We hear so much about corrupt or negligent executives at large companies that it can be easy to forget that the backbone and spirit of our industry is made up of owner-operators, small and mid-sized carriers. In fact, three other big news stories this week were about large companies being sued as the result of shady or irresponsible business practice. So here’s one that will remind you that strong morals and steadfast conviction do still exist in trucking.
The owner of Willie C Kirland Trucking (conveniently named Willie Kirland) reported to authorities back in February that an office manager for a company he was contracting with had attempted to extort money from him. Kirland Trucking had just been contracted to provide three trucks per day to haul sand for RLF Baldwin, a company in Pensacola, FL. On the first day of the contract, Willie Kirland was told that they would only be needing two trucks per day, meaning a $550 per day loss for Kirland Trucking.
Office manager Denise Smith offered a solution: pay her $75 a day and she’d make sure that her company used three trucks per day. While $75 a day is a lot of money to make for not doing anything, that would have meant $475 more per day for Kirland; that’s more than $170,000 a year! Kirland easily could have agreed to the deal and pocketed the money, but instead he reported Smith to the authorities.
On March 6th, under surveillance from the State Attorney’s office and FDLE, Kirland met with Smith and hammered out the details of the deal. Then on March 14th, again, under surveillance, money changed hands. A week later, a warrant was issued for Smith’s arrest.
She was later released from jail on a $10,000 bond.
By reporting the offer to the authorities, Willie Kirland forfeited $475 per day, but he also proved that just because we usually only hear horror stories about company owners, doesn’t mean that there aren’t people who do the right thing, no matter the cost.
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Source: northescambia, fleetowner
Doing the right thing is always the right thing to do. My hats off to Mr. Willie!
John
Sounds like that woman would make a good union boss, government worker, politician, or even President
Mr. Kirland won’t suffer from a shortage of drivers – or freight. Getting caught doing the right thing is a good way to mark yourself as the employer that drivers want to drive for, and the carrier that customers want hauling for them. Do the man a favor, and post contact information!
I’m on my way to apply for Willie Kirkland now….Lol.. Seriously hats off to you MR.Kirkland
Good job,good to see and hear about people not caving in just to make the all mighty dollar. My hat goes off to Mr.Kirland
Its good he did that. I’ve seen that type of activity more than not. Look at yrc I used to work for a vendor that worked on their equipment. I seen that then I was a mechanic and I turned them in got terminated and tried to see if they would hire me. they were not interested because of that. That was 12 years ago. Now they are going down. Serves them right.
There’s corruption everywhere I work for Comtrak under a lease in Ontario CA and if you’re not paying you’re put to side for 4 hours while others drivers are moving ( you know because they’re in my contacts and we have each other on google latitude).
Great job Willie! Now if more people would do what you do, then this country might be a better, and more fair place to work. Thanks for doing your share brother!
Graft and corruption, gotta love it. What I want to know is why Willie lost that third truck. There was a need for it or the contract would not have been let. Because there had to be a load for the third truck to pickup had the dirty deed been done. Regardless He done the right thing and saved other truckers a similar experience. This would be a good story to follow up on the see how many companies had been scammed before Willie turned her in.
Some really good news for a change. Congrats to Mr Kirkland.