Lost My First Trucking Job, Rather Resigned ( A Longish Post Sorry For Length)

This is going to be a humbling post for me to write. I have lost my first trucking job, rather I resigned from it. There is a long story behind it. Basically I learned the hard way about why the lessons touted on this site are the most ideal way to start off in trucking. You guys may remember that my gig was pulling Amazon freight trailers on a dedicated routes from PDX to Boise and sometimes Spokane WA.

I SHOULD have listened to my gut when I interviewed with them as some things did not seem right and I found out some details after the fact too that made me realize it was not a good fit after all. First the job had been recommended to me by the WA state trainer who helped me get my CDL earlier this year, so I basically excused what I was thinking as unnecessary fear on my part. My first clue right off the bat should have been when I was accepted into the job offer. I had been told initially that the pay would be $250 flat rate per day. When I was offered the job after the initial application, background and UA tests, I was then told because I was a new driver, my pay would be reduced to $225 a month to cover insurance costs for new drivers. That amounted to about $200 a month that I was basically paying them for in order to be able to drive their truck. The trucks also were leased through Penske so the none of them were actually company owned vehicles.

I was literally given a crash course in how to operate the truck, where the controls were how to operate the engine brakes etc and was Told "Trucking is learned by doing" "We will help you along the way". I realize that goes 100 percent counter to what is preached here on TT. But at that point I was just grateful to be working. I picked up my first few loads from Amazon and everything went fine the first couple of weeks, I had started to find my groove so to speak and devoted myself to learning as much as I could. Things were stressful at first but by the second week or rather then end of it I had had several on time deliveries under my belt, no accidents, got my paperwork in on time, elogs compliant. I basically had no complaints and enjoyed it, especially the weekly checks which were frankly more grossed in 1 week than I had ever had working in call centers or banking (my previous job industry).

Things started to unravel the third week when I had a driver negligent event that caused damage to the truck. I had pulled into the shipper and was told my load was delayed, not a problem. I went to the tractor parking area and pulled in. I put the truck into neutral and failed to set the parking brake. I had turned to review the paper work and do a bit of trip planning , route review when my truck shook violently after having rolled into the curb, it shook so hard i had to grab the steering wheel for support and i thought someone had backed into me. after the shaking stopped , I looked around and didn't see anyone and I wondered what that was all about. I double checked my equipment and the parking brake pulled out. I realized right then what I had done or rather failed to do. I went outside and did not see any visible damage to the truck as far as I could see. I went back in , started her up and backed up, and set my brake. A few minutes later I was told that my load was ready.

I went to the dock and proceeded to follow the coupling procedure and went outside for my pretrip walk around and inspection. It was then that I noticed the steady oil leak dripping down from the truck. I hadn't put the two and two together that my negligence with the parking brake had caused the oil leak (*I posted about this 3 weeks ago titled importance of pretrip inspections- at the moment in time when I posted that , I honestly did not realize that I had caused the oil leak by my neglect a moderator may want to remove the post or edit it so the truth will be out*). So I called my dispatch and company CEO both of whom were obviously distraught about it and proceeded to ask me about it. Roadside assistance was called out and they inspected it, confirming that the oil pan was cracked (Volvo uses fiberglass in their oilpans). The roadside assistance guy asked me point blank did you hit anything or have any sudden impacts? I told him about the parking brake fiasco and he looked around checking the point of impact, there was an oil stain on the curb - I had missed seeing that when i initially pulled the truck away from the curb, because once it was clear I did not go back outside the truck and it was about 2 minutes or so after that , that I was informed that my load was ready.

I of course immediately called my superiors back and fully explained what had happened and owned it. I said, "It appears that I have caused the damages today by failing to set the parking brake" We talked about it for sometime and I was told that an investigation would need to be run by their service lease agreement with Penske and also their insurance.

I was basically told by the CEO of the company that he had concerns about my confidence level as a new driver and that he would not be assigning me any runs outside of what I had been doing until he was confident that I could handle the job. I apologized again to him and he said he would be in contact with me after the investigation had been completed.

From that point, things were on shaky ground at least I felt like there were. There was little communication to me about how the investigation had been progressing or what the outcome was to be. So I did the best job I could for them ensuring to be extra careful and not have any more incidents. Things were going genuinely okay until friday 7/17. I had received a message on 7/16 at about 700 pm that a load at 309 am would be ready. Great I thought , not much time to sleep but Ill do what I can. I did get some rest and was ready at the yard. I did my pretrip, got the truck ready and did not notice anything unusual.

The truck I was taking was another volvo - I was on the way to the shipper when I noticed a check engine light Maintenance required ECU message. I was a bit nervous given all that had happened lately but I also know that check engine lights come on for a variety of reasons. So i didn't panic. What did cause me concern is when I tried to activate the Jake brakes and they would not come on!. I was bob tailing to the shipper mind you, i did not have a trailer. I tried again and again and they would not activate! I was due to take about 30k pounds of paper products to a receiver in Yakima that day and then head over to Spokane for a loaded trailer on a return trip and I knew that the trip would take me up and down some fairly steep hill and mountains. I did not feel right about it, so I pulled into the parking lot of the local TA near the shippper and called my dispatcher.

The dispatcher wears many hats at the company - he is the DM , the safety and maintenance guy, the driver and COO so he juggles alot. When I called him I had to call twice and had woken him up. I explained to him what was going on and that I did not feel safe taking the truck out in the condition that it was in especially given that I had to go up and down some steep grades. He listened to me and then told me what we would do is pick up the trailer, and take it to the first stop and he could arrange a rental replacement through Penske. I then told him - I dont feel safe doing that what if something happens while I am under load? The check engine light is still on and the jake brakes are not working and I have to take a heavy load up and down the grades. I believe the best course of action is for me to return the truck to the yard and not use it for this trip.

The DM then said, yea and it just came out of the shop. I was a little irritated at thatpoint so I asked him point blank - "Did you know this truck unresolved issues before assigning it to me? Did you?" "Well" , he said, "we knew it had some but they told me they took care of the ECU". I then told him that "I do not feel good about this and that as the driver of the vehicle I do not feel safe and that the safest course of action was to take it back to the yard and try to work out something else". He then paused and agreed with me saying - then i agree with you, for safety take it back to the yard.

I did just that, ironically and low and behold on my way BACK to the yard the check light and ecu warning winked off , on a hunch I tried the engine brakes and they were working. It was weird. On my way back the ecu warning and check engine came on several times and the exhaust brake would not engage one time when i tried it. I arrived back at the yard and as I pulled up, the CEO came flying past me in his personal vehicle nad stopped by his personal truck (leased). He got out and began to unhook airlines from a refer it was attached to and started the truck preparing to pull out (with no pretrip having been done I might add) I walked over to his truck to explain the situation and I was told point blank , you need to call so and so (I have ommited company and people names as I do not feel that is needed). I tried to explain again and he yelled at me "You need to call so and so!" and he pulled away.

I tried to call so and so but could not reach him , i tried several times as a matter of fact. I sat at the yard for sometime with no call or message or anyhting. So at that point I did what I thought was the most logical thing to do. I parked the truck did a post trip inspection and noted my log of the ECU error. I then packed up and went home. It may not have been the best course of action, but I honestly was not getting anywhere trying to call dispatch or the CEO , straight to voicemail, straight to voicemail. i went home and awaited their call and feel asleep.

I awoke a few hours later and tried to log into my ELD to ensoure I had properly logged out, my access had been deleted!

Moe I'm really sorry to hear that, it sounded like you were really digging that gig. As you found out this is exactly one of the reasons we feel so strongly that Paid CDL Training Programs and sticking with them for a year is the best choice when it comes to setting yourself up for success. This is not meant to beat you you up. Unfortunately resigning in this instance doesnt make it any less significant when it comes to finding your next trucking job. The only option you have is to Apply For Truck Driving Jobs and see who is willing to take you on. Its almost guaranteed you will be required to go out with a trainer for a bit, standard procedure at most companies when you have less than a year experience. Unfortunately with an incident (likely a preventable) with only a couple months and resigned from your first job you're going to hear no from some companies. All it takes is one company to take you on to get this dream of yours rolling again. We've all made boneheaded mistakes. Use this setback as a way to push yourself to be the best driver you can be. You've already gone through a lot to get to where you are. I have no doubt in my mind that you'll find your next company and do very well at trucking

I tried again thinking I had used an incorrect password and again "Driver Id invalid." I realized at that point I may have just been fired?? I didnt' know because I did not hear from them all day. It wasn't until the next day (Saturday) afternoon that I received a call from the HR lady (who is also a driver) and she had her standard professional sounding HR voice asking for me by name when up to that point we all knew who we were calling and speaking to. She asked me "Moses how is your day going?" Trying to be cool and calm I said, "My day is going well thank you for asking" She then replied "Well i have some news that unfortunately will make it not good, okay?" "We have concluded our investigation into the oil pan damages of the truck in Spokane and neither our service lease agreement with Penske nor our insurance will cover the damages so unfortunately this does mean that you are liable to cover the cost of the repairs from your pay" "We do not have the exact total of the damages at that this time and are therefore holding onto your last two weeks pay checks in order to ensure that they will cover the damages and the balance due unfortunately would be your responsibility" Keep in mind that I was a W2 employee not a 1099 contractor.

At that point I said "Really, well...." At that point the call dropped and I was unable to raise her again. To my detriment I reacted emotionally and texted my resignation to all three of them, which I later redacted and asked if we would work something out. I was basically given the silent treatment for six days, not knowing if my resignation had been accepted along with the redaction or if I was indeed just plain old fired. I was not informed about my pay during that time nor was I advised about how to return the company's data tablet and other property that I still had in my possession at that point.

In the meantime I explained my situation to an attorney at my church who informed me that while the circumstances were as they were , they absolutely did not have the right to deduct my pay for the oil pan damages and furthermore they should be more forthcoming in communication about where things stood. I ended up having to file a workers wage claim with the state of WA , I felt like a b word doing it as I had caused the damages by my own negligence, hate getting any kind of government involved in anything really.

It was not until last Thursday that the company CEO called and started off the conversations going over "facts" as he had them that I refused a load the previous friday, that I damaged one of his trucks and owed him 1900 for the oil pan and that I resigned.

I tried to keep calm and professional but I also said "Sir, lets break this down" "One third of this is correct the other two are not" I said "First of all in regards to the load, I did not refuse the load last friday. I expressed safety concerns regarding the truck when the jake brakes would not work and the check light was one. I was told to pick up the trailer anyway and I advised that I did not feel safe to do that, I was not given the option to have a replacement truck brought to me and was in fact told to go back to the yard by dispatch!" "Further, calls made to yourself and dispatch were not returned to me nor answered, so no we wont be filing this as a refused load at all- no no no!"

He paused at that and sighed saying "Yea yea you are right, that truck had jake brake issues before, we thought they were fixed" "So you were going to send me out on a truck that you knew had issues when I had to haul 30k pounds of paper products up and down those steep mountains??" I withheld my true thoughts and feelings in order to keep things professional at that point. "so you knew!?" I asked again. he basically danced around the issue at that point. I was trying to keep it together as I could feel myself getting madder by the second.

"Further" I said, "if this goes on my DAC expect a call from my lawyer" (looking back that probably was not the best thing to say) he then apologized and said he would not report this to my DAC given the circumstances (I'll be checking that). I said second off all about the collections of money for the oil pan. "Where in my contract did it say that I would be responsible for the damages because I did not sign anything like that" "I apologize again for the damages and yes I have learned an important lesson out of all of this but being that I am a w2 employee it is illegal for you to do that"

He paused again and basically said he saw what kind of a person I was and that he would confer with HR about the pay issue and have Hr get back to me , the call then ended.

The next day I got a call from Hr telling me that I would get my full pay and they wanted to meet at Panera bread to exchange checks and company property. WE did just that.

Thank you sir. I was going to apply soon at that and also I have been looking at May Trucking as well going to them as an entry level driver. I already have the certificate from the private school.

Moe I'm really sorry to hear that, it sounded like you were really digging that gig. As you found out this is exactly one of the reasons we feel so strongly that Paid CDL Training Programs and sticking with them for a year is the best choice when it comes to setting yourself up for success. This is not meant to beat you you up. Unfortunately resigning in this instance doesnt make it any less significant when it comes to finding your next trucking job. The only option you have is to Apply For Truck Driving Jobs and see who is willing to take you on. Its almost guaranteed you will be required to go out with a trainer for a bit, standard procedure at most companies when you have less than a year experience. Unfortunately with an incident (likely a preventable) with only a couple months and resigned from your first job you're going to hear no from some companies. All it takes is one company to take you on to get this dream of yours rolling again. We've all made boneheaded mistakes. Use this setback as a way to push yourself to be the best driver you can be. You've already gone through a lot to get to where you are. I have no doubt in my mind that you'll find your next company and do very well at trucking

I'm glad you are going to get paid but you need to cool it imo with accusing people of knowingly giving you a unsafe truck, if they had it in the shop and tried to have it fixed. Unfortunately sometimes a truck will appear to be fixed and isn't especially with electrical problems, I had a truck that was in the shop they thought they fixed it as the lights went out half way through my day the check engine and codes came back up I simply returned it to them and let them know it was still having a problem. You probably could have handled that a bit better.

Also you are kind of brushing off a roll away as minor incident, not only did you forget to set the brake but you didn't notice that you where moving. At OD that is a automatic firing as they consider it a major safety violation as someone can get hurt or killed if they get crushed. What if the truck takes off down a hill? There are videos of that happening and they do considerable damage to what ever they hit.

That said the company sure didnt do you or themselves any favors with the way they cut you loose with no real training.

Hopefully someone else will give you another shot but this roll away accident maybe a big hurdle to over come.

Sorry if that comes off as hostile Moe, you over came a lot to get your CDL and I would hate to see you ruin your chances at a career due to cooler heads not being able to prevail.

When I had my 2 accidents 2 days apart I wanted to crawl into a hole and die and was just hoping to keep my job. The last thing I would have done is start butt heads and accusing the CEO and COO of things.

Also you are kind of brushing off a roll away as minor incident, not only did you forget to set the brake but you didn't notice that you where moving.

I found that kind of weird too. Rolling in neutral is dangerous and not noticing that you're rolling makes it even more so. You're lucky it was a curb and not somebody standing there staring at their phone.

The last thing I would have done is start butt heads and accusing the CEO and COO of things.

And this is why I refuse to work for a small company. Too many emotions involved. If I get into an accident a safety board reviews it based on logic and facts. They don't know me personally and they're not really concerned with the dollar figure of the incident, but they want to make sure I don't have unsafe habits. I'm not going to have a conversation with the COO or CEO about it. The last time I worked for a company that had an owner present all the time, I got fired for falling off a ladder and putting in a workers comp claim. Reason for termination was I turned paperwork in after the due time, which we all did because it was paperwork and cash and you don't just drop cash.

A bigger company would have also handled that differently. They wouldn't tell you just go or don't worry about it because they have the resources to get it corrected quickly and chances are you're on a recorded line. A dispatcher isn't jeopardizing their job for a load.

Also, it's impossible for one person to carry so many responsibilities. If my HR person was a driver and my COO was a mechanic, a driver and a dispatcher I'd run. There's no way to keep up with all of that all day every day and be a 100% committed to each title.

I've learned in my life when one door closes another door opens and sometimes it opens later than you want it to, but it's usually worth the wait.

That's tough Moe. Hopefully you can get on with May and get some proper training done.

Something to point out though. The jake not working is not an out of service issue. Would I bring it up to the shop? Absolutely. The ECM codes I'm not sure about, but if they say it's ok to run until you get back then I would do my run and put it in the shop when I got back. One of the joys of working with the big boys.

Back to the jake issue though. You were picking up 30k and aside of the hill out of Yakima and the climb towards Moses Lake you were going to be on flat ground in dry weather. Jakes are a convenience, but not a requirement. In fact for a good part of the year you wont be able to run your jakes due to road conditions.

Proper gear selection and controlled braking would have allowed you to make your run safely, allowed your company to service their customer, and prevented the headache you have been dealing with.

Without training though how would you have known that though?

*hit submit by accident*

I routinely pull 45k pound loads out of and into that area. You are not supposed to use jakes in wet or icy conditions so what will you do in those situations?