Monday, November 27, 2017

They're Gonna Fire Me for This...

I will occasionally have reason to stop a driver in a company vehicle for a traffic violation.  More often than not, this leads to a statement from the driver similar to...

"I'm going to get fired if you write me a ticket"

My usual response to this is to ask "Whyzat?"

Have you had a number of tickets in your company vehicle?  Are you on the verge of being fired for your unsafe driving practices?  Why on earth would your employer fire you if I write you a ticket?

Sometimes the answer is "well, I'll have to ask for time off to handle the ticket".  And asking for time off will get you fired?  I'm not buying it.  Plus, if you handle the citation online or by declaration, and you do online traffic school, you will never miss a minute of work.

Often they'll say the company checks their driving record and they will get fired if a point shows up.  I have worked for many companies where driving was one of my primary job duties.  Not a single one held a single point on your driving record as a firing offense.  I'm not buying that one either.  And if that is your company's policy, perhaps you should improve your driving habits to avoid the citation in the first place.

This doesn't come from the tank truck drivers, the drivers hauling nuclear materials or the pool guy who has a full load of chemicals.  This comes from the guy driving the energy drink truck.  This comes from the landscaper.  This comes from the rental car shuttle driver.

In short, if you have not established a history of poor driving habits, you don't run around getting tickets all the time, and you don't work for some company that transports rockets, top secret materials or metric tons of methyl-ethyl-bad-shit, I doubt you're going to get fired for one traffic citation.  If you do get fired, there's something else going on.

The only person I know of who got fired because of one of my traffic tickets was the guy who wasn't supposed to be driving his company vehicle when and where I stopped him.  It wasn't the first time, he knew he was wrong, and he knew he was well and truly fucked.

But it wasn't because of the ticket...

1 comment:

Jeff said...

There's a whole range of politicians, political advisors, high ranking economists and diplomats trying to develop policies and procedures across both domestic and international stages in an attempt to provide people with employment and long-term job security.......And what happens???

You just keep getting them fired.

Geez, someones got some explaining to do ;-)