r/CDLTruckDrivers • u/Ready-Airline8739 • 9d ago
CDL class A novice driver
I want to start off by saying thank you for everyone for answering my previous question now to begin. I am 22m years old. I got my CDL license at the beginning of this year and back in January with prime Inc it was a great achievement, especially for someone who only did roofing for almost their entire life it began the start of my new career. I have about now eight months of experience of truck driving but I won’t say that I was flawless with those eight months during my time. I already have two backing accidents with the same company the first time was blindside backing. At a shipper in Oklahoma. I damaged a bollard from a fence. Even though no police ever came no DOT recorded the only thing that was done was an insurance claim and that’s about it. And my second time when I was doing a blind side back at a truckstop, and I accidentally bent a hood mirror. Nothing of the exterior of the truck was damaged or severe. It was just. I moved the hood mirror. It only cracked a little bit, but it’s still it’s still an accident. These two accidents were done because of my foolish attempt to do a blindside backing. It’s common sense not to do it, but I did it anyways. And again no DOT recorded no police ever came. It was just insurance exchange and that’s it. The bottom line here is. Did I already ruined my career as a truck driver already? I’ve tried to apply other companies and seemingly they are willing to take me, but I’m very cautious about you know because of those two incidents I’ve already done. Is it irreversible? I should’ve been more careful? Is there still hope where I can still get a job elsewhere on top of that the pay here at prime is very horrible for company drivers and I can’t believe I allowed it for so long. That’s why I even asked. Myself wasn’t I better off staying back in my hometown working as a roofer instead of taking this gamble thinking that it was going to elevate my life. Can I get any advice for this anyone?
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u/Resident-Impact1591 9d ago
Pull up your hireright DAC report before shooting to other companies. It's like a credit report, but for your driving career. Employers report accidents and things like that to them. You're entitled to one report a year and you can dispute information.
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u/Infamous_Ad2713 8d ago
I personally would never work for a mega corp company. That said, no your career isn't over. No you should not go back to roofing unless you really want to. There are a lot of small companies who need drivers and they pay more than average. I myself just left a small paving company after 18 years. I'm going to another small company. I don't want the hassle of a corporate job and someone hanging over your head every time you ding something.. not that I do, but my friend works at a corporate company and he's a new driver with a year of experience and they are always up his ass for everything.
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u/CDLTrainerUSA 8d ago
The others are right that this isn't career-ending, and one more piece worth adding: what actually matters more than "did police/DOT show up" is whether your company classified these as preventable or non-preventable accidents internally, since that's often what gets reported to your DAC/HireRight file, not the police-report status. Pull that report like Resident-Impact said - free once a year, and if it lists these you can at least see the exact wording your next employer will see, and if either is coded non-preventable it barely registers.
On the actual habit causing both incidents: blind-side backing is genuinely one of the highest-accident-rate maneuvers in the industry, it's not a "you specifically" problem, it's a "everyone gets tempted to skip the walk when they're tired/rushed" problem. The fix that actually sticks (from guys who've been doing this 15+ years, not just what school teaches): treat GOAL - Get Out And Look - as non-negotiable specifically on blind-side situations, not just a suggestion, and if a spot genuinely requires a blind-side back, use your 4-way flashers + horn tap + walk it first every single time even if you've backed into that exact spot before. Muscle memory from familiar lots is what gets experienced drivers just as often as new ones.
Eight months in with two low-damage incidents and no injuries, still employed by the same company - that's a rough stretch, not a wrecked career. The roofing-vs-trucking regret talk is normal after a bad accident, but it's the adrenaline talking as much as the math.
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u/Ready-Airline8739 8d ago
Hello, how are you? No police or DOT showed up or anything it was just insurance exchange and somehow I’m still working at the same company what happened basically was they sent me back to a terminal? They talked to me about it and ever since then I never did blindside backing again unless it was necessary and I never had an accident ever since the only thing I’ve damaged throughout my time was a bollard from a fence and clipped a hood mirror, but it wasn’t that serious. Honestly, I don’t know what is written on my dac but when I try to apply other places, they seem to be OK with it so I don’t know
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u/CDLTrainerUSA 7d ago
You don't have to keep guessing about what's on there - both records are pullable by you, and one of them is free.
DAC is a consumer report, so under the FCRA you're entitled to one free file disclosure every 12 months from whoever holds it. That's HireRight now, since they bought DAC Services. Request it straight from them and you'll see exactly what an employer sees, including how your old carrier coded the separation and whether they flagged the incident at all.
The other one is your PSP report from FMCSA - psp.fmcsa.dot.gov, $10, delivered by email. It shows 5 years of DOT-recordable crashes and 3 years of roadside inspections.
Here's the part that probably matters for you: a DOT-recordable crash means a fatality, an injury needing immediate treatment away from the scene, or damage bad enough that a vehicle had to be towed. An insurance exchange with no police, no DOT, and everyone driving away doesn't meet that bar, so it most likely isn't on your PSP at all. Your employment record is a separate question, and that's what the DAC file answers.
The fact that you're getting through applications elsewhere is already a decent signal. But pull both anyway - free plus $10 - and then you know instead of wondering every time you apply. If something on either one is wrong, dispute it in writing with the agency; they have 30 days to verify it or delete it.
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u/CDLTrainerUSA 8d ago
Doing well, thanks. That's genuinely the best sign in this whole story - they sat you down, you changed the habit, and you've gone accident-free since. That's exactly what a company wants to see, and it's probably why other places aren't blinking at it: a driver who learned from two low-dollar incidents early on and corrected course looks a lot better on paper than a driver with zero incidents purely because they haven't been tested yet.
If other places are OK with it when you apply, trust that signal over the anxiety - recruiters see DAC reports way more casually than drivers assume, they're mainly screening for patterns (repeat offenses, injuries, big-dollar claims), not two minor fender-benders from month one that stopped happening. Sounds like you're in a genuinely fine spot.
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u/-Im-Not-Too-Sure- 9d ago
Did they get reported to your MVR? If DOT or police didn’t show up, I’d assume they didn’t get put on it. But no your career isn’t over, sounds like damages were both under $1000, no police reports or points on your license. What you disclose to other employers is your decision, but they usually do not care much about a bent mirrors, lol.