch on both sides maybe a foot deep.
After looking at the gps and Google maps for a few minutes I decided on the residential road since it joined to the main road I was originally headed to and instantly regretted it.
When I made the turn I didn’t swing wide enough and put the passenger side tandems in the small ditch. I was loaded at around 38,000 lbs and the ground was wet from the rain the night before and the tires sunk down some in the mud. After I looked at the situation thinking it’s not too bad I decided to pull myself out and that’s where it went really bad.
Im still not exactly sure what happened but I think the weight of the load and the tire trying to come back on the pavement somehow bent and pulled the sliding tandems off its track (maybe like hitting a curb but from the inside out).
After calling my dm and talking with safety explaining what happened I waited about 2 hour’s for a wrecker and was towed to the wreckers yard, unhooked and was routed to bobtail back to my home parking spot about 500+ miles away for scheduled home time.
The day after I got home I got a call from safety and was terminated which wasn’t surprising. I apologized for not meeting their expectations and thanked them for the opportunity.
I honestly can’t say anything bad about this company, I had a good dm and they left me alone and let me drive. They even paid me for the load I had the accident on (around 900 miles) and also paid me the miles I bobtail home.
I got a job back with my previous employer (at a reduced pay rate) and have been working there since thinking my driving career was over having very little experience and an accident on my record.
2 weeks ago I started thinking more about driving again and decided to check my psp, mvr and dac. The first 2 are completely clear and my dac does show I worked for the company, that I am eligible for rehire, I was discharged and surprisingly zero accidents or incidents. Work record shows “other” so I’m assuming I’ll have to explain why I was discharged.
After calling my driver trainer and talking with him about the dac I suspect the company maybe covering their end since from what I understand reportable accidents/incidents effect their safety rating.
I’ve made a list of about 20 potential trucking companies (best to worst) from previous threads listed here and have my sights set on one particular company but I’m willing to work with a 2nd Chance company if needed.
My main question is should I be honest with potential employers and explain what happened (maybe not in such detail but a shorter version) and what I’ve learned from the experience or would that be “shooting my self in the foot”?
