NEWBIE - FIRED DURING TRAINING

Hey all, I recently got my CDL in August 2024 through DriveCo and started training at Roehl with my CDL already in hand. Unfortunately, I was let go during Phase 3 of training, and now I’m trying to figure out how to explain this to potential employers.

Here’s the situation: I was very open about being nervous and needing more backing practice, as I wanted to improve. I never hit anything or anyone, but I made a few mistakes:

Gas station: I didn’t realize I couldn’t hang up the pump on the driver’s side before pumping and forgot to pull the hose. I immediately reported it to safety.

First delivery: I had to move both trailers myself in a tight spot with heavy traffic. It took an hour. After waiting on my loaded I was at the location for two hours.

Second delivery: I got bad directions from my copilot and ended up on a dead-end street, but I was able to turn my trailer around on my own.

I kept asking for more backing practice, and my FM initially said I’d get it in 6 weeks. But the next day, they sent me to close-quarters training, and after failing it, they let me go.

Now I’m looking for another job and trying to figure out how to explain this termination. Should I bring it up? How can I frame it in a way that shows my commitment to improving?

Any advice would be super helpful! Thanks!

Your explanation here leaves me a little confused. You keep stressing how you requested more training in backing, but didn't get it. Then you give the reasons for which you were fired, none of which have anything to do with backing.

I'd leave the backing issue out of any explanation to future employers. It adds nothing to the reason you got canned. It just sounds confusing.

You took way too long moving a couple of trailers and you got yourself on a dead-end street where you had to get turned around. You also damaged a fuel pump by leaving with the hose in your tank.

All of that suggested you needed some close quarter training. It became even more obvious after you failed the close quarter training.

I think all you can do is apply all over the place. Just be upfront and honest. Tell them you are brand new and you made a few mistakes. Tell them what happened, but don't muddy up the water by bringing up the backing stuff. None of us feels confident about backing when we are new. It's practice that we need. We've already been trained, but we are terribly clumsy at it. We need real world repetition.

You are in a tough situation now. Very few companies want to take a chance on new drivers released during training. Be persistent. Try applying through our web site. This link will allow you to fill one application and send it to many different companies.

Apply For Truck Driving Jobs

Don't lose heart! I can't even tell you how many companies rejected me. I persisted and prevailed. You can too.

Getting started in this career can be harsh - I know it all too well. Be resilient and tenacious. There's a seat for you somewhere. You can't be picky at this point. Take the first opportunity and make up your mind that you can prove yourself a great truck driver. One year of safe driving will prove you are capable and will open all kinds of doors for you.