Chizek Transport, Inc. - Newton, Wi.

As an addendum to this paying for things at this carrier: Today I sent my dispatcher, whom I've taken to referring publicly to as 'John Kerry' since in nearly every conversation I'm reminded that he's had 35 years on the road (but nothing's really changed out here in that time) [awfully reminicent after a while of hearing about Kerry's thrice Purple Heart award on a daily basis], a message indicating my ETA and projected available hours after delivery on 6/15. I receive a reply indicating that I would "be charged for excess mesg 9.00 for last (message) $.05/char." I suggested prompting operations for a preplan since running that early in the morning would result in an early afternoon shut down on the 14 hour rule and we could better utilize the time available rather than waiting for everyone to come in at 7:30 and start business around 8:00, losing four hours (28.5% of a 14 hour day).

Admittedly the message I sent was a bit absent minded and I could have abbreviated a few things better but at least I didn't describe in detail for my dispatcher every minute detail of my "dinner at Red Lobster consisting of lobster tails, $X.95, blah blah blah blah blah" as did one of our drivers. I can see insisting on brevity in Qualcomm messages (it is an expense easily abused) and I'll do my part in the future to remember to keep that brevity. But is it reasonable to charge a driver $9.00 for communicating his available hours and suggesting making use of them? He made sure to tell me that I'm being passed over for miles that I could easily run and possibly repower so underutilization is going on in this instant. Read from that what you will but in a numerical analysis of the hours of service there's no other way to look at the situation.

The thing that galls me about the whole issue (aside from this being an on-going thing at Chizek Transport) is a man with 45 drivers on his board had the time to count individual characters on the screen, total it up and the respond with a message in kind letting me know I'd be paying the bill for my message. God, what ever happened to common sense?

By the way, I counted the characters in his response: he owes Chizek Transport $2.80 for excessive messaging on Qualcomm.

 

For the record, I always own my responsibility. If I damage it I have no qualms about fixing it. But deliberately damaging a piece of company equipment is, I think, the mark of a sad, pathetic employee who never should have had the job to begin with. Negligence is one thing; coincidence another. Even the Bible specifies that some things are the "cost of it's hire."

No sir I am not afraid to own my mistakes (thus pointing out in a previous post that I did perhaps get a bit verbose and should have abbreviated message content).

 

We have macros too but only for loaded, empty, and daily hours. Nothing to update an eta or available hours once you put them in the loaded call. Maybe that's a hint...

I've tried sticking it out for loyalty to a couple of friends who work here but this stuff is getting asinine. With today's revelation that I'm being passed over mileage-wise I'm re-entering the hunt for more gainful employment.

And so another carrier will deal with the loss of a driver... On goes the cycle and up goes the turnover ratio...

 

Turbo, You may want to look into that. The Fair Labor Standards Act covers a number of legal guidelines pertaining to employment both as a Federal employee and a private sector employee. FLSA encompases at its core the Wage and Hours Provisions determining the legal length of a work week and what minimum wages must be paid (of course as amended). The FLSA also spells out which groups of employees are considered exempt and nonexempt. FLSA exempt employees, if I'm not mistaken, include transportation workers (truckers, railroad, etc) as well as radio station employees, specifically on-air talent (I've worked in both fields). Essentially everything else about FLSA stands but we are not included in the Wage and Hours Provisions--there's no minimum wage nor is there a set work week as far as FLSA is concerned for us which will earn us "overtime" pay.

If I'm wrong, please let me know... But it seems like this was my understanding some years ago when I read the FLSA cover to cover.