My husband as I post this is sitting at Medway here in Ohio without a dime to his name nor any for the rest of the family due to was FFE Transport has stolen from us. Now he is not new to trucking, he is coming up on six years in the industry and understands how the game is played. He started his career out at USExpress and after 3 years jumped the fence to another company thinking the grass was greener. After almost losing everything to JB Hunt's lease purchase program he wandered around a little till FFE sold him a bill of goods that was a lie from word one. They offered a $5000 sign on bonus for every 8000 miles driven, I was very hesitant about that because as a nurse I know that those who offer sign ons are usually just desparate for employess, I don't care what industry you are in. They promised him at least 2700 mi/wk and a rate of .36 cpm and a truck with less than 300,000 mi on it.

During his orientation in Dallas he was telling me about how they were rushing the guys through all the paperwork and that they weren't given any real time to read it (red flag!), NEVER sign anything you don't read completely! After completing his 3 days he was informed there were NO trucks but if he wanted to go to Chicago they would have a truck there. He got off the bus at around 9 pm and was given a comcheck for a taxi ride to the terminal, at 10 pm he gets there and is told that although they have a truck for him the person who was in the office to assign it was going home for the night and would issue it in the morning. She just didn't want to go down the steps to get the keys and was just going to leave him stranded in the office for the night with no place to go/sleep. He contacted someone else in the office who got mad at her and just went down and gave him the keys as the paperwork was already done on her desk, had him sign and off he went to the yard to find his truck. He was issued one that has obviously been a lease purchase due to the customization that had been done by the previous driver and you could also tell he took very good care of the equipment. My husband was quite pleased and ready to roll.

The next morning he gets a stat QC message from the woman that left him the night before stranded furious that he was in the truck and he replied as to what happened with the other gentleman who issued him the keys. There begins the downfall......... My husband is a runner, run this man like a scalded dog and he LOVES IT! He told his dispacher he loved to run all 48 but especially west, well after sitting for about 12 hours he finally got a load going to Jersey and off he goes.

Well here we are 6 wks later, done. He never went west of Dallas, in the last 4 weeks he has brought home one check for a little over $300 and the company confiscated his last 2 paychecks eventhough his contract states clearly they could only take his last check to cover the first $1000 that he got because he left before 6 months. I am well aware that most of this is his/our fault but this company is unbelievable. It got so bad in terms of his loads that he would literally sit for days at a time doing LTL (4-5 stops) and rail because weekend dispatch was a joke. They would just tell him over the QC to talk to daytime dispatch to get a load. He worked his way up the ladder starting with his recruiter who flatly told him she was being taped and not able to tell him anything without her getting in trouble. He talked to the VP of the company who obviously couldn't have cared less that he would only get 2 loads a weeks averaging about 1700 mi. Payroll told him that IF THEY SAW the paperwork scans by 5 pm Mon it might make it to that Friday's check, more often than not it didn't or they claimed not to have got it eventhough he had his confirmation number that he would give them!

After much soul searching he has decided to return from whence he came, he knows the ins and outs of this company and know he can bring down well over $1000/wk. After 30 days he can get back his trainer codes and really turn our dire financial situation around. The reason it is so bad is because I am down with a knee injury (no income 6 mo.) and no income from him now for a month. We are literally hanging on by a thread and almost on the verge of filing for welfare because we have 5 children who need to eat.

The best thing I can say about FFE is they are crooks of the first order and he is not the first nor will he be the last to be stolen from, lied to and cheated out of honestly earned money (little as it may be). Thanks for letting me vent and I hope that others will read this and run from them like a frog on a hot rock.

BrokenWife

now if I read right and between the lines your hubby went to ffe to lease a truck am I right?

It may not be any ones fault that your hubby did not have good paychecks.

Why would anyone want to start a lease / purchase with the fuel prices the way that they are?

Top it all off your hubby started off with no money so he had to take advances against his checks.

He started in the hole and just kept digging himself deeper and deeper in debt which of course would mean little to no pay checks.

In my oppinion he should of went to a trucking company to be a company driver.
Of course he would make less yes but he would not have those fuel bills,fuel taxes, truck payment, insurance, etc hanging over his head.

He was not a lease driver with FFE he was company, he had learned his lesson about leasing with JB and vowed never to do it again. We did not start out in the hole but FFE made sure we are just about buried and growing weeds. Where did you get the idea that he was taking advances against his checks? I never stated that.

well if he went to the orentation broke once he got his rig he would of had to take advances to eat.
what are the contracts that you speak of I did not have to sign contracts with anyone to be a company driver.
I may have misread your first post

FFE was offering a sign on bonus where they were to be paid $5000 payable at $1000 for every 8000 mi driven. He didn't start out broke, but he IS starting broke at this new job due to FFE violating their own contract by keeping his last 2 paychecks and not just the last one as the contract states. He should have gotten one this week and his last one will be next week from FFE. He didn't have to sign a contract to work for them it was just a bonus they were offering to new hires.

I feel bad for you and your husband but if they took his last 2 checks with no fault of his, why dont you go see a lawyer, i mean hell there is a guy sueing a church for 50,000 becuase the church didnt catch him when the power of God went into his body, but if your husband did nothing wrong and they stole his money go see a lawyer

Actually we have talked to one and he charges like $195/hr, we live in Ohio and FFE is out of Dallas. I believe he is going to file a complaint with the labor board and something else. We are aware that they are well within their right to keep his final check it is this past week's check that we are protesting and trying to warn others of this company's practices.

hey for whats its worth ive been with marten for about 1.5 yrs now and they are not all that bad have not had any pay issues with them and the miles are not that bad pretty much been happy i work out of the indy term.

Thanks for the information, he is getting ready to start orientation tomorrow with a company he previously worked for for 3 yrs and we just need to figure out how to get through the next 2 wks financially and hopefully we will be able to turn things around.

Good luck to you and your husband.
You may be able to file a small claims in the dallas area courts but it will probaly cost more than it is worth to get the money that they owe you guy's.