Week From Hell Ended Horribly!

Hey all. My first week went fine. I mean, it was difficult, but I was learning a lot, especially about load securement and although it was difficult for me to do, I was able to do it. My trainer Jon is pretty knowledgeable about all the ins and outs of flatbedding, especially for TMC. I had some personal problems with him, but I understand that no one is perfect. He said he was diagnosed with ADHD when he was a kid. He took medication for a few years and then quit taking it. He also said he's very OCD about a number of things. Also, he's a veteran and suffers from PTSD, especially while he's sleeping. He said his wife had tried waking him up once while he was having a bad dream and he punched and broke her jaw unknowingly in his sleep. Not long after he said that, he told me he has trouble getting up and asked me to wake him up in the mornings! Uhhh....I'd rather not. One other thing that I kept telling him about as nicely as I could was about temperature control. He kept the air on full blast and at the lowest temp (60 degrees). I really wouldn't have cared too much because I figured I could just close vents pointed at me...except all of the vents in front of the driver's seat he had these fans that were inserted into the vents and because of them I wasn't able to close the vents. The passenger side didn't have any fans and I asked him if it would be OK if I just switched the fans to the passenger side. Apparently, that must be an OCD thing of his because he said, "Absolutely not." One of the fanned vents was pointed right at where I would put my right hand on the steering wheel. There was no way in God's great creation that I could keep my hand there for any longer than 5 minutes. My hand would turn into a block of ice 🧊! One other thing that I wasn't able to do. When it was time to go to sleep I would have to take the top bunk. I had no problems at all with that, but I also had 1 huge bag with all my clothes, TMC folder. the atlas, etc. and also my shower bag. He wouldn't let me put that anywhere else in the truck. It had to stay on the top bunk, even when I went to sleep. So, I had to sleep scrunched up a bit and between that and the air constantly on polar bear mode...sleeping was a bit challenging. Other than that, I thought he was a good trainer.

Im.sure you can tell by how I'm writing in past tense that something bad happened. Like I said. The 1st week was fine. I was doing everything I could to learn and adjust to how I had to live on the truck. On Monday of my 2nd week, we went to pick up these huge coiled wires (I think that's what it was) from a client. I had to drive onto the scale and then go to the scale house, tell them the load number, fill out some paperwork and then they told me where to go to get the load. Went to where I needed to go, got 7 coils, secured the 1st and last with straps, drove to an area of their yard before the scale house, strapped the rest and got weighed. They said the order needed to be tarped as well and told me where to put the tarp on. Went there and there was a line of trucks there tarping their loads. I passed in front of the line to set up my back and then backed up to a spot next to the last truck in line. Jon and I went to grab the tarp, placed the 2 tarps on the load and grabbed bungees. Just as I stated to put some bungees on another driver came up to.me and said he thought I had hit his truck. He was the 2nd truck in the line. Someone from Western Express. I told him that I was certain that I didn't and Jon came over and told him the same. The driver said that although he didn't actually see it because he was behind his truck at the time, he heard something amd saw the truck sway a little as I was passing by. He said his deer guard that had a plastic coating on the metal was cracked. Both Jon and I kept telling him.that we were sure I didn't hit him. He insisted on exchanging information and Jon said to me that we needed to comply amd let Safety and the fleet manager know what's going on. As Jon was on the phone trying to explain everything a police car pulled up and the driver started talking to him. I thought the police were going to ask me questions, but the cop left in less than 5 minutes. The information 2as exchanged amd the driver went back to his truck. I started asking Jon a million questions, mainly if he thought I was going to lose my job. He told me not to worry about it. Safety will look into it and his fleet manager said that it's best to let the insurance companies fight it out. He said that even if I did hit him, that I didn't actually hit his truck. He said the deer guard was an accessory and it's not a vital part of the truck meaning the driver wasn't losing any time. I was still on edge about the whole situation. I had to talk to my training coordinator about what had happened and she said thar Safety was asking the client for their camera footage to see what happened and she said it's probably going to be a few days until they get to see the video and also for the insurance companies as well. It was late Wednesday that Jon got a call while I was driving. It was from Safety. He said that the video showed that I was about 6 inches away from his truck the entire time I crossed in front of him. He said that Safety, my training coordinator and the insurance companies saw it. So I was cleared. That was a HUGE relief! Thursday, however, something else happened.....

So, it's Thursday and we have a load of assorted steel to deliver. I'm coming down an exit ramp off the highway and get to the end of the ramp. I was kinda surprised to see it was kinda tight to make a right turn, but set myself up for it by putting on the dump valve and I saw that I could take advantage of 2 lanes that were going right. I looked to my left and there was no traffic. I started to proceed into the 1st lane and as I got there a blue car came out of nowhere and passed in front of my.truck in the 2nd lane. I have no idea why I did this. I should have just stopped. I know. I know. I know. Instead, stupid me freaked out and cut hard to the right to stay in the 1st lane to avoid hitting the blue car. I'm sure you can guess what happened. The end of the trailer went up and came down hard from the curb. I blew out 1 tire and the rim was bent. Jon asked me to find the nearest safe spot to park and I found a spot about 2 blocks up the street. I parked and Jon called Safery, the fleet manager and also road repair. I'm completely freaked out and asked Jon if he thought I was going to lose my job. He said that the way he saw it, I did what I did to avoid hitting the blue car and although I should have just stopped he said that Safety should expect a trainee here and there to pop a tire. He said he thought it was "No biggie." Road repair actually got there sooner than I expected and we were parked altogether for just under an hour. We made the delivery and were then sent to pick up these huge I-beams to be sent out Louisiana. Picked them up, got them.secured and went to a truck stop for the night. Jon had requested time off for Saturday night/Sunday morning because his family was going to celebrate his birthday and one of his son's. He had set me up with a hotel room in Kodak, TN just down the road from his place. We started heading there and he wanted to do a little driving 1st and then he was going to let me take over. During the drive I had noticed in the side mirror that one of the straps had broke, so I told Jon and he stopped at a rest stop and I went out to change the strap. As I was outside, Jon got a call. I finishes up, got back in the truck and he told.me to grab my phone and call my training coordinator.....but, to call her outside. When he said that, I knew something was up. I called her and she said that Safety had made a determination about the tire and rim and told her to tell me.

Yep. They let me go. I started to explain what had happened and she said it really didn't matter. She said that once George makes up his mind (I'm assuming he's from Safety) that it's a done deal. I asked her if I could speak with George and she said there's really no point and repeated what she said about once his mind is made up. I went back to the truck visibly shaken and I didn't know what to say to Jon. Jon told me that he went to bat for me and tried to tell them that they should expect a trainee here and there to pop a tire. He told me that he himself did it a little over 2 years ago when he was training and although he had got a big slap on the wrist and was put under close scrutiny at the time, they didn't fire him. He said he knew of a few other trainees at that time that had done the same thing and none of them were fired. He asked specifically why I was being fired and he was told thar Safety recently was still letting trainees off the hook for popping a tire and figured that they learned a lesson. Unfortunately, a number of those who had popped a tire had completed training, got their own truck and would pop another tire or 2. He said since those few bad apples, Safety isn't taking chances anymore and started letting trainees go the moment they pop a tire. I even went as far as to ask Jon if he thought that I could keep my job if I asked them to take the cost out of my pay. He said he's positive they won't go for that.

I did end up staying the night in the hotel Jon set up for me. My training coordinator set up a Greyhound bus to take me home and im on that now.

My question to all of you is.....now what? What do I do now? I felt like I went through Hell to get the CDL-A license and now I feel like I can't even use it. Jon said he thought I was a pretty good driver, but in all honesty, he didn't feel like I was cut out for flatbed driving. Not the driving portion of it, but the load securement. Steel tarps are 80lbs and I can handle them ok-ish. Wood tarps are 120lbs and I was definitely struggling with them. Plus, I've got psoriasis and it's been getting progressively worse since I started. I was going to try my best to tough it out for 60 days until I got my benefits so I could get a good biologic for it. My right leg is so sore now, I can't even describe the pain.

Anyway, he thinks I should go for being...as he put it "a door swinger." I'm not sure if he meant that as a crack towards dry van drivers. I guess.

So, I'm heading to my apartment where the electric, water and sewage was shut off because I missed the disconnection cutoff date. Didn't have the money. If anything, I'm probably going to lose my apartment soon unless I can sell more things in my apartment.

What do you think I should do? Would another company take a chance on me? Honestly. I really wish one would, but if wishes were money I'd be richer than Elon Musk now. I've never been in this bad of shape in my whole life and I'm scared. Really scared.

Forgot to mention. While that whole ordeal with Western Express was going on, a driver from another company came over and asked what was happening. I told him and he laughed and said that was typical of "Welfare Express". I didn't know what he meant by that and then he said he's heard of a number of drivers from there that would end up damaging their own truck and then find someone else to put the blame on.

I'm not saying that's what happened with me, but I was just wondering if that is a common occurrence. If so, that's wrong on so many levels.

James, I’m so sorry to hear about what happened. I’ve heard TMC can be very strict, but it seems some companies are going to a no tolerance mentality in this economy. Whatever it is, it really sucks for you. You tried so hard.

And yes, scams are not unusual. Someone tried to do a similar thing to me this winter. Turned out to be a shabby O/O trying to get someone else to pay for his damaged mirror on his crap truck.

But anyway, I guess we need to take inventory now. You do have your CDL and some training and some experience. Despite the bad experience with Western Express, apply there and everywhere you can. Look at doing dry van or reefer if you can. You should, I think, be able to use the TT links to put in applications.

Hopefully, others here will add suggestions for you.

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Hi Bruce,

Thanks for your advice, but do you really think another company would take a chance on me? If you think I'll still have a shot, what should I say about the blown tire and bent rim? I mean, I know I should have just stopped and I really don't know why I didn't do that. It just seemed instinctive to me to just turn away to avoid an accident, but would another company accept that as an answer.

I know this much. Although I've only driven around 4k miles, I'm addicted already. I truly love driving. I mean, I pretty much knew that I would. I just want to continue, but I'm not sure if anyone will take me on. Jon did say I could use him as a reference and he'd tell anyone that he thought I was a good driver. If only I stopped instead of turning I wouldn't be on this bus.

Well, I hope all is well with you and keep driving safely.

James, I’m so sorry to hear about what happened. I’ve heard TMC can be very strict, but it seems some companies are going to a no tolerance mentality in this economy. Whatever it is, it really sucks for you. You tried so hard.

And yes, scams are not unusual. Someone tried to do a similar thing to me this winter. Turned out to be a shabby O/O trying to get someone else to pay for his damaged mirror on his crap truck.

But anyway, I guess we need to take inventory now. You do have your CDL and some training and some experience. Despite the bad experience with Western Express, apply there and everywhere you can. Look at doing dry van or reefer if you can. You should, I think, be able to use the TT links to put in applications.

Hopefully, others here will add suggestions for you.

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Hey man, sorry this happened. Those double right hand turn lanes are tricky and to this day I can’t 100% decide which lane I prefer to be in for them. I generally prefer the outer lane for the exact reason you’re in the boat you’re in right now. For what it’s worth going forward, I think your mistake was that you weren’t anticipating that someone would cut around you like that. You were caught by surprise and made the wrong call in the moment, but had you been anticipating and watching your mirrors more you would have seen it coming and not been caught off guard.

You’re in this now, man. You might as well apply everywhere and continue to give it your best shot. What’s to lose? You’ve already almost lost everything. Forward is the best chance to not lose it all. You could always find a non-trucking job while you’re applying everywhere just in case it takes some time to find a job.

I know Western Express has a bad reputation. It doesn’t really matter. Apply anyways to them and everyone else. Even if they aren’t the best, what’s worse—a second chance trucking company that still pays $70-90k a year most likely, or homelessness? I’d pick the 2nd chance company every time. I know that’s not why you brought them up in this conversation but if you want to get your career off the ground your best bet is to not worry about anyone else but you.

Be honest, straightforward, and take responsibility like you have been and keep putting yourself out there. I don’t remember what your driving record was like but if it’s decent you probably have at least an ok chance of finding someone else to take you on.

James, sorry to hear this news. You are a rookie and made a mistake. It happens. Much worse things have happened to many of us when we were rookie’s.

We didn’t let it stop us and you shouldn’t either. It’s a minor setback.

Apply everywhere, but I would be open to going to WE to get rolling and gain some experience. OS started there and has had a wonderful career.

The industry is still in turmoil and probably will be for the forseeable future.

Don’t dwell on the past. Live in the present and look to the future.

Be honest about your mistake, own it, and reply as to what you have learned from it.

I would recommend you start out with a van instead of flatbed. You already know how much of a challenge flatbeds are, and you only got a small taste.

Tandem axle trailers turn much easier, nothing falls out/off the trailer and it is much less physical to your body. I do a speciallty thing that is very easy to secure and some days my legs hate me for the getting on/off the trailer. I do not mess with tarps. Period.. A driver has to know their own limitations.

Decide if you really want to succeed in this industry!!! If you do, grab the bull by the horns and get busy applying!!!

Wishing you the best!!

Thanks Pianoman & PJ. You're both right. I need to keep pushing forward. I got this far and I can't just quit.

I'll apply everywhere I can find including Western Express. Somebody has gotta give me one more chance and I've got to show them that I am.a good driver; albeit the one mistake. Thanks guys!

Bruce asks:

Do you really think another company would take a chance on me?

Remember, the worst result to this question is that a company says "No", and life goes on. So keep applying.

Every company knows that a rookie driver isn't 100% ready for every driving situation, hence the extended time driving with a trainer.

As for the right-turn incident, that's a rookie mistake. Any time you see two (or more) lanes turning, you need to be in the outer lane (right turn, use the left lane, left turn, be on the right side). That's something that can be tested on your CDL this test.

On approaching an intersection there is nearly always overhead signs indicating multiple turn lanes, even having a traffic signal for each lane. You should look for those when you're coming to to an intersection.

The key for you now is when you apply, make sure you tell that company you have learned from that experience and now you know how to recognize and handle multi-lane turns.

James, there is a new driver who has posted here, Nathan, who drives for Grand Island out of Grand Island, NE. You can take a look at them. I just don’t know what their hiring area is. They do refrigerated freight.