"Bait & Switch" PTL Pay Plan

Discussion in 'PTL' started by Tex927, Jan 19, 2011.

  1. Tex927

    Tex927 Bobtail Member

    1
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    Nov 14, 2008
    Austin, TX
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    Paschall Truck Lines (PTL) engages in what I believe to be criminally deceptive and fraudulent hiring practices. What is my basis for stating this opinion?

    After talking to several recruiters I decided to give PTL (Paschall Truck Lines) a chance as they offered 36 cents per mile, a few pennies more per mile than some other carriers in my area. The recruiter arranged for a bus ticket to be available at the local bus terminal and soon I was on my way to their orientation in Murray, KY.

    They put us up in the very basic Murray Super 8 motel. At 6:45 am Monday morning the PTL company vans came to pick up the 20 some driver recruits and takes them for the drug-screening at the medical clinic across the street from the motel. After completing the drug screen the vans take the recruits to the other side of Murray to "PTL University".

    As you walk in to the Paschall University "classroom" you sit down in rows of tables where they have each person's name plate in alphabetical order. Each person has a few documents at their place on the table. One of these documents is entitled "West Pay Program".

    You pick this document up and see a map of the United States with the western 2/3 of the United States (everything west of the Mississippi including all of Louisiana) in dark gray. To your shock, you read this document and realize that it explains that the majority of the USA (the part in dark gray) only pays 30 cents per mile!

    A few people start immediately questioning the "instructor" about what this document means and he nervously explain that ALL drivers, regardless of "promised" base pay only get 30 cents per mile while driving in Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and all other states west of the Mississippi. Considering that a huge amount (majority?) of PTL's freight originates along the Texas-Mexico border this means that a very significant chunk of miles each week would be paid at the shockingly low rate of 30 cents per mile. It is over 900 miles from Laredo, Texas to the Mississippi River bridge in Memphis meaning 900 miles of 30 cent pay!

    Mutiny erupts. Several drivers angrily demand to see somebody from PTL's management. Before they leave the classroom to talk to management one of the drivers quizzes the entire classroom:

    "HOW MANY OF YA'LL WERE TOLD IN ADVANCE ABOUT THIS "WEST PAY PROGRAM" BY YOUR RECRUITERS??"

    The room explodes: "No one told me"... "No one told me either"... "This is BS!.. no one told me"... "My recruiter never mentioned it"... and so on..

    To a man, the entire classroom responds that they had NOT been told in advance of this very significant departure from the pay plan that had been promised to these drivers. Nearly 20 drivers, stranded in a small town hundreds of miles from home, were now in a position of having to accept a newbie driver level pay plan for over 2/3 of the United States! One group of drivers from this classroom demands to see someone from upper-management.

    The group of drivers who demanded to see management were escorted out of the classroom and were "contained" in the breakroom until someone from management was ready to see them. After a brief wait, a thin, tall, white-haired PTL executive with all the charm of a used car salesman was waiting in an office to speak with the group.

    This Paschall executive (a man who in a bygone era would have done quite well selling snake oil) assured the group with a twinkle in his eye that everything was just a "misunderstanding" and that PTL would never "intentionally deceive" anyone. The group demanded the pay that had been promised or else a bus ticket home for each member and to PTL's credit they agreed. However, PTL did not want this "mutiny" group anywhere near their other employees so they took them to a "holding area" motel room at a completely separate Baymont Motel on the other side of town! The Baymont motel clerk said that a similar mutiny group comes every Monday and that PTL has Room 127 permanently reserved for this purpose! Finally around 6:30 pm a PTL bus came to take the mutiny group to the Greyhound terminal in Paducah, KY. The Greyhound clerk also confirmed that every Monday night a group of unhappy driver recruits leaves Murray.

    In my opinion, PTL is engaged in a systematic practice of offering an attractive pay plan to their potential recruits only to substitute a very poor pay plan when they actually get to their orientation. This is a classic "bait and switch" scheme usually found in only the worst types of used car lots or other con jobs and certainly not appropriate in the context of a supposedly legitimate major trucking company. The average recruit is often in a vulnerable position and ends up just accepting the bad pay plan as they are usually not in a position to do otherwise. The majority of driver recruits in the classroom ended up staying and accepting this plan even though they were very surprised and unhappy about it. And PTL knows that the majority will stay!

    I believe this deceptive hiring practice is very wrong and I encourage anyone who has been victimized by PTL to contact their state's Attorney General's office as well as their state's employment office to denounce this fraudulent practice. This practice not only cheats the drivers but gives PTL an unfair competitive advantage against their competitors who pay their drivers a normal pay plan or at least warn their drivers in advance of any differences in regional pay. Drivers, we need to stand up against crooked companies!!
     
    Gearjammin' Penguin Thanks this.
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  3. fairshake

    fairshake Road Train Member

    1,079
    1,270
    Oct 4, 2010
    Chickenville, BFE
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    ####, that's not right...
     
  4. 123456

    123456 Road Train Member

    10,555
    5,743
    Oct 22, 2010
    32179
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    Glad you learned about them early,

    instead of later..........
     
  5. shawn s

    shawn s Bobtail Member

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    Jul 12, 2011
    0
    my ptl recruiter told me about detention pay for o/o ,,after 2 hrs i was supposed to get 1.25 per min or 75.00 per hr..hahahahaha i get nada zero zip. they told me if i referrred a driver after he delivered his first load i get 250.00 i got . .thats right zero nada zip!!!they owed me over 2000. my first settlement ..the contract says i could advance 25% finance told me i could get 25.00 only. i said i only have 100.00 coming for 4161 miles...rediculous ...now i am suppose to be going home to florida i aM close to atlanta, got a preplan for memphis BEEN out 4 and 1/2 weeks..CANNOT RECCOMMEND.
     
    Last edited: Jul 12, 2011
  6. thbogle

    thbogle Bobtail Member

    2
    0
    Jul 24, 2011
    Labelle, Fl
    0
    ShaunS

    Imhaving the Same problems as you are. The 25% advance is a bunch of bull. No matter what you can only get $25. The miles are horrible and they only hire from my area for the lease deal? This 10 day wait from cutoff for pay is a bunch of crap. Basically we wait for them to get paid before we get paid. I had my doubts from the beginning of orientation which was just about 2 weeks ago. No check in sight but im not in the hole. I live in South Florida and am leaving really soon. They really need to explain more or i need to ask more direct questions one.... Oh and if you take a bus they deduct that from your lousy trailer move pay. Run 350, shortest 300, get paid for 250.
     
  7. mullins54

    mullins54 Bobtail Member

    5
    1
    Mar 31, 2012
    Whiteville, nc
    0
    When I called PTL about the job, it was very well explained about the pay and that it was my choice then to work for them or not...I called and talked to several recruiters and they all said the same thing..If you want to get "ripped off" go to work for "Shaffer" or "Marten transpor". They will pay you top pay of .46 0r .48 cents per mile but guess what ? They will not keep you rolling and make a steady paycheck. I worked for Shaffer 6 years and got worse as time went on and worked for Maten and they will tell you all their long haul freight goes on train. They only dispatch up to 500 miles trips, and mostly 2 to 3 days on such trips..They also keep you up north in the snow and ice..
     
    poohbear3636 Thanks this.
  8. orangepicker

    orangepicker Road Train Member

    1,159
    679
    Nov 9, 2011
    florida
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    wow.........................
     
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