Profile For Pepe S.

Man, did that story ever sound familiar. I’ve been trucking for 16 months now and, while not as bad as yours, I had plenty of screw ups my first three months.

I got lucky. My manager had been out of the office when I racked them up and so he took mercy on me. He had me sit down with a safety trainer to discuss my accidents, gave me a stern talking to, and I improved and kept my job.

Here’s how I improved: I stopped rushing myself. I started thinking two steps ahead all the time to avoid getting into a jam. I looked at (and I mean really looked at) my mirrors with every turn; not only to see if I was about to hit anything but also to internalize the relation between what my foot and hands were doing and what the trailer was doing. I started taking my time with every maneuver; I started thinking “I’d rather be the trucker everybody else is talking about for a couple minutes because it took me too long to back up, than the trucker their talking about for weeks because I hit a building, or worse).

Your particular situation: I can’t say. It’s always a good idea to have a Plan B lined up. But if, by the grace of God, you get another chance, that’s the way forward. It was for me, anyway.

Hello.

I was wondering if there was any database for all of a driver’s preventable accidents.

I recently pulled my PSP which has my accidents listed as 0. This is nice, but not exactly true. I had a couple preventable accidents when I first started. They only involved only company property being damaged (struck the rim in a curb…twice).

Is there a database that would show those accidents? Or, did they go unreported because the only damage was company property (the rims), so the company just ate the cost and there was no claim filed, per se? They are in the company’s database, of course, but I was surprised to not find them on my PSP report.

So, is there some other database these would show up on? Maybe something the company’s insurer has that they would share with me? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!