Made A Stupid Mistake Now What?

Well 3 weeks from my anniversary and I made a mistake, I hit a mirror on the truck next to me in a truck stop. I feel horrible about it but my company was actually very understanding.

As far as damages none to my equipment but it did knock the reflective part of the mirror out, the mirror was still attached and no othe damage. No police involvement or anything like that.

I feel really dumb and honestly in shock that I made such a stupid mistake, and now I'm wondering what's next? How is this going to affect me getting another job? How long do I need to wait before applying for another job? I'm not in trouble with my company but I was going to look at other companies with my contract with then coming to an end.

Thanks in advance for the advice, sorry to be part of the statistic

That really shouldn't hurt you at all. It happens, just be honest about it, own it and explain to anyone what happened and what you learned from it.

Ouch, really your incident is more ego bruising then anything else! The biggest thing I fear is that I become to complacent and do something similar. I think that if the situation you present is correct in the way it happened you are going to fine.

One thing you failed to mention is if safety was involved. If so they may classify it as a preventable incident ( not accident). This may or may not be added to your DAC report. Completely up to them.

Is this going to make it more difficult to land another driving job? Most likely not even if they classify it as preventable. So when your ready fire out those resumes and see how many great companies offer you a job! I think you'll be pleasantly surprised

Ouch, really your incident is more ego bruising then anything else! The biggest thing I fear is that I become to complacent and do something similar. I think that if the situation you present is correct in the way it happened you are going to fine.

One thing you failed to mention is if safety was involved. If so they may classify it as a preventable incident ( not accident). This may or may not be added to your DAC report. Completely up to them.

Is this going to make it more difficult to land another driving job? Most likely not even if they classify it as preventable. So when your ready fire out those resumes and see how many great companies offer you a job! I think you'll be pleasantly surprised

It was definitely humbling, I did have to exchange info and contact safety since the other driver will have to get the mirror fixed, the actual reflective piece was knocked out of the housing and it scuffed the outside. It is a preventable accident according to safety when I asked them what happens next they said nothing other than I won't be getting my 1 year safety award that was due in 3 weeka

I didn't ask them how it would affect me getting my next job. But they seemed very understanding about the whole situation when I told them I screwed up no excuses for it that's for sure

It happens, i had a similar issue few years back when I first started driving.. the location I dropped at, had those rubber mats around the outside of the dock, i miss-aligned my trailer and ripped a hole in one.. They classified it as a backing incident.

be sure when you push out any apps to other companies, that you add that incident, if it happens to go on your Dac and you don't add it, whomever your applying to will wonder if your being truthful.. Had that happen to me at Prime. Had no idea the incident went to my Dac, applied with what i thought was a clean record but got sent home on the final day of Orientation because i wasn't "truthful or forthcoming" with my background.

I recommend ordering a free copy of your DAC report from HireRight Just go through it and after you input your info, it'll ask you if you want a copy of your DAC... I select all files and within 15 days it gets sent to your mailing address. You may, since this is a fresh, wait a few days before ordering just to make sure your company has time to get everything taken care of... You can order 1 DAC report per year, just like you can order 1 copy of your credit reports per year...

Good luck, and keep your head up.

You should be ok when you apply for another job just put it down as a incident... sucks you got within 3 weeks of a 1 yr safety award and had it happen

Ken C.

You should be ok when you apply for another job just put it down as a incident... sucks you got within 3 weeks of a 1 yr safety award and had it happen

Ken C.

Definitely does, I'm just thankful it was minor, Noone was hurt and I'm definitely taking it as a reminder to always be aware because one lapse and we'll this happens

I don't know how your safety department is scoring things and they may have said accident internally. When they report for the DOT it will be an incident. A DOT preventable accident must include these criteria. Fatality Tow or ambulance. So yes they may score your CSA score preventable but according to DOT it's not.

Anyway it really shouldn't impact you too heavily finding a new job just stay clear of any mirrors the next few months.

Also just in case it does matter about 6 months ago I had a deer strike that caused a good bit of damage to the truck but safety said I did everything right after reviewing the truck making sure I didn't swerve or slam the brakes or anything. I don't even know if that would be on my record at all but I figured I'd mention it just in case. Also I've never had any citations, violations or any other incidents