Thanks for the info, Heavy. I understand that "Pioneer Road" picture a little more now.

It's interesting that Dick Simon, a mormon, would ask Jerry Moyes, another mormon, for help. Of course Jerry obliged. Mormons are that way. They help each other in these sorts of situations. They espouse the free market when they benefit, but they shield its wrath from themselves when the going gets tough. I wonder what would have happend to Simon if that company would have been based , say, in Los Angeles instead of Salt Lake City? That's an easy one--It would have been chopped up and its remants hauled away to other outfits.

Anyway, I have one more question about Dick Simon Transportation. When that nutcase Simon driver crashed his truck into the California State Capitol building in 2001, California sued Dick Simon's outfit. What happened in that lawsuit? I assume this lawsuit is one of the big reasons Dick Simon needed Jerry to come in and "save" him.

Thanks again.

Hey Tip... You're one up on me about the nutcase lawsuit. I'd like to hear that story. That was in '01? Disgruntled Simon employee or just a moron with a political statement to make? Take care!

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deo Vindice, my sweet Dixieland, deo Vindice...

The details about this are out on the web, Heavy. It's a good read. I'm surprised you haven't heard about it.

Here's the story in a nutshell:

Dick Simon hired a mental case driver in 2001 (?) because Simon was, well, desperate ol' Simon. When said driver went out with his trainer, his trainer demanded this nut be taken off his truck and maybe fired. When Dick Simon refused to do that, the trainer quit. I THINK the trainer may have sued Simon over this. Not sure on that one. Anyway, the nutcase SOMEHOW finished his training with another trainer and got his own truck.

I believe in early 2002 (?), this guy took a run to Cally. He was a hater of Cally's governor, Gray Davis, and decided Gray needed to be taught a lesson, I guess. This guy headed for Sac, and when he got to the capital building, he circled it at a high rate of speed like a predatory bird, and then he charged. The only problem was he was loaded (heavy), and diesel WILL burn hot if provoked. He collided with the building at about 45 mph and the truck more or less "exploded". Well, the fuel tanks erupted in fireballs, and the driver, along with his skunk truck, was consumed by the flames. I guess the idiot was knocked out on impact and couldn't get out before the flames reached him.

Cally filed a lawsuit against Simon for damages later. I think they were seeking over 50 million bones. I'm sure the trainer who quit was a key witness in that trial.

More details are out on the web, I'm sure. Someday, I might go looking for those details.

Back in 1998, another nut Simon driver was taking the curves of Price Canyon in Utah WAY too fast and flipped over onto a car. His story is also out on the web, so be sure to read about that one as well. Price Canyon is the canyon US Route 6 runs through going east from I-15 south of Salt Lake. Some of you may have driven this road. Last year a truck carrying explosives blew up on it not far from I-15 and tore out a huge chunk. I believe 6 was closed for at least a week (?). Anyway, Route 6 is a good road on this stretch, but it DOES have some 45-mph curves one must be careful on. This Simon driver wasn't careful. I think he was doing close to 70 mph on one of those curves when he flipped onto the car. He came out of the resulting wreckage with minor scrapes, but the car's driver and her small kid were killed.

I once had a roommate back in the day who had worked for Simon in 95. He and I used to sit around talking about good and bad companies while we looked through the Salt Lake Tribune's classfied ads. Of course, every day of the world we saw Simon's help-wanted ads in there, and, of course, Simon came up a lot during those sessions. 99 times out of 100, what my old roomie had to say about Simon was negative. One of his favorite Simon war stories was about a Simon new hire who pulled a knife on his trainer at the toll booths on I-80 near Chicago. I think the student wanted to get off the truck--the traffic was "bothering" him and he "couldn't take it anymore". The trainee hopped off the truck and disappeared. That was a typical "Simon" story with a typical result. And what a great place for something like that to happen, eh?

The joys of being a Dick Simon trainer! The joys of working for Dick Simon, period!
Maybe Central has cleaned up its hiring practices.

Wow. I wonder if the insane are protected under discrimination laws...

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Z-Lady's devoted hubby.

Who was more insane? The Simon trainers or the Simon trainees?

It's a tough call.

If Jerry Moyes does one thing right for the average truck driver, he should clean up the mess he inheritend when he took over Simon's company. I'm sure he's doing that, as Simon was worse than Swift there in the mid-to-late 90's.

From the sound of it, the state of Utah's insane asylum back then was a certain trucking company over off Pioneer Road in Salt Lake.

i work for them, log 62mph....3000miles a week, i am a newbie..only 6mo exp

Suck it up while you can.

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Z-Lady's devoted hubby.

CRS lease is good???

Lemme fill you in on what they did to me, 6 months into a lease on a w-900 kw, was one of their trainers, for three weeks straight I was sitting 2-3 days of each week, went in the hole, couldn't make my house payment, have recieved forclosure papers on it yesterday. No paycheck for three weeks. I gave them their daily macros when they wanted them, delivered on time ALWAYS, I never missed no matter what. There were times the logbook got tossed in the sleeper to cover their screw ups. got screwed out of detention pay (8 hours each time at 30 bucks per hour) because they dispatched me on loads where I had to be over a 100 miles to pick it up in an hour or less (not happening in a 65 mph truck)

after the third week of no miles to make a paycheck told em where they could stick their w-900. I loved the truck, but their load planners need to pull their heads out and utilize the trucks right.

BKE

In other words, nothing has changed at the outfit formerly known as Dick Simon. When I get back to Utah, I'll get a copy of the Salt Lake Tribune for a week straight and let you guys know what I see. I'm betting I will see a Central help-wanted ad in the classfied section every one of those days.

Anyone wanna bet against me?