KLLM and Lease Purchase

I will tell you part of it...seeing as KLLM got a letter from the person's attorney this past week.

I have a driver who had surgery last year...so she got in the hole. She knew it would happen and was OK with it and when she came back she worked like a dog to get out of the hole. Come January, she had to have surgery again. Knowing this was upcoming she went to the head of the L/P program, spoke to them and worked it out so that she could still keep her truck.
She was assured that everything was OK..she would be able to keep her truck. The company would use it as a loaner and the payments made by a driver using it as a loaner would be applied to her past due balance so that she would not be so far in the hole when she came back.
She took off to have surgery and on the 20th day following, while she was still recovering from it, she received a call from the company stating that they were terminating her lease contract...oh...but...it's only for insurance purposes.
By this time, her truck is leased out as a loaner truck for a driver whose engine had blown while his was being repaired.
Come the second week in February, the driver was released to return to work and was ready to come back. The company did not get her truck back to her until APRIL. She was also required to go back through orientation AND lease orientation AND sign a new contract...lowering her per mile pay, raising her maintenance cost and taking away her APU maintenance.
Fast forward to the beginning of June. She takes time off for a doctor's appointment and to take the first, non-medical, time off she has had in over a year. For three years, she and her family had been planning and paying for this trip. She was off one week. She came back to discover that her transmission was WAY bad...shot...and put it in the shop. She was told that there were three other trucks in front of her and to just go ahead and drive it...they'll get to it "later". So she sat around the terminal for 3 days waiting for a load. By this time, her teenage daughter was getting irritable...so with no load in sight, she tells them that she is taking her daughter home to Tennessee. She gets on a bus to do so, gets halfway there and they call her about taking a load....AFTER she had told them she was taking her daughter home. She again tells them she is on a bus to Tennessee. They ask when she will be back. She asks them, if she comes back the following day (Friday) if they can get her running over the weekend and is told "Probably not". At that point she tells them she will be back Sunday night then.
She gets back Sunday night, Monday morning she contacts the shop to find out if they know when they might be able to get her truck in. She is told that they will be pulling it in that afternoon and getting it fixed. Approximately 30 minutes later she receives a call from a dispatcher (not even her dispatcher) saying that her lease has been terminated and that she has five days to let them know if she intends to pay off the truck and keep it. She immediately calls the head of the L/P program and is told REPEATEDLY over the next two days that her contract is terminated, nothing she can do, the decision is final, sorry bout yer luck. The reason she was given was because the truck was not being productive (because she wouldn't drive it with a shot transmission? Or because she had the audacity to take a week off? Hell...I take 2 weeks off at a time almost every time I go home!).
On the third day, oh my, how do you like this...all of a sudden her contract ISN'T terminated...and it's all hunkey dorey...right? Just come hopping skipping and jumping back to work. Funny how this was AFTER she asked them for her termination in writing (go look at your contracts lease drivers) and was told "Oh...no...we don't do that. We can't do that..."
So by this time, she has ZERO trust in them and anything they say. From the get go they are acting like nothing happened and pressuring her to come back to work. She tells them that she's going to have to think about it. They assure her that they will give her time to do so. First thing the next morning dispatch is calling her up - "So...you ready to get rolling? We have a load for you! Huh? Huh? C'mon!"
Needless to say, by this time, she has decided that she can no longer work for a company that she has absolutely no trust in, so she contacts them to get a record of the payments made and a payoff amount on her truck.
To nutshell this...five letters from her and one from an attorney later, the company has not yet been able to provide the information requested. The attorney has found numerous problems and discrepencies with the contracts, the 1099's, with accounting, with payroll entries and the company can't seem to submit a payment history on the truck. The one figure they have provided as the payoff amount on the truck includes the interest through the end of the lease term...which it shouldn't as if one is paying the entire balance in cash there would be no interest accrued on that amount.
The information accompanying the letter from the company, sent to the attorny, does not match either of the driver's contracts or amatorization schedules provided during either of her lease orientations, nor do the amounts deducted from settlements for the lease payments.

And, by the way, the payments made on the truck when the company was using it as a loaner....none were applied to her accruing balance. The real reason they terminated her contract in January I suppose...since, as she did not have a legal lease on the truck after they terminated hers "for insurance purposes", they really, legally had the right to pocket those payments...even though they had assured her they'd be applied to her balance.
This issue is still ongoing...

OR...would you prefer to hear about the driver who has been telling the company for at least two months that *I* know of that their engine was about to go?
This driver FINALLY got an LONG overdue overhead done on the truck after fighting with the company for several weeks to get one...this was about a month ago...for reference. The engine was so bad that one of the shop supervisors called the head of maintenance at 10:30pm...at home...to advise him just how bad this engine was. They STILL put it back together, said it was all good AND one of the upstairs guys in maintenance (one of the higher ups) told the driver that they were no longer allowed to write the truck up for certain things because...
Hold on to your hats folks....
"Your truck has already cost this company too much money"

Fast forward to two days ago.....
The lining is being sucked through the engine, the engine is blown and will now have to either be completely rebuilt or a new engine put in.

So, Romans, I'm glad it's going great for you...but I'm not talking out of my ### here. There is still a WHOLE LOT more coming down the pipe...the stuff I can't talk about because it is not my right to compromise anyone's legal position or legal case/s....and those cases ARE in the works. Not just one...or a couple....quite a few.

RT

 

And - in re credibility

As far as I'm concerned, the only person I have to have credibility with is myself.

Everyone else is free to read and learn... or fall on their ### as they see fit.

Makes no nevermind to me.....

RT

 

Negative people. Negative Attitude. It's Funny. And Plenty of Companies Have Problem's You Still Haven't Stated the Real Issue's. Just Blogg'd About another Driver. iSee Why You are Hav'n The Issue's Your Having.

 

Yes...with 12 whole posts and not a single day with this company I am oh-so-sure you know EVERYTHING about what goes on.

But...hey...please do come on over and find out for yourself and just show us all how its done. I need the entertainment....

RT

 

That's OK Toad. The Honeymoon will end. His eyes will be opened.

 

Never said iKnow everything not one time. iJust Stated that Attitude can Mean AWhole Lot regardless of Who You work For ive Been (down range) ie: Iraq and for some it's the worse time of their lives but depend'n on the type of attitude one has can Change the entire situation . You right iHaven Shifted not one Gear for kllm and never said you wasn't tell'n the truth but that's one driver.And iWanna Hear what's Goin on entirely not just about one person who was unfortnate with her medical issues. And everyone situation is different you might Not get Miles when another Driver might get alot is the mindset you take with the job. My Eye's are alway's open and head on a swivle.

 

And by the way you Respond you are very argumentive could'n make it a day in the Army. Let alone in the combat zone

 

Seriously dude, you need to chill it with that "I've been in combat" crap. It doesn't fly here in the real world. I've been in the "shiit" too, and it is apples and oranges compared to what goes on here in the civilian world. Night and day, broham. Being good at one doesn't make you good at the other.

Perhaps you should read some of her posts going way back when she started as a company driver, then turned L/O. She was about as positive as anyone could be. I've seen the change in her posts, and I'm sure a lot of others have also. Don't believe for one minute that RT is a habitual complainer.

I have personally seen a difference in the quality of their equipment on the road just in the past three or four years, and it's not been positive. I wondered why, and think that perhaps they are minding their pennies like ANY smart company would do in this economy, but hopefully not to the detriment of the drivers, customers, and safety.

RT, I'm glad you finally came forth with that tidbit of info, although I do know it's only the tip of the iceberg that you shared with me. I'm still kind of shocked that KLLM has gone in that direction, no matter how few drivers that may include (who knows if the full scope of it will ever come out). I was one of the KLLM "kool-aid" drinkers once upon a time, thinking that it was definitely going to be in my future. Even applied in late 09 but was turned down for whatever reason.

I'm still holding out hope that they make good on their mistakes and "right the ship" to get back to being the primo reefer carrier that they were just a short time ago. I think they still have the capacity to do so, to be honest with ya. But signs like what you've shared with the board and myself smell a little bit like the shenanigans that Arrow pulled when I was there about a year before they crashed. Something just stank like dead meat, so I bolted. Glad I did.

I hope KLLM is trying to fix what ails them and that you all come out of this clean and successful.

 

Attitude goes a Long way with any Job. And i've read all Of her earlier post and they was informative and very helpful but like once before attitude can make or break you and ive had family drive and complete L/P program with them and been seeing how thing's Go From good to bad and my uncle didn't alway's have a great attitude and i saw where that got him.

 

is it a good idea to go to kllm or not