Need Help with my Lawsuit against Transport America

Yes, they tried that with me for a fedex run from Indy to Baltimore,Md. I refused because there wasn't enough hrs to get it there. I was up past Gas City,In and had to deadhead from there to Indy 1.5hrs altogether and wait 2.5hrs for the load and had 55 mph speed limits to encounter. I told them I will be about 2hrs to 4hrs late. They told me if I was late I would be terminated, if I did not pu on time I was terminated. I then called safety in North Jackson (Rick R) and they had me relay it in Grove City yard. My FM was pissed for getting her in trouble. And I caught her not doing her job on idle adjustments she said I had an idle of 48% in Sept with no adjustments. I said to her I was in Texas with the temp of 106 degrees and I've been here for 10 days relaying loads and taking a 34hr restart then I broke down for 2 days. And I told her I was there and the telp on Friday and Mon,Tues,Wed,Thurs,Fri and for the weekend. She was trying to give me a write up to get me fired. But I called her on mot doing her job. I was threatened 3 times aweek for 6weeks that if I didn,t do this or do that I was fired. Well my 6th week from my christmas vacation they called me in the office and said "we reviewed your file and decided to let you go". No warnings, no write ups just out of the blue. Then they tell unemployment I violated company policy. Question what company policy did I violate??? No one knows, unemployment doesn't neither does DAC services now not even the safety dept knows. Is it a seceret company policy?? That only management knows?? I say yes because they didn't even tell me what it was. Just excuses more BS.
You should be happy your not there and try to get your DAC report straightened out and if you push it they will blackball to other companies and then your driving career will be over for good. Plus they can postpone the courts til you run out of money paying attorney fees and court costs. Thats what all these companies do unless you have lots of money to throw around.

 

Greg, sorry to hear of your unfortunate experience with TA. About all you will be able to do is have them on the hook for unemployment benefits. If you are going to try to take them to court, it might hurt your chances for future employment in the industry. Being in a non-union, right to work job, they really don't need a reason to fire you. However, if you are pursuing an unemployment claim, if they try to contest your benefits, you can present your evidence at the benefits hearing. If they wrongfully fired you, they probably won't show up. If they do, you and their representative will present your cases. An arbitrator from the state employment office will decide the case. If you have a valid claim, you will win.

 

same thing happen to me by schneider national.told them twice i could no take loads due to hours.if u need more i can right it out for u

 

You'll win anyway. The last time someone contested my unemployment claim I wrote "I moved" on the form and sent it back. I got my unemployment.

 

my last company tried to fight my unemployment saying that I had too many violations of Company policies, and that I had been ticketed too many times. I was able to prove line by line that they were lying and what the real reason was that I was terminated. needless to say they didnt fight it for much longer.

 

Remember, Harassment is a no, no. If you can prove your harassment via computer msgs, that along with a complaint to DOT, which by the way will be investigated by them, strengthens your case. It opens doors to them getting non-compliant fines that start with the company president to the dispatcher. To which if you do your homework on DOT Fines and who, you can create an ##### nightmare and cost them plenty of money. Payback is a mother, ya know. Thats how you win!! ? And smile!! Trucking is and has always been a cutthroat business to be in. The driver never wins, but he/she can get even!!!!!!

 

Have you documented your complaints here ?
http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/about/outreach/consumers/safthotline.htm

 

I guess I got lucky in my OTR driving. I never had a load I could not pu and run. Now There is a difference between not having enough hrs to pu a load and not having enough hours to pu the load and deliver it on time. Most drivers refuse loads due to the latter. Which if you work at a forced dp company can nget you a service failure for refusing a load or fired.

I always made sure the company's knew how many hours I had to run each day. If I got a DP that did not allow enough time with the hours I had to drive I pu the load put in a ETA to the receiver and ran my hours. Never got a service failure for not having enough hours to run a load to the destination on time. They either pushed out the window rescheduled the delivery or swapped the load out somewhere to make the appt. I have also had loads that said on the DP not to pu if I could nor deliver on time. Those required some communication with OP's to either get taken off the load or to make sure there was a relay set up.

Now like most veteran drivers I like getting enough miles to make it worth being away from home when I drove OTR so to avoid being on the back burner when good loads came up it is prudent to learn how to make on time delivery when the math does not add up.

Yep my only services failure after umpteen thousands of loads was a Airborne Express load from Ohio to KC with a big snow storm in the middle. Had the hours but not the sleep to deal with the load so I told them no.

like the other poster said TA can terminate you at will and you can quit at anytime as well. Anyone who thinks they are going to drive OTR 100% legal 100% of the time is delusional. If you drive OTR you will drive illegal or you will get the shaft at some point.

 

Your union statement at best is bogus. It actually depends on the laws of the particular state you are in if you can be fired without cause. Some states do not allow this, union or not. Even in those states, a wrongful termination can be costly to a company. Even non-union drivers have rights. Again, depending on the state you are in, an arbitrator may handle you situation, or as in the case of some states that do not allow labor disputes such as this, it will be heard in court. Good luck.