Putting it behind me ~ Hello Pride Transport

Well I can't think of a better place to put this so here it goes.

Last summer I was driving for Pride and started having chest pains. I wasn't that far from home so I called my wife to meet me and take me to a doctor from Santa Nella since we would get there at about the same time. Why not just call an abulance? I didn't have health insurance and I was just coming back off being out for the same thing. I didn't want the moster bill.

I got to the doctor and they checked me out. Blood pressure was 160/100 but I wasn't having a heart attack. They advised me not to drive till my blood pressure improved and the chest pains stopped. Then they promptly told me to leave and not come back till I can pay my past due bill I have with them. I tried to get some information from them so as to plead my case with Pride, more on that shortly, but they said we won't give you anything until you pay the bill. Kind of hard to do when you haven't worked in a year.

So, over the last year I've put in a lot of hard work. Getting my blood pressure down to 125/85 without meds. I've also lost a lot of weight. I walk 5-10miles everyday and bike another 20 four times a week. I also radically changed my diet to one of fruit/veggies/chicken/fish w/ the only grain being oatmeal every morning for breakfast. Despite getting her B.A. in Business last year my wife has been unable to find employment either so she recenly decided that since I was healthy enough now she would find a company to train her and that we could drive teams together. She is at Central Refridgerated right now as we speak. Well after getting all my ducks in a row I applied but they said that they can't hire me because Pride put an abandonment on my DAC.

I had already started a challenge of that DAC entry so I knew all about it. I've been in contact with Pride trying to provide them with anything I could to convince them to change the DAC entry. It took me awhile to find a doctor that would see me dispite having no job and no insurance. I eventually had to move back to my old hometown to be seen by a old friend from high school who is a doctor. My blood pressure was still elevated(on meds) at that point so he put me on state disability at that time. That was 6 weeks after I had to leave the truck in Santa Nella. I was able to get a note from him to Pride that states when he placed me on disability. He didn't go into detail about my medical problems because he felt that would be a violation of my privacy.

Now the person at Pride that I was dealing with was Steve Schelin, the recruiting manager. According to him I didn't let them know what was going on and that he tried to call me several times the week that this happened. This did happen but I didn't know about it for two weeks after because in the chaos of being rushed to medical attention by my wife I lost my phone. I'm not sure if I left it in the truck or what but when your having chest pains it's pretty scary and you aren't really worried about little things like a phone. I called my dispatcher either the day of the incident or the day after and informed him I was under medical advice not to drive. Now Steve says that I should have tried to contact HR or something and keep them apprised of what was going on. On that account he's probably right, but I fell into a deep depression over all of this. I felt abandoned by a health care system that just as soon let me die then since I wasn't profitable for them. I also felt like I'd let everyone around me down.

I'm not asking for my job back at Pride nor do I want it. They wouldn't be a good fit for what me and the wife want to do. What I am asking them for is to have enough compassion to remove abandoment from my DAC so I can have a chance at redemption. I feel I've earned the right for a second chance by all the hard work I've put in over the last year. Unfortunately, Mr. Schelin either lacks compassion or doesn't agree with me that I deserve the second chance. I think most decent human beings would be rooting for someone who's put in the work I have to turn their life around.

I'm suppose to get a call from CEO Jay England tomorrow because I asked to speak to the next person above Mr. Schelin. I doubt that will produce any change in the situation and if it doesn't I will seek legal advice but also doubt that will bare any fruit. Regardless, I will not be detered, I will find a company that is willing to take me and my wife on as a team. We want to make a living doing this together so we don't have to be apart and can support ourselves and our daughter who is about to start her sophomore year at BYU. I loved driving and was good at it, in 7 years only problems I ever had was I scrapped a bumper on a tall curb at the Lake Havasu Pilot and got a speeding ticket in Tennessee last year. I realize this means that more then likely we are going to have to work either the small company angle or swallow some pride(is that a pun?) and go to one of the real bottom feeders for a while.

By the way, I will be emailing Mr. Schelin as well as Jay England a link to this post. I doubt he'll have much to dispute as far as the facts because I've tried to present them as honestly as possible. I do hope both of them read the rest of this thread to understand that I was actually a cheerleader for Pride, often defending the company from accusations of being just like CRE. I still think they are better then a lot of companies to work for but I also think they could have shown me a little compassion in this case.



PS- Personal update, I completed two semesters upon returning to school. Cleaned up my gpa a lot, went from a 2.0 to a 3.5 in one year. But since my wife can't seem to find a job with a degree I don't really see why I should continue. Plus, I really miss driving.