Blah mental anguish leads to

$killed Labor

Active Member
A accident. Geeez where do i even start. Well anyways I "was" a rookie driver. This past week was my first week alone. After being on the local sort a position came around so I thought I would try for it.
Well i knew it wasn't going to be easy. I knew it was going to be hard, but more physically then mentally. I was totally wrong. I have never been so stressed,mentally exhausted in my life. Hell I was thinking about this earlier, I was putting 10/9/06 on all my paper work and it didn't dawn on me until today what I done.
Anyways I don't need to explain to you guys, you know how it is.
Well i have had a awful week, coming in @ 8:30 just to drop my truck off with my pick ups and going back out with my res's.
Well I have found out No lunch,lack of sleep and 13 hr days well lead to a mental brain fart.
Today was like no other day. But it was Friday, and its time to leave the building. K Since i am new at this, I am looking for my truck . At the time i really didn't notice a difference, it didn't dawn on me that my 1200 was switched out to a 1000. Which I really dont understand that, cause I bring in over 500 p/u piece a night and usually the 1200 is packed full. Anyways I hop in and started to take off. "By the way,- I am parked in front of the buildings garage door frame" I usually have to pull up some and back up,pull up,back up then go outside the building for my pre trip.

Guess what i really didn't notice i wasn't in the truck i trained in, the all power Cadillac. Blah, so in my routine I put the truck in 2nd, pull up then go to what "I thought" was reverse and started to back up. Guess what, The reverse was total deferent. My stupid butt had it in first gear. The gear patterns are different and i didn't realize it until it was to late.
God how can i be so stupid, I know being mentally exhausted had some effect on it but still. I really don't know how i didn't see and feel the difference. I was just in a hurry to get out and get my friggin airs off cause i was one min late on one the day before.
I am so disappointed cause I am sure they are going to disqualify me. Maybe for the better. Cause like i said, I never been so stressed and mentally exhausted in my life.
Maybe I should have just been a Sat air driver. Dunno, just kind of bummed out.
 

$killed Labor

Active Member
what did you hit? you pass the 30 days or no?

I hit the side of the wall, Blah i should have taken a pic with my phone. Ill do a picture in photoshop to explain it better.It will be a fast chop, but you will get the picture.
I only got 8 days in before the 1st so no i havnt gotten my 30 days.
Untitled-1.jpg
 

MR_Vengeance

United Parcel Survivor
i see what you mean now. hey bro look at it this way though, now you don't have to slave for the peak anymore. 6 month later you can try drive again or finding something new. btw nice photochop:)
 

$killed Labor

Active Member
Yeah your right. It just erks me casue i havnt had a accident in over 13 years. Not even at Pepsi with the 16 bay trucks going in and out of the small doors we had.
Just makes me feel ignorant.
 

dammor

Well-Known Member
Yeah your right. It just erks me casue i havnt had a accident in over 13 years. Not even at Pepsi with the 16 bay trucks going in and out of the small doors we had.
Just makes me feel ignorant.

You are not ignorant. It's called pressure and we all feel it. Especially when you are new to the job and worn out. Give yourself a break and know that if you want you can try agian. Take care and don't beat yourself up about it.
 

toonertoo

Most Awesome Dog
Staff member
Man I feel for you. My personal truck has the exact opposite shift pattern of my work truck, and I faulter just getting out of my parking space every night. Or when I am driving my automatic truck and I reach for the floor shift. Its just a brain fart. I can back my p1000 in a place tighter than two coats of paint, but backing in my driveway in my personal truck , I hit my boat, duh......It will be Ok if they send you back you can try again, dont beat yourself up, its an accident and we all have them.
 

xkingx

Well-Known Member
did you damage the truck?
our center they usually let you go w/o an accident report..even when you drive away with the fuel hose attached to your vehicle
 

Pip

Well-Known Member
PSI, everybody has those kind of days. bit of advice. For those times when things like this happens, go talk to your mechanic. I am guessing there isn't a lot of damage, mostly cosmetic to the package car..

In times like these, your best friend could very well be your mechanic.
He will have cans of touchup paint that does wonders. Mirrors and brackets and other small stuff are everyday fixups.

It's nothing to replace a couple broken mirros on a given day, or straighten out a bumper, or whatever the case might be. I'll generally get a couple writeup's for (what I call oopsy's) on any given day. Drivers are under the gun to get those packages off, things happen.

As a mechanic, I try to look out for the drivers on my assigned fleet when possible. I sure am not interested in getting anybody in hot water over little things, that can be fixed in no time at all. Odds are most other mechanics feel the same way. What management don't know won't hurt them or you.
 

jlphotog

Well-Known Member
did you damage the truck?
our center they usually let you go w/o an accident report..even when you drive away with the fuel hose attached to your vehicle

Are you kidding me?

My truck was involved in an accident while I was 30 feet away from it at the front door of a rezzi. Some dozy little 19 year blond gal backed out of her driveway and turned right into the rear bumper of my truck. That cost me about an hour and a half waiting for a sup to show up and take pictures. Then he wasn't sure if he could call it "unavoidable". It was the Center manager that that decided it was completely unavoidable after he saw the pictures.

At the end of that day it cost me another hour or so going over everything with the sup and on the phone to "accident reporting division" (or what ever they are called) of UPS.

The only damage to my truck was a little bit of paint transfer on the bumper. Her car suffered considerable damage.

By the way, that was three months ago and she still has not fixed the car. This nice white car with UPS brown all over it.
 

over9five

Moderator
Staff member
Well of course that was avoidable! What were you thinking parking your package car at the house you were delivering to???

OBVIOUSLY you should have parked in the parking lot 3/4 of a mile down the road.....
 

trickpony1

Well-Known Member
Are you kidding me?

My truck was involved in an accident while I was 30 feet away from it at the front door of a rezzi. Some dozy little 19 year blond gal backed out of her driveway and turned right into the rear bumper of my truck. That cost me about an hour and a half waiting for a sup to show up and take pictures. Then he wasn't sure if he could call it "unavoidable". It was the Center manager that that decided it was completely unavoidable after he saw the pictures.

At the end of that day it cost me another hour or so going over everything with the sup and on the phone to "accident reporting division" (or what ever they are called) of UPS.

The only damage to my truck was a little bit of paint transfer on the bumper. Her car suffered considerable damage.

By the way, that was three months ago and she still has not fixed the car. This nice white car with UPS brown all over it.

.........and she probably won't get it fixed.
What do you wanna bet the company sent her a nice little settlement check to smooth things over?
 

$killed Labor

Active Member
did you damage the truck?
our center they usually let you go w/o an accident report..even when you drive away with the fuel hose attached to your vehicle


Yeah it did some damage, it cracked the fiber glass and scratched some of the paint off.
I just don't want to be disqualified. My family and I really need the money due to me getting screwed from my last job. Which is a separate story :tongue_sm

I know our center needs drivers badley, but i don't know if the will give me a second chance or not. I wont know anything until Monday.
I remember a guy a few months ago didn't even have his 30 days in, flipped a car on its side. It didn't do much damage. But he got a suspension then was back on the road cause he never had a sup ride with him. So he kind of had a loop pole to use. I don't think I do besides my brain fart which don't count for anything :ohmy:
 

Leftinbuilding

Well-Known Member
PSI, everybody has those kind of days. bit of advice. For those times when things like this happens, go talk to your mechanic. I am guessing there isn't a lot of damage, mostly cosmetic to the package car..

In times like these, your best friend could very well be your mechanic.
He will have cans of touchup paint that does wonders. Mirrors and brackets and other small stuff are everyday fixups.

It's nothing to replace a couple broken mirros on a given day, or straighten out a bumper, or whatever the case might be. I'll generally get a couple writeup's for (what I call oopsy's) on any given day. Drivers are under the gun to get those packages off, things happen.

As a mechanic, I try to look out for the drivers on my assigned fleet when possible. I sure am not interested in getting anybody in hot water over little things, that can be fixed in no time at all. Odds are most other mechanics feel the same way. What management don't know won't hurt them or you.


While I appreciate your thoughtfulness, any unreported accident can lead to immediate termination. Not reporting is a bad move.
 

brown67

Well-Known Member
[/color]

While I appreciate your thoughtfulness, any unreported accident can lead to immediate termination. Not reporting is a bad move.

That's the truth. We had a driver bump a mail truck. Postal Supervisor came out and looked at it and said no damage. Our driver didn't report it, because there was no damage. 6 months later postal driver came back on UPS, because of mental anguish. UPS came out ok, but the driver was fired for not reporting accident. Lost at panels and he gone forever.
 

Overpaid Union Thug

Well-Known Member
Our mechanic is a life saver. That's all that needs to be said.

I don't think you'll get disqualified. I have always been told that now (Nov,Dec) is the time to have an accident. Volume is up. There aren't enough drivers. Why disqualify a driver now? Management will let things slide right now unless it's a major accident involving property damage outside of UPS. Like if you rear ended someone. Not so say this is always true but I'm willing to bet it's typical at most centers this time of year for them to let the "little accidents" slide. If this doesn't hold true in your case then just wait out your disqualification and try again. Peak isn't a good time to be learning the ropes.
 

jlphotog

Well-Known Member
Well of course that was avoidable! What were you thinking parking your package car at the house you were delivering to???

OBVIOUSLY you should have parked in the parking lot 3/4 of a mile down the road.....

Jeez I'm sorry! I guess I'm just lazy that way. :crying:
 

helenofcalifornia

Well-Known Member
I love our mechanics!! And you walk a fine line with reporting or not reporting "accidents." I know, I know. The job is tough enough without worrying about a broken mirror from a branch or a teeny tiny scratch on the side of the truck. A fine line we all walk.
 
Top