| Byrdsway Trucking in Alpena Mich
I started with this company 6 months ago. My first week there it seemed like a pretty OK place to work. Having never worked flatbed before (2 years refrigerated and dry van) I felt that my trainer Bill was very thorough with teaching me on how to tarp and tie down loads. The rudimentary log book was simple enough, but it was an adjustment not having a Qualcomm but rather communicating via cell phone. (?) Should have been a warning flag at that point.
My second week with them on my own without the trainer things changed. Firstly, the truck assigned to me was a mess. The side mirrors were hanging off their hood brackets and just spinning in the wind, to open the door from the inside you had to roll the window down and open from outside and the dash was held together with carpenter screws.
Mostly, the company no longer went by the book. I was given a load from home to Philadelphia, which had to be there at 8-AM the next morning. It was a 13-hour drive and would have been made on time if not for being loaded 4 hours late. I shut down that night legally and at 6-AM in the morning Judy, the dispatcher/load planner/personnel manager/owners daughter called me on the cell phone when she came into work, and chewed me out as to WHY I stopped, WHY I was not at the customer and that I needed to get moving NOW. I told her NO, and that I couldn't legally move again until 8-AM and still had 3 hours to my destination. At 6:45 AM the other driver Bill, who was my trainer the week before, called me and told me how Judy was p***ed off, called him to talk sense into me and that I was to roll my ##### windows down if I was tired and it better be there on time, but my logs had better show I was running legal. This went on the entire week with other loads.
By my third week, I started becoming rude to Judy and told her it was just too bad for her it would be late, and maybe she should stop planning loads so tight when they are 14 hour drives or better, and I was not running illegal. She ranted and put the owner on the phone who I told the same thing. I have told him it was NOT an acceptable timeframe for the load to get there legally and she refused to reschedule. I had a face-to-face talk with both Judy and the owner. She apologized and agreed it was wrong of her to do that and that she respects my wish to run legal and will never try it again.
My fourth week was the exactly the same and it was as if we never talked about it. I turned in the company cell phone and keys. I still have NOT gotten my last paycheck for they are refusing to give it to me. Judy handed me back every log from day one with a list of what to change before they will give it to me.  | 
07.11.2009
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