Sent Home From Melton Flatbed

I will dually notate that sir.

Everyone makes mistakes Victor. It’s those who learn from them that ultimately prevail.

Bird One false and I will explain.

Not trying to bust your balls but what exactly did BirdOne say that was false? He said you're making excuse after excuse and from where I'm sitting that looks like exactly what you're doing. You're admitting you made mistakes, but then you're excusing them by saying things like no one really uses an atlas these days, and the company did you dirty even though you cost them time and money because of the mistakes you were making. They could have been more patient with you if they wanted to but they were under no obligation to do so.

I'll tell you a little story about my student, we'll say his name is Bob. When Bob upgraded and got his own truck he ran into issue after issue the first few days. Issues with the truck, issues with the qualcomm , issues with one of the trailers, going over on his hours the first day on his own (thankfully that one was fixable), miscommunication with road service and the terminal manager and his dispatcher and with me. The reality is, Bob wasn't actually doing so badly all in all but the end result of all these things put together is that he got almost nothing done in his first three days whereas given the exact same scenarios it would have barely cost me any time at all. I could have helped guide him better but he didn't communicate his issues to me until it was too late and all I could do was help with damage control. The final straw was when Bob misunderstood an assignment he had received from dispatch and I gave him advice on where to park for the night based on the incorrect info Bob gave me. I ended up getting a call from the terminal manager who was none too pleased that I was telling another driver to do the opposite of what he'd told him to do.

Obviously this was all unintentional and, again, much of this actually wasn't Bob's fault. BUT...the bottom line is that we are expected to get stuff done. If we're not doing that and some or all of it turns out to be our fault, it doesn't look so good for us. Even though Bob hadn't hit anything, gotten any tickets, or anything like that, if the communication issues and general lack of productivity had continued for another week or so he most likely would have been terminated within the month.

The lesson to be learned here is not that newbie screw-ups don't happen and they're not ok, because they do happen and they are expected to some extent. But a very important lesson to be realized is that you can only mess up so many times (or mess up so bad) before you will be terminated. An example of a really bad screw-up that would probably get you fired if it happened within your first 6 months as a rookie driver is forgetting to set the brakes and letting the truck roll into something causing damage to both your truck and something else. A little parking lot ding isn't typically going to get you fired the first time as long as you're honest about it, but 3 within 6 consecutive months will often get you fired. Other things like being late for a delivery, going over on logs by a few minutes, having a cargo claim, going out of route and therefore driving extra miles, running out of fuel, etc---most of these are not that big of a deal on their own, but have several of these incidents in a relatively short period of time and the chances of getting let go from your company go up exponentially even if you didn't hit anything or get any tickets. And if you have several of these incidents in a short period of time and are also brand new at your company? Don't expect to stick around because you have no track record to save you. (Sidenote: this is also part of why we don't recommend leaving your first company within the first year. New drivers make more mistakes and your second company is much more likely to let you go if you're having lots of problems as soon as you start with them).

I'm not going to get into it on this thread, but coming soon: I have some personal experience with getting fired. I'm not judging you for your mistakes, but the purpose of going into all this is to hopefully set more reasonable expectations for you and others reading this thread.

TL;DR -- no matter how minor, several mistakes within a short period of time (especially if you're new at a company) is a recipe for getting let go.

Well I’m who really knows what you told your friends and cousin for them to think Melton did you dirty. Who even knows if you are giving us the full story. You are giving us as you claim “EXACTLY VERBATIM” what Melton told you but than follow it up with all the excuses on why they were wrong. Piano man mentioned that you said nobody uses an atlas which is outrageous but really puts in perspective why you are in the situation in you are in. You don’t know how to take any responsibility for your actions. Melton or any other company will not fire a driver or that is giving them results. You are lucky they gave you the option to resign instead of being fired.

You are supposed to make it happen out here not let it happen. You failed to make it happen.

Chiming in from the Work Comp side of things here too. You messed up when you tried to get your Health Insurance to pay for imaging. Health Insurance says no, because someone else could be responsible (subrogation) Now, your adjuster (who has 100+ active claims) is wasting their time arguing with the Drs office, Imaging center, AND your health insurance company.

Do not EVER muddy the waters for insurance and work comp by trying to "jump the line." All it does is delays care.

I am curious, as to how they managed to get you recovering trucks, in a light duty status. Every driver that had injury requiring " light duty" on our account was parked, and paid the Short Term Disability. Why? Because drivers don't like to listen, and do stuff outside their restrictions, and injure a subsequent body part while compensating. Guess what? That second injury isn't covered. Why? They were knowingly and of their own accord working outside of their medical limitations.

When are you going to execute on this, as opposed to noting it? This is not your first rodeo Victor…

Your rebuking of Bird One for expressing exactly my opinion (and likely others) on your predicament is seriously out of line.

Honestly Victor I really think trucking is just not your thing… and that’s okay. Know your limitations and adjust accordingly. Sometimes the adjustment may be going in a completely different direction. You scare me Victor…

I will dually notate that sir.

Everyone makes mistakes Victor. It’s those who learn from them that ultimately prevail.