| Paycheck Deductions for O/O's? Hey everyone, I have a question regarding money being taken out of my check. I am an owner operator that currently employees a driver. The company I am leased onto has charged me 388.98 for a load that was not able to be picked up (this load only pays my truck 82.50). My driver broke his wrist on Monday 12/10/07 and worked most of the day, he called me after he had already picked up and delivered 2 routes of his dedicated lane. I called dispatch to let them know my driver needed to go to the hospital. They told me he had to take his 3rd route or I would be charged for them to expedite the load. My driver said he would pull it to avoid the charge. I went to the office and talked with the manager, they said they found another truck that could pull his 3rd route but wanted to know if he would be able to run his lane the next day. Not knowing how bad his wrist was I told them I would try. Later that evening my driver called from the hospital all doped up on morphine, telling me his wrist was in really bad shape. I called into dispatch at 11:00 pm and told them my driver would not be able to work, due to his wrist. I was told they would find someone to cover it. The next day my driver came into the office willing to run, but was not allowed to due to his cast that went from his wrist to his elbow. I had not heard anything till today when I picked up my check. They deducted the expedite fee of 388.98 for Tuesday 12/11/07 because they could not find a truck to pull the load. My question is can they legally take money from settlement check without me signing something to allow them to do this. I have not had a chance to re-read my contract agreement yet. I know as an employee the employer cannot do this, but as a contractor I don’t know. I have read a post about the qualification of being a 1099 contractor, and just for the record from what I have read here is the situation: 1. They direct deposit my check 2. Apparently my truck is forced to pull loads 3. I cannot just go work (haul for someone)somewhere else etc. Any advise would be greatly appreciated! |