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Quote: "Have you ever driven in the area in question?....I didn't think so!"


And if you are going to drop one shred of that personal mouthy defensive attacking attitude toward someone asking a question of you in your (supposed to be very formal) hearing, you might as well not go. They'll understand at once why the employer elected to fire you when you gave them an easy enforceable, measurable reason to do so.

A personal reason for lateness, such as traffic, poor transportation, etc. might be considered reasonable if it was a one time thing, you know, huge pile-up on the freeway, sudden unexpected weather emergency, etc. But "I was only late 5% of the time" isn't a good thing to mention, either. That's admitting you knew you were late, admitting you knew what time you were supposed to be there, and that you dropped that particular ball more than once or twice.
It also might depend on how many other people were late on the same day at the same time for the same reason. I once worked for a company that was very tough on lateness - three late slips and you're gone! no matter how far apart the lates were (could be one every two years, but even so, if you were late a third time at the end of six years' service, you were gone!) or what the reason was for them. But one day the entire city's subway system shut down for more than three hours, trapping thousands of people in trains underground. Many of those thousands (including me) were on their way to work for this company. Did the company give us late slips? No.