Megacarrier Marten Transport has been ordered to cut a check to and rehire Cedric Sinkfield, a former driver who was fired after refusing to drive an overweight load.
According to the driver’s case, he was assigned to pick up a load in May of 2014, but refused to accept it when it weighed in at 40 lbs over the limit. He notified his supervisor who told him to accept the load, but Sinkfield refused. A few days later, he was fired.
While Marten doesn’t dispute any of that, they claim that Sinkfield was fired for a number of additional reasons. In fact, in his supervisors pointed to seven different issues that occurred since his hiring barely two months earlier including failure to properly secure company equipment, missed load assignments, and the incident which ultimately prompted his termination – oversleeping and delivering a load six hours late to Coca-Cola.
Despite the other issues however, since refusing to haul that overweight load was on the list of reasons, a judge ruled that firing him was wrong. The judge ordered Marten to pay $1,167 in back pay, $50,000 in punitive damages, and to rehire Sinkfield.
Marten Transport says it plans to appeal the decision.
Source: overdrive
Only 40 pounds over? If he was low on fuel, I’d understand. Otherwise, he should have taken it. He could have burned off that weight in about 30 minutes. I was with a company that did mostly broker loads. I wouldn’t need a single hand to count the number of times I was able to run a full tank.
40,000 lbs over that is what 40k means.
It wasn’t 40k over it was only 40lbs.
He was only 40 lbs over not 40k
40K over that would have meant the load was 85,000lbs their is no way they would have tried to put that in a refer.
Oh Yeah. They haul sugar and recycle loads on those reefers all the time. Ironic they got caught for the 40lbs o/w. That’s nothing. Judge sent them a message.
It doesn’t say 40 it says 40lb.
The guy was right but he sounds like a tool, that said Randy Marten is a bit of a tool himself.
Amen to that – to your last part there.
I worked for Marten for a year. Never have I seen a more ‘you-will-do-or-else’ company. The company is a draconian rules monger.
On top of that, they have absolutely no respect for driver home time.
So if you ask me, if this guy was a tool, it was probably because he was sick of their BS – and just didn’t want to work for them anymore.
To be fair, when I worked there, I made over a thousand almost every single week. But on the flipside, I couldn’t get a break when I needed one, and it was murder trying to get them to get me home.
I left, because on one occasion my shoulder started hurting to the point to where it was becoming difficult to drive. Marten refused to let me sit at the truck stop I was at to try to get in some recovery time. I had no less than 5 people call me within an hour, trying to get me to get the truck moving. When the fifth called, I told them I was resigning. I would take freight that got me in a position to turn their truck in at one of their terminals, but I was done.
The day that I got the truck turned in, I had one of the company’s executives call me. He wanted to know why I was quitting.
(I had a perfect ontime delivery record as well as perfect safety record there.)
“You have no respect for people,” I told him. “I prefer not to work for a company that has no respect for its people.”
He retorted with, “Well, I’m just going to put in your jacket that you quit because we were running you too hard!”
Made my point for me, yup.
I left and never looked back. Thought about suing them over the trying to force-me-to-run-when-I-wasn’t-feeling-well bit, but shrugged and decided it probably wouldn’t be worth it. Any company that treats its people like Marten did probably has a ton of lawyers, so I’d probably just be wasting my time.
Time I spent looking for a job with another company.
Though a lot of trucking companies treat drivers poorly, sounds more like this guy didn’t want a job, just a paycheck. The over weight ticket, had he gotten one, which is doubtful, wouldn’t have been to him, but to the company.
The ticket only gose to the company if no scales are available for the driver to weigh the load.
How do you figure? The driver is responsible, and any ticket, for anything, goes to the driver.
I used to tell my company when they wanted me to violate in any way, “I don’t mind doing it – if you guys will promise to pay the ticket if I get caught”. They always backed down for some reason.
Over weight tickets go to the company……
Nope ticket gets written in the drivers name, Read one sometime, it will (your name) did operate on a public highway….
Company MAY pay it but it written in the drivers name
nope they will put it in the company name. our branch had 3 last year in Michigan. you just have to ask. I want to thank the union, the only tickets I have to pay for are moving violations, everything else goes on the company as it should. THE DRIVER DOSE NOT OWN THE TRUCK, YOU ARE AN EMPLOYEE!!!
any other job and you can take the company to the state dept. of labor if they tried to make an employee pay for equipment or safety violations.
my guess is you can do it to a trucking company also.
WRONG!!!! Drivers are responsible for over weights… Are You A Driver? Lol
I got a $5,800 overweight fine in Claysville PA, went on my record and I had to fight/pay it. Confirmed on driver.
Then you was off truck route and got charged, that’s the only way that happens because you chose to drive that route, unless it was printed directions from the company then it’s their fault.
Overweight tickets go to the company always have, shoot I get at least 15-20 a yr
Over wieght tickets are driver responsibility . Your ticket , your fine !
BS. Your o/w tickets are yours, always. You are definitely overweight with horse manure.
Paltry 51k is grossly insufficient. If a multi million dollar company wrongfully terminates a driver for following the law, that company should pay a MUCH higher settlement so they will think twice before doing it again.
Maybe. But that is what the judge thought sufficient to deter future retaliation by Marten.
What is failed to be recognized here is the law is the law. 40lbs is 40lbs. The trucking company can’t force him to do that. Yes I would haul it but that’s not the point. He went by the law and that’s his choice not the companies. They should have to pay allot more than they did. If they tried to force this diet then how many times a day do you think there doing it to someone else. Those big companies don’t cars about drivers only revenue.
I read it twice. It says 40lbs not 40k. He should have taken the load. The tires would look pretty flat @ 120,000lbs. These big companies do take advantage of their drivers but this sounds like a case of a driver giving us all a bad name.
He gives us a bad name by following the law? I’ll take that bad name. I would rather be known for following the law than breaking it. If your child stole a candy bar from a store would you say, “it’s just a candy bar”?
“He should have taken the load.”
Yeah, I think there’s a certain amount of leeway anyway, right? It’s difficult to imagine any D.O.T. cracking a guy for a measly 40 lbs. I always felt safe if within 500 lbs. Nevertheless, I’m happy to see someone get some money out of a trucking company. If he’s been driving any length of time, he’s probably owed that much in unpaid detention.
The load was over on the tandems as well. And much more than 40 pounds.
The article says 40lbs over gross. Unless it’s a spread axle, it’s going to be over one or two axle groups. Unless he’s an -; I don’t see him getting into trouble.
40lbs isn’t a big deal until he ran over your family. Then you would sue him because he was over and breaking the law. Think before speak.
40 pounds? That’s like 5 gallons of fuel. Two different scales can weight the same load and be off by more than that.
meaning that it is possible the overweight could be even greater by that much if not more; the financial penalty and demerit points associated are worth it ? or, are you just one of those drivers that likes to bend over and ask for more ?
England just cut me a check for $1500 from the Jasper vs England class action case. My lost income,was $45.16 and damages were 40x that. I’d say Marten got off cheap…
@ Ryan. For u and Marten it might work like that but it doesn’t for the DOT and the strick laws it has in place to control these issues. What do you think would happen if after leaving the shipper the driver got caught in a surprise mobile weigh scale or pulled over, weighed and then cited for being overweighted. Would you and marten take full responsibility and pay the citation? I dont know if an overweight citation is CSA reportable but if it’s explain to me exactly how you and Marten plan on getting it removed. If it’s CSA reportable i would i would sue Marten for damageing my CSA score. I am elated for this fella and can only imagine how many other drivers they did this and at the moment got away with it because those other drivers were not knowledgable about their rights or lack the financial ability to confidently persue litigation.
O/W is not CSA reportable, but illegal is illegal. No corporation can legally pay for o/w fines imho. It would be deemed accessory to breaking the laws. No legal department would allow that policy.
For the record Marten has gotten better about getting drivers home. Drivers do not have a problem getting home anymore. It looks like this guy got fired for delivering the Coca Cola load six hours late.
Marten representatives testified that they do not always fire drivers for one service failure, and do not fire every driver who has a service failure on a Coca-Cola Load. The employment file listed the refusal of the overweight load and related “Conflict with Fleet” manager on an employment form which is used to document reasons for discharge. The service failure on the Coke load was also listed. The law requires the driver to prove that the protected safety complaints or work refusal contributed to his firing. The burden then shifts to the employer (in this case – Marten) to prove by clear and convincing evidence that it would have fired the driver even if he had not made the protected safety complaint or refused to break a safety regulation
Yeah ..40 lbs over?
…driver was looking for a free ride ..if all the issues were true about the driver ..especially oversleeping and late 6 hours? ..cmon driver …get your act together! ..
40lbs is well within the margin of error on the scales. It’s 0.05% over. Ridiculous. This guy is obviously a trouble maker.
Marten was stupid to list refusing an overweight load (no matter how insignificantly overweight) on their list of reasons to fire him. Stupidity like that loses you lawsuits, plain and simple. They had plenty of other reasons to fire him without that added on.
Did I read that correctly,40lbs. overweight. That driver would have lost that weight in the first hour of driving.
It was over much more than 40 pounds on the tandems even after he slid them.
The penalty in this case was surely based on more than a driver being told to run a load 40 pounds (not 40k) over gross. Any driver who refuses to run that load is an incompetent troublemaker in my opinion. I’m no fan of Randy Marten, but I’d at least take his side on this one issue.
It sounds to me like the judge in this case must have known more about Marten Transport’s operations than Randy Marten would have liked.
I got an expensive (over $500) citation once in Maryland for unknowingly taking a 53′ trailer over a length-restricted bridge. The scalemaster who cited me said I could get the fine reduced if I went to court. So I did.
A whole bunch of other cases were ruled on before mine was. In every single case, all the judge did was ask the defendant how many tickets/accidents they had in the past two or three years. If their prior record was clean, she would dismiss. The worse their record was, the more she would fine. My driving record was not very good at the time so she made me pay something like $220, but at least the fine got reduced.
Marten Transport’s overall record/reputation must surely have been the main reason this judge fined them that much. Either that or it was a judge who doesn’t know anything at all about trucking.
Maybe Marten is worried about their other drivers doing the same thing. The comments I’ve read say Marten is a bad place to work. We really don’t have all the facts. If the company is such a bad place to work maybe the judge had more info on the company from which to make his ruling. Maybe the judge looked at Martens turnover numbers. Maybe he looked at the drivers logs and saw a reason for over sleeping. Late for pickups? Maybe the pickup times were already missed when the driver got the load. The driver followed the law. The judge cannot punish a driver for doing that. If the driver was so bad the judge had to wonder why they didn’t fire him sooner. You have to look at the mitigating circumstances.
They should have fined enough for him to buy a decent truck cash. 50k dont go long way these days.
Marten are scumbags. Mandatory per-diem. They deserve to be slapped around. Most new management coming from Knight. They call them the “Knight Transplants”
Big companies treating drivers like crap is a big part of the reason why the turnover rate is so high in the trucking business. Also, drivers should research the company they are thinking of applying with BEFORE they sign.
I got a ticket for having a dirty engine in Colorado, that’s right a dirty engine, at a portable scale setup. My truck has less than 400k on the clock, I told the officer look at every oilfield truck and see if you can eat off it, that sorta pissed him off by then I had enough of abuse by someone with a badge. If I’m overweight my load goes back to the yard and it gets reworked no questions asked period. 40lbs is 40lbs.
Show me in the book where it says an engine has to be clean. That’s BS
It is required to be properly greased and free of oil leaks, anyhow. I think that is in Part 396 of 49 CFR.
iam happy 4 the driver about time we stand up for what is right 80k is 80 k now pay him
If I was in that driver’s position I would refuse it too. DOT isn’t playing around with this overweight stuff anymore. My guess is it was probably 40 pounds over the 80,000 GVWR limit,hence the refusal. In some jurisdictions not only do those
overweight tickets tend to be expensive but those points go on a driver’s CSA record-and STAY THERE for TWO YEARS(basically that’s the kiss of death for those two years). Points that drivers can definately do without
. IMHO Marten wasn’t penalized enough
My question is, was he 40 lbs over gross or 40 lbs over on axles. BIG difference.
Truck driver for 16 years. The gross weight of the truck trailer and load must not weigh over 80,000 pounds unless you have an overweight pass to deliver that on our nation’s highways. If a trucking company has a hard time following the rules then they must pay not the driver.
Wesley you made a very good point. Still
Goes back to 40 lbs at 8 lb gal burning 6 gal a.mile wouldve lost the lbs but what if scale was inavoidable til then. And yes theres a fudge factor on weight. Im sure he musta been over gross. But then again ive been over gross and decided to run w it amd did infact come up on a scale..thankfully it was closed…thank you trucker path app!
I worked for marten for 2 yrs and aside from the slow ass truck..i loved it.
I started out there after school in 2001
I was always given home time..and i was living in canada.. but then again i stayed out for 6-9 weeks at a time.
Im sure marten will be extrwmwly careful not to slander his dac as he culd then come back an bitch he was defamated and thats another lawsuit.
I WOULD NOT go back to marten ifni didnt have to..consider the treatment he would get now eh?
Makes me proud to know at least one of my peers is willing to the right thing!
For all you guys willing to take the load 40 pounds over, or you could be 1000 pounds under gross. The bigger question is are you axle legal on all axles, most likely not.
I haul a tanker and I have a lift axle and tractor weight is 17300 full fuel. I went to load and with trailer 29k empty. So by that they want to load 50k product and Im under gross 1k. However it won’t axle I know as Ive been there and did it once 1k over on drives, I have a weight gauge.
I took it the first time and sent a pic to my terminal manager who thanked me for letting him know. When I had to go back again months later I told them only 48.5k. They were hesitant and said no at first while I explained why. It went up to three people beyond loader but they finally agreed. We need to stand up and do what we know is right.
Over weight is a serious issue. The Carrier should not of been stressed and forced the driver to violate the law. Carrier needs to Force The Shipper work within the law.
I have a question for the guys who are hemming and hawing over the decision not to pull a load that is merely 40lbs overweight. .
At what point would you draw the line? How much overweight would you refuse to break the law, putting your CDL on the hook? Would it be at 50lbs? 100 lbs? 1000 lbs?
It seems the safest thing to do is explain it to dispatch over the quelcomm, especially if the tandems are showing overweight.
Marten scumbags. They overweigh the tractor with 400lbs of APU, then they slap on 100lbs worth of grill guard and expect you to float the CAT scale and not pop your brakes to show legal on the steers… also expecting you to run on fumes. They deserve to be slapped around out of sheer STUPIDITY.
I’m pretty sure the wiggle room to account for scale errors is over 40lbs. I’m pretty sure. I’m almost positive on this. I really don’t know though.
I don’t get it,so many drivers complain about how we get treated and screwed and unappreciated etc. But when a guy goes by the rules and stands up for himself so many other drivers are here saying “he should have just taken it,it’s only 40lbs I would have taken it”. That’s why we get treated the way we do
40 lbs over isn’t even a ticket really. I think it’s $500 per 100 over (or something like that).
And the driver sounds like a joker anyway.
BUT,,,,
He probably made more off the suit than he would have working for a year. And as long as outfit continue to under pay, they will continue to draw people looking to game the system to make a buck rather than actually perform a service for the company.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t there some sort of variance if the truck is equipped with an APU? I’m pretty sure Martens trucks have APU’s
Up to 400 lbs in some states, 550 pounds in others, and no overage in other states such as Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah. The load in this case was also over on the tandems by more that the APU allowance.