Who's The Worst Of Them ALL to work for?

YOU FORGOT TO PUT USA TRUCK IN THE MIX

 

I VOTE OTHER FOR USA TRUCK....IF YOU WANT TO BEG ALOT AND BE HUNGRY COME WORK HERE ...AND THE EQUIPMENT IS GREAT...YOU WILL ONLY BREAK DOWN ONCE A WEEK

 

They take so much out of my check, I dont even know what most of it is.
They would only hire me if I leased from them. with a huge balloon at the end. In the last 3 weeks my total pay after deductions was $87.23 thats under $100! Today, I find out I OWE THEM $250. the week I did get the 87.23 my gross was over $3k this has been happening over and over again. When I call them on it, they say, I dont see any problems. I worked for Marten for 9 1/2 yrs before but got terminated for a fender bender on a private lot. (for the 9 1/2 yrs I was company then owner op for over 7yrs, then back to company when my truck broke) So when they fired me for fender bender they said because I was considered a "New Driver" ????? since I was 8mos as Company after Owner. So now I am looking for another driving job. But I think Marten put bad news on my DAC. The rest of my record is clean. JCT turned me down. Who to try next?

 

Not that many of you men even care, I still would like to share a bit of my driving history that might make even the most hard core take a look.

Right out of driving school I was placed with USA, Covenant, JDC, continuing to CRST where, I had to learn to drive flatbed (which, by the way, was one of the best things that ever happened in my driving experience - I learned quickly, I learned well and found myself LOVING flatbed. And, no offense, found myself doing better than some of my male counterparts) in order to keep my job. Their 'Premier' fleet went out. After a horrendis experience with them, I was hired to drive flatbed for another 'mom&pop' outfit that was even more horrible than CRST. Marrietta Transfer, Marrietta, Ohio. Then, yes, you guessed it, I was hired to drive flatbed for yet another 'mom&pop' that was the worst of them all, 'James Gath Trucking, Standish, Michigan.

Anyone see the pattern here? Has anyone picked up on what occured causing me to have to go from one company to another? If you guessed severe, even aggressive sexual harrassment, you're right. But, what caused me to either quit (two companies) or be terminated by (one) was, I could NEVER get the help needed to be able to continue employment with those companies. They turned their backs on ME. And if that weren't bad enough, the last three companies NEVER paid me what was paid to their male employees for the same work. I was continually 'ripped off'. But wait, there's more - Three of my last employers put gigantic lies on my DAC report including truck abandonment. Huge lie. I am in the process of trying to get those removed, but find it a challenging process.
Meanwhile -

I did not realize going from one company to another, trying to get with a company I could really sink my teeth into and be with for years to come, would cause my career such caos that I cannot find ANYONE to hire me.
I am saddened. I am an excellent driver. Professional. Loyal. Can handle flatbed/DryVan with the best of them but can only 'hope' it's not over.

With that said - many thanks to all whom read the above.

Peggy A. Christman

 

Good luck with that Peggy

 

I can see the problem right there....Why wouldn't a particular gender care not knowing you? Sounds as if you might be looking for a fight...

Care to elaborate in order to help the other female drivers or would be drivers here? Or even the men who may have been harmlessly flirting with you, but you perceived to be harrasment?



Forget the rest. You have become a statistic, driver-wise. Unusual for "mom n pop" outfits to go to the trouble of lying to USIS.

I see you are 53. Better give up the flatbed, you and I are menopausal, and if you fall, a broken hip or pelvis would sideline you from driving for the rest of your life. Go find a nice refer or dryvan outfit and stay away from the guys. You must be a hottie at 53 for the guys to be bothering you, or maybe you might not be the right fit for a male dominated industry. I have worked mostly with men all of my adult life and I don't let their hormones bother me. I do my job and make my money. Same as them. If not you, better days, friend....

 

Tell ya this. Did you keep any or all of the reports from you turning your truck back in, and did you take them to the same terminal you picked them up from? If so, get an attorney, call DAC, get your report and sue that company that put that on your DAC report. But, only if you did take it back to the terminal in which you did pick it up from, and kept the paperwork signed by their personell that you did turn your truck back into them. It might be a pain getting home after taking back to where you might have picked it up from. But the benefit of that is keeping your paperwork and knowing it is where you got it from, than wondering and running into this problem. Will definitely, ultimately save you lots of money.

As for the sexual harrasment, keep a tape recorder on you and press record everytime someone does that to you. Walk into the big wigs office and say look here bubsy, listen to this. Play the tape and threaten to sue if they dont do something just about it.

 

I did a lease with Aarow and they suck... Not only do they not have the miles but the DM's are complete jerks and talk down to you.

 

I have worked as a auto mechanic (2 yrs, 1 company), sawmill worker (1 yr., 1 company) oilfield construction( 1 yr., 1 company), oilwell drilling (7 yrs., 10 companies), timber faller (5 yrs., 5 states, 9 companies), prison guard maximum security (4 yrs., 1 employer), photographer (2 yrs., self employed), and then lastly a truck driver (12 years, mom&pop flatbed for 2.5 yrs., May/Brookings, OR 8 months dry vans, Knight/Phoenix 6 months dry vans, mom&pop reefer 8.5 yrs., Marten reefer 7 months). Career changes were mostly forced due to ever changing economies. The truck job changes were my attempts to find some decent treatment somewhere. I care more about how I am treated than I care about the fanciness of the truck or terminal or the pay. Just some semblance of decency would suffice. I never found it except for a couple of very brief instances during extreme driver shortages. And now that the economy has tanked and there is a surplus of drivers, trucking companies are able to show their real personalities and ethics. I knew what their ethics were made of the whole time, and I knew they would get even more evil if ever they had a driver surplus. It's worse than I imagined! Peggy, even in good times I doubt you will ever find civilized treatment with a trucking company, but definitely not in times like this. All the methods of paycheck theft and misrepresentation and "bait and switch" recruiting and all of it, are common knowledge amongst the trucking companies. All of their methods are as old as the hills. BTW, most of the old southern plantations treated their slaves better than truckers are being treated now that there is a surplus of drivers (I happened to have made a study of the treatment of slaves, BTW). Many other industries besides trucking will see value in treating employees decently so as to have loyal employees, as loyal employees will represent the company to the customers in a favorable way; this is not a factor with trucking companies. Competition amongst trucking companies is so cut-throat, that it is only suitable for survival by psycopathic management. In the end, drivers get processed through DAC by a companies with a mindset of "If I can't own/abuse this driver, then no one else will". As the old saying goes, "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely", and DAC empowers a lot of ruthless entities in the trucking business. Drivers who are single orphans with no family, or those who choose to just forgo the family or social life by accepting little or no home time, and who will be perfectly subservient, and who have some skill and luck to not have any incidents, these will be the ones to perhaps have a chance of surviving DAC, but probably not for an entire career. I have seen drivers whos luck held out for maybe 15 years, and then all of those years of good service are wiped out by one tiny incident (for me, it was 12 years). I have changed careers before, I am doing it again. But what we men don't really take the time to fathom, is what all of the above would be like if we were also expected to spend some time under some dispatcher's desk, or the desk of some other trucking office sleaze. The thought of what it would taste like to keep the job makes me gag. I have seen ugly sexual harrasment in workplaces with far better ethics than trucking, so I can well imagine how sleazy sexual harrassment would get in trucking management. Of all my careers, I rank employee treatment by trucking companies quite a bit lower than the next ranking career in my experience. My post is too long, so I will close, but suffice to say you have my empathy. Decent men will all empathize with you Peggy, but brace yourself for some responses by psychopaths as well (those who have little or no empathy for the suffering of others and who have a history of socially abberative behavior). Let their posts have no force with you. Good luck and God bless.

 

If after reading all the prime posts does not qualify it for the 'worst of the worst' then maybe a conversation with a current or former primer will!!!!