Bulk carrier nightmare

Where are they located and what is the full company name?

 

MDS is Material Delivery Service

 

I know this thread is over two years old but I figured I would put my two cents in. Everything you just said above has been absolutely false, at least in my case. I have had none of this happen to me. I have been here since June 29th. I have been paid for everything they have had me do, from training to orientation to driving. There has been no "loan" issued to me and no junky Volvo either.

At orientation, the President of the company took me to lunch. Kind of rare to meet the President of any company I would think. They have an open door policy so if you have a problem with something they are willing to listen and even resolve the issue if it is possible. I just got a letter in the mail from the President today telling me that they were fixing and issue that I had brought to their attention and I have only been here a short time. They seem to care about their drivers and equipment from what I have experienced so far.

I went through the same steps as you as far as training with a guy for two weeks, then to orientation and then out on my own. The safety guy did the orientation and he seems pretty cool. He is strict as heck about the logs but that is fine with me. Other than that, this company has left me alone and let me do my job with zero supervision.

 

I'm going to have to agree with rubber ducky. Been in Batesville for a few months now, and have known most of the old hands here for many years.

From what I personally know, I'm calling BS - somebody apparently has no business behind the wheel.

 

Small world. I actually run out of Georgia but am dispatched by Batesville. I think Toni dispatches you too PowerBstrd.

 

Yes she does. Just got off the phone with her a few minutes ago, in fact.

 

Well now that I had a small taste of Material Delivery Service I would not recommend this company to anyone. I was running a dedicated account that had some good mileage runs but MDS shorted my mileage pay quite frequently. I questioned them about it and they said "oh that's just the way the routing program calculates the mileage". I realize that most companies do not pay hub miles and use routing software to calculate shipping prices and pay but MDS was way off on mileage on several occasions. 124 miles this last check. 124 * .49cpm = $60.76

$50 bucks here, $60 bucks there...adds up over the course of a year. They shorted me a couple times on layover. Once because they claimed I was on a reset and they don't pay resets. I arrived at my delivery on a Friday eve and could not deliver until scheduled appt on Monday. My hours were going to reset regardless. But I still had more than enough time on my 70hr clock to make the delivery and get home. They just used that as an excuse not to pay me for all the time I spent waiting, Fri eve, Sat. and Sun.

Another time I arrived a day early at my delivery. I told them before I left to schedule it for the following day just in case I had any more issues trying to get out west in 3 days. Already had some mechanical issues with the tractor that morning prior to loading so I was playing it conservative. Got to my delivery around noon on a Monday. Load was scheduled for Tuesday delivery. Customer had plenty of room in their tank to hold the product. I called dispatch to tell them I was going to go ahead and deliver since I was there. I was told I had to wait until Tuesday because that's what I told them to schedule it for.

I explained that they are the ones that asked me if I thought I could make it or not and I said to add an extra day on just in case. If I make it on Monday good, if not then the customer won't be mad that I was late. Just trying to play it safe. Anyway, was made to sit at the truck stop for 17hrs before I could deliver. MDS refused to pay me any layover for that.

You have to understand one thing about the route I was running. I never had to check in with anyone. I just pulled up to the customers tank, hooked up and unloaded. Then found someone to sign my paperwork. So it would have made no difference if I had delivered on Monday. Just the shipper and MDS making my job more difficult.

They claim they pay safety bonuses but they decided to jack me on that one too. I was there a full quarter, July-September. I qualified for it. Put in my two week notice on Oct 6th, last day was October 16th so I had worked well beyond a quarter. Checks were scheduled to be issued on the 23rd. I asked if I was getting mine and was told I had to still be working there when the checks were issued in order to get it. How is this a quarterly bonus then??? Funny how they can pull a policy out of thin air to avoid paying a driver what they owe him.

Insurance is kind of high for what you get. $120 a week for family. No vacation time until after a year. No holiday pay until after 90 days. Missed out on a couple of those due to that policy. Seemed like a good company up front but after working there 3 months I can see why they are constantly advertising for drivers. I would advise staying away from MDS and Schilli Corporation.

 

That certainly sucks. Was it Toni/Cindy you dealt with, or anyone else? I honestly cant imagine them pulling those shenanigans, but then again I only run locally, and am paid by the ton. Then again, being able to look seone in the eye on a daily basis seems to cut down on potential dishonesty.

 

I don't think Toni had anything to do with it. I think her hands were tied. My gut feeling tells me she knows that the drivers doing this dedicated run are getting screwed money wise but there is not anything she can do about it. She was always nice to me.

I was told by the guy who trained me that I they had a hard time keeping drivers on that run. I can see why now. All that being said, I did get a call from one of the head honchos this morning letting me know that I would be getting my safety bonus after all. He talked to the owner and I guess they both agreed since I had given proper notice and left the tractor in good shape that they would give it to me. I was surprised but happy. I need the money right now.