Fleet Owner horror stories

I will admit tho that in 1988 in abandoned a truck .
After 2 paychecks bounced and the owner got ugly with me on the phone in ft Wayne ind I payed just enough cash for fuel to get it empty to south st Paul MN at stockman ts.
Pocketed the rest .
A relative picked me up there and put me up for a few days while I decided what to do .
When I left the truck clean I locked it up and hid the keys in the reefer I called up to fargo and told em where the truck and keys were .
They were a little pissed at me lol but I never heard another word about it and spent the next 4 years at Dart .

 

Had a new kid we hired, we were changing oil in equipment. Told him go start that engine, let it warm up for a few minutes then change the oil. Kid looked my brother straight in the eye and said I've never changed oil with an engine running before, how do you do that.

Another kid I asked if he could change the oil in my duramax. Said yeah no problem. I leave him alone and come back later he's got my truck running. I said everything go OK. He says yeah just gotta check the level and make sure it's good. Turns it off and pulls dipstick with no oil on it. I said how much oil did you put in? He says 5 qts just like every Chevy pickup takes. Dude this is a diesel!!

Another guy had been around awhile and should have known better. Changing oil in a power unit. Oil fill and cap and dipstick are one. Dipstick fell off leaving a one inch long piece of metal with 2 holes where the dipstick was riveted in. And mind you the fill hole was a quarter the way up the side of the block. He comes to me and says man that thing took a lot of oil to fill! Like 20 gallons. I said how much did you take out? Well not near that much. So asked why did you put so much in. He shows me the inch long dipstick and says it took that much to fill it? Really guy you think the dipstick is only and inch long and the crankshaft should be in an oil bath?? Thankfully he hadn't started it!

One day we are pumping hog manure. Guy stops in the middle of the day to get fuel. Which instantly ticked me off because he knows you are supposed to fuel in the morning while greasing and checking machine. But whatever, he's over by the fuel barrel for almost an hour. I walk over to his rig and he's got the hose in his tank but the pump isn't running. Tank is on top of our stepdeck trailer with 12 volt pump. He said the power cord wouldn't reach his battery but fuel was coming out the hose. So it look and fuel was coming out slowly. Pulled the power cord and it wouldn't reach the batteries, but I said Jimmy pull ahead 3 foot. Boom cable reached pump starts running and minutes later he's off and running.

Those are just a few minor stories. Partly our fault for thinking someone can handle a simple task and think for themselves. But just shows you can't trust anyone and have to constantly micro manage which people also hate.

Not to mention the numerous times of guys walking off the job not telling anyone. Faking family deaths for days off. Knowing we work 18 hrs days and not bring lunch and expecting time during the day to get food. Just general wasting of valuable time

 

Numerous trailers backed into ditches or corners cut too short. Accidents happen. Grain cart backed into truck. guy plowed the neighbors 80acre field next to ours including the 5 acres of beans he left standing in the middle of the field.

I'll have to keep thinking. Made a few of my own mistakes no doubt too.

 

Yeah, nice stuff when they are operating on your wallet. I had 4 Stars back in the day with 1 idiot working against us other 3. Closes I ever came to starving to death. Opened up the fridge on a Sat morning and only had a teaspoon of peanut butter and 1 slice of white stale bread left. True story! Bad racket! All I'm sayin! Nothing funny that day. Ended up eatin ##### all weekend. I had enough change to buy a can of cat food.

 

Many times the guys we thought would be the best were the worst and vice versa

 

He screwed up majorly because every Chevy gasser pickup I've ever touched takes about 6L of oil. He's a quart shy of a full crankcase!

I'll see myself out........

 

Here we go... I found it...

Yesterday we were going through old files from years ago and pulled one out that just had a guys first name only. (Only had like 4 trucks at the time) My guy showed it to us all in the office and we all bust out laughing.

There are a good handful of nightmare drivers we reference from time to time that we’ve learned from over the years.

This particular “gentleman” well say went off the grid and wouldn’t answer his phone or texts. I can see on gps he’s sitting in a parking lot about 30 mins from the office. So, I load up and head there and find my truck running, both doors open, him sitting on the edge of the mattress, and his ol lady beating the #### out of him. I told her to get the #### out and I climb up into the truck and it’s absolutely full of trash and bull #### and he’s sitting there crying, face bloody, and wacked out of his mind. Rocking back and forth uncontrollably. Eventually we got him and the truck back to the yard and I told him to clean the truck out and take a couple weeks off. Never heard from him again. What an embarrassing sight to see that was. What’s funny is he was a “hard” biker dude and his ol lady stomped his ###. LOL

So anyway, I have plenty of others but there are certain past drivers where we use them as an example. “Oh he’s not pulling a Tim is he? Hope he doesn’t do a Johnny”. (Names changed)

From thread: Adding trucks...

 

Driver delivering in Richmond VA friday night, get a call around 0300. I got in a fight with the lumper, wanted to unload myself.(contract had x/cwt) Lumper pulled a knife, i said put it away before you get hurt. Came at me so i took it away and beat the crap out of him. Have to go now the ambulance is waiting. Oh, by the way i got stabbed a few times, don't know when i'll get out of. Bye

Couldn't track him down until monday.

 

If my buddy didn't own is own company it would be hard to believe these stories. I once asked him where he finds these people. Lol. I guess he isn't alone.

 

It's not like you think this person is going to be a problem when you hire them. Sometimes it just sneaks up on you. LOL