I Was Fired From Pam Transport For A 90 Day Minor Safty Now I Cant Get A Job Anywhere

First, let me Start off by pointing out that I have 6 months of exp OTR and I know that is not a good thing. my only accident was on my first load first day on the job I crimped the wing a little and was put on a 90-day 4 months after the incident for it because Pam is horrible at everything. Other than that I have a clean record no violations no citations no accidents and a perfect on-time record. I checked my DAC and it's clean. I was fired because I stopped a little after a stop sign it was my first safety issue and they fired me on the spot with no chances. The safety guy didn't even talk to me they just shoved me to the curb. I later found out that everyone I started with was fired by the same person for a very similar reason 40 drivers started at the same time as me not one still works for Pam.

Now I know what some people are going to think there had to be more. no there was nothing else I have a safe record no incidents I didn't even trigger the lane departure. Speeding is almost impossible because they govern the trucks at 64. So here I am trying to find a job I have spoken with so many companies that I don't even know who I have spoken to at this point. Not one company will give me a chance they don't care that I have a clean record they won't even look at it I am 100% honest when I speak to them about what happened and the second they hear I was fired for safety they no longer care about anything else. I have safety courses on my license. clean MVR clean DAC. no major incidences and only 1 minor crimping a wing. clean criminal record background everything is spotless. But no company is willing to give me the time of day because of a company that is well known for scamming new drivers fired me on a single safety issue that caused no damage or any issues not even a ticket.

I dont know what to do at this point I am locked into Pam's contract and have to pay them 6k but I can't get a job. What am I supposed to do at this point? my career seems to be over and I haven't done anything to be in this situation I crimped a wing and stopped a little after a stop sign. I have spoken with truckers who have flipped trucks and destroyed cars and are still diving. So I am doing something wrong and I could use some help from people who know more about how this industry works I put to much effort into getting in to be forced out by a bad company that gets sued every year.

So please if anyone can help I am all ears I am a rooky but I can drive. 15 years with no accidents or tickets proves my background I even drove through NJ and NY with a 53-foot trailer with no problems for a month straight during that winter storm. why can't I find a single company that is willing to hire me? point me in a direction because the mega carriers all said no and most of the small companies I have found either want more exp or say the same thing they all say either I need more exp or refuse due to a minor safety. is my career over before I even started or is there hope?

I just need help

I guess what I don’t understand is why PAM would bring so many drivers on board and then fire them for no good reason. 40 drivers fired? Seems strange.

But anyway, you could try the company I drive for, JS Helwig out of Terrell, TX. They require minimum of 6 months experience and they have quite a few female drivers, so you might get favorable consideration there. Ask for Brandy in recruiting. This is all I can think of at the moment. Even though you are having a tough time landing a new job, don’t give up. Many drivers are in the same situation as you are right now. But you will eventually find a new place.

And if you were let go as opposed to quitting, are you still liable for the 6K?

And a "Location" where you're from would help as well Stacie......No one ever thinks to put that in their Bio....Helps out a LOT for those reading posts to better give advice, based on peoples resident state/city etc

It's a company market, not a drivers market atmosphere these days, unlike in say 2020-21.

BK

I guess what I don’t understand is why PAM would bring so many drivers on board and then fire them for no good reason. 40 drivers fired? Seems strange.

But anyway, you could try the company I drive for, JS Helwig out of Terrell, TX. They require minimum of 6 months experience and they have quite a few female drivers, so you might get favorable consideration there. Ask for Brandy in recruiting. This is all I can think of at the moment. Even though you are having a tough time landing a new job, don’t give up. Many drivers are in the same situation as you are right now. But you will eventually find a new place.

And if you were let go as opposed to quitting, are you still liable for the 6K?

Yes, I am still required to pay the 6k, and the thing about the drivers I started with. I mentioned that because I felt the same way after I was fired it felt wrong so I decided to contact some of the people I started with and slowly I realized that we were all no longer with Pam me and another person were the last people from the school who still had a job. every person I had contact with who didn't quit was fired at the Irving yard for almost the same reasons and given no chance. there is a reason they have been sued so many times and I guess I learned the hard way.

either way, thank you I will look into JS helwig

Tampa ,Fl

Several things. Not sure what crimping a wing means, I'm assuming that it is damaging the trailer skirts. Although it could be crushing the cab extenders which are sometimes referred to as bat wings.

Failing to stop at a stop sign (in part or whole).

I've seen a couple guys get canned for destroying the cab extenders. Although I know of a guy that hit three trailers, in our yard in one day. He was terminated after several months of other failures. I had to mop up several of his loads.

At any rate, you have a preventable incident and a failure to obey traffic sign/signals. All within 6 months.

More importantly, if your attitude towards them was like what you posted, the company is most likely going to feel that you're not taking responsibility for your actions and that you don't care.

There is a surplus of drivers available competing for your job. Drivers that have years of trouble free performance. This makes it very difficult to keep your job without performing consistently at the highest level.

I would try to sell yourself to Pam. Take responsibility for your actions, let them know how you were wrong and you intend to fix it.

The bigger piece of the pie is that hitting anything is a big deal, damaging equipment is a big deal. Missing the stop sign a little bit is like being pregnant a little bit, it's a big deal. Without having that sense of importance on being safe and being accountable, you will always struggle at a company.

“Crimping a wing”. My guess is that means jackknifing too much while backing or making a U-turn and crushing the cab extender against the trailer. I did that once with Schneider. It didn’t damage the extender itself, but it broke the bottom bracket that holds it on. Nonetheless, it was considered a preventable incident. It got me brought in to an operating center for 1/2 day of unpaid training.

Those cab extenders are somewhat fragile, so I learned to be careful whenever I had a tight turn. I think it’s easy to try a U-turn in a yard and not have enough room. That will crush a cab extender, so all you new drivers, be aware. The same thing can happen while backing up. Crunch, crunch!

It was a cab extender as bk stated popped a rivet with little to no damage. I took responsibility and I accepted my mistakes. I left on good terms with everyone involved my attitude changed after I got home and started talking to the other people I started with and realized that we were all in the same situation fired by the same person. And I have already contacted pam trying to do anything to just get back and finish my contract I even have a safety course I spoke with my school as well. they don't care I made a mistake yes I never said that I didn't I accept it and I took action to be better. I haven't met a driver yet who can say that they haven't made a mistake.

either way that is not my topic I am just trying to get back to work I made this my job and I don't want to quit. you can't get experience in this line of work without driving. and with a clean driving record, I don't understand why no one will hire me . I would understand if I had an accident or tickets and violations but I don't. I have 2 minor company-side incidents during a training contract. after talking to other drivers that are still driving it is not a bad record more of an average. I have almost 30k miles with no on-the-road incidents and a record of driving in NY, NJ for months with no incidents. what can I do to get my foot in the door? I made a mistake but it shouldn't be a career-ending one .

Hello Stacie, and I hope we can be of some help to you.

Believe it or not, your story is a very common one. It may surprise you to realize it has nothing to do with PAM. I know you are convinced they did you wrong - it's obvious by some of your comments. Let's just list a few of them.

• Pam is horrible at everything.
• I was fired because I stopped a little after a stop sign it was my first safety issue and they fired me on the spot with no chances.
• The safety guy didn't even talk to me they just shoved me to the curb.
• I later found out that everyone I started with was fired by the same person for a very similar reason.
• 40 drivers started at the same time as me not one still works for Pam.
• a company that is well known for scamming new drivers fired me on a single safety issue
• a bad company that gets sued every year.

Okay that's probably enough for now. Let's mention one other thing you stated. This wasn't anything about PAM, but rather about yourself and your need for help getting a new driving job. Here it is...

"So please if anyone can help I am all ears."

It is so hard getting started in trucking. You ran right into one of the realities of what I'm talking about. Most rookies don't understand how critical their "minor" safety issues are. Those "minor" issues give the safety people something to measure you by, and more importantly they measure you by how you react when these things are brought up in a discussion. If you minimize the issues, like you did with us, you are pretty much firing yourself.

They don't want to hear you saying anything about how nobody got hurt, or how little the damage was, or any other type of minimization of the incident. They want to hear something like this, "I made a huge mistake by not realizing I didn't have enough room to turn that sharp in the yard. I now know it would be much better to not be in such a hurry and carefully choose the way I get myself going in the opposite direction. I learned a lot from this mistake, and I will make sure it doesn't happen again by getting out of the truck and looking for a better area I can go to and then get turned around."

They don't just want to hear that coming from your mouth, they want it to be your mindset and approach to this new career. Here's how we know you haven't gotten to that point yet. You are still laying the blame on PAM. You keep bringing up how bad and unfair they are. You even think you have evidence to support your claims. After all, why are they getting sued all the time, and why did the forty drivers you started with all get fired? You have defended your driving and your MVR record, even gone so far as to defend yourself with your clean criminal record. But none of that negates the facts that you damaged company equipment and rolled past a stop sign. You know what really happened and they may be just as you say, but you have got to take them more seriously.

You said you want help from us. That is what the problem is. You do not sound as if you learned anything from this experience and that is why nobody will touch you at this point. You will have to really humble yourself and understand how important safety issues are to these companies. You can only keep trying to land a job, but you are going to have to have a new way of explaining yourself.

Stacie, I completely understand your frustration, I really do. I also understand this business. You are really in a difficult situation. I understand your situation because I have been there. When I first started in trucking I could not get any company to give me the time of day. I had a list of rejections that would out do anybody's. I persevered and finally got a start. Today I have over one million miles in a big rig, and I am completely enjoying my career. I had to eat some crow at the beginning and just do whatever it took to get my first job. That is where you are now.

Hang in there and be resilient, but be humble and take full responsibility for this. That means accepting the blame and not holding this against PAM. That is going to be a tall order for you, but it is the only way to get yourself back in the saddle.

Do you think you can do that?

Hello Stacie, and I hope we can be of some help to you.

Believe it or not, your story is a very common one. It may surprise you to realize it has nothing to do with PAM. I know you are convinced they did you wrong - it's obvious by some of your comments. Let's just list a few of them.

• Pam is horrible at everything.
• I was fired because I stopped a little after a stop sign it was my first safety issue and they fired me on the spot with no chances.
• The safety guy didn't even talk to me they just shoved me to the curb.
• I later found out that everyone I started with was fired by the same person for a very similar reason.
• 40 drivers started at the same time as me not one still works for Pam.
• a company that is well known for scamming new drivers fired me on a single safety issue
• a bad company that gets sued every year.

Okay that's probably enough for now. Let's mention one other thing you stated. This wasn't anything about PAM, but rather about yourself and your need for help getting a new driving job. Here it is...

"So please if anyone can help I am all ears."

It is so hard getting started in trucking. You ran right into one of the realities of what I'm talking about. Most rookies don't understand how critical their "minor" safety issues are. Those "minor" issues give the safety people something to measure you by, and more importantly they measure you by how you react when these things are brought up in a discussion. If you minimize the issues, like you did with us, you are pretty much firing yourself.

They don't want to hear you saying anything about how nobody got hurt, or how little the damage was, or any other type of minimization of the incident. They want to hear something like this, "I made a huge mistake by not realizing I didn't have enough room to turn that sharp in the yard. I now know it would be much better to not be in such a hurry and carefully choose the way I get myself going in the opposite direction. I learned a lot from this mistake, and I will make sure it doesn't happen again by getting out of the truck and looking for a better area I can go to and then get turned around."

They don't just want to hear that coming from your mouth, they want it to be your mindset and approach to this new career. Here's how we know you haven't gotten to that point yet. You are still laying the blame on PAM. You keep bringing up how bad and unfair they are. You even think you have evidence to support your claims. After all, why are they getting sued all the time, and why did the forty drivers you started with all get fired? You have defended your driving and your MVR record, even gone so far as to defend yourself with your clean criminal record. But none of that negates the facts that you damaged company equipment and rolled past a stop sign. You know what really happened and they may be just as you say, but you have got to take them more seriously.

You said you want help from us. That is what the problem is. You do not sound as if you learned anything from this experience and that is why nobody will touch you at this point. You will have to really humble yourself and understand how important safety issues are to these companies. You can only keep trying to land a job, but you are going to have to have a new way of explaining yourself.

Stacie, I completely understand your frustration, I really do. I also understand this business. You are really in a difficult situation. I understand your situation because I have been there. When I first started in trucking I could not get any company to give me the time of day. I had a list of rejections that would out do anybody's. I persevered and finally got a start. Today I have over one million miles in a big rig, and I am completely enjoying my career. I had to eat some crow at the beginning and just do whatever it took to get my first job. That is where you are now.

Hang in there and be resilient, but be humble and take full responsibility for this. That means accepting the blame and not holding this against PAM. That is going to be a tall order for you, but it is the only way to get yourself back in the saddle.

Do you think you can do that?

I agree with what you are saying And I take full responsibility for my mistakes I even mention on every application in detail why I was let go with no pam in the conversation.I put the full report in every application of my accident and reason for termination. I even took an updated safety course with Career Tech and passed again. I am not the type of person to hide my faults yes I did make a mistake and I fully understand and took the actions to prove that I am willing to do better. Pam and my mistakes are 2 different situations. I am more than willing to do anything to prove my ability to drive and be safe at this point no one seems to even want to give me a chance. I tell the truth and the second they hear I was fired for safety the conversation is over every company I talk to just says it doesn't matter what I did or what I do they just wont hire me. I mean what am I supposed to do at that point, yes missing a stop sign is bad, yes crimping a wing is bad I never once said that they weren't or that I don't own my mistakes IDK