Anybody ever just abandon your co. truck?

The company owner of the company I was working for had his trucks GPS'd. He knew exactly where there were and what scale house was coming up. He called DOT and reported his truck being driven illegally on 2 other drivers and DOT removed them from the truck on the spot. They were left there to fend for themselves. Another driver was asked to drop the trailer at a location, then bob tale to a shop,.. then once the shop had the keys,.. the driver was left to fend for himself.

You cant make stuff like this up. It happened,.. I wasnt going to become a statistic. The whole reason he wouldnt send me a ticket home was to do this to me.

Another driver DID return the truck to his yard. Owner told the driver to go inside to do some paper work. Once inside,.. the owner locked up the truck. Told the driver to get off his property or else be arrested for trespassing. Refused to let him get his belongings out of the truck. Driver left and called the police. Once back,.. his Ipad, GPS, Laptop, Logs and anything else that could be used against the company to show how the truck was operated was removed from the truck. When asked where these items were,.. the owner said he didnt know what the driver was talking about. The truck has been locked the whole time.

So when I did what I did,.. it wasnt with out thought or concern. I tried to be reasonable. Reasonable was not one of the owners characteristics. You simply could not exit that company in a proper honorable way.

I left the truck at a Windixie DC. The manager there was sympathetic with me and allowed the truck to be parked there. No charge for storage. The truck was parked and locked up in a well lit, safe area with other trucks and security. You couldnt leave it in a better, safer location.

Your looking at this bias'd from an owners perspective. Try to place yourself in my position, be open minded and then ask yourself how you could have possibly done it any differently with out ending up on the side of the road, or losing your personal belongings?

I am currently an owner operator looking at buying more trucks and hiring drivers. I would never put my driver in a position where he felt he needed to abandon my truck. If he did,.. then I can only assume he had a good reason. He'd never work for me again,.. but its not something that I wouldnt have a contingency plan in place to cover.

Hurst

 

Why would you say it's not "your customer." You , the employee depend on your employer for a wage. A wage earned when you , the employee , deliver that customers product/service. If you don't deliver that product /service your employer doesn't get paid..... then by default he can't pay you.....sooooo , it "is" your customer.

Also......dont treat that customer with the respect they deserve ......see if they don't say you represent that employer....whether you say it or not , the fact remains you , the employee , and your boss , the employer , both of you have a direct relationship with that customer. It's a really simple and easy concept to learn/understand , once learned and practiced , you get to get and keep a really good job.......if not...Otherwise.....well, anyway.

 

Perhaps I misread what hurst wrote.

He wrote he was operating illegally but was willing to do so. Check (most old school hands I know lived this as a way of life.) No big deal

Agreed to a form of involuntary servitude to attain goals. ( 1 year self imposed sentence) driver choice.

Asked to go home. (Hometime every 4 months). check



Now let me paint the picture of what it is like living out of a truck for 4 to 6 months at a time. (Qualifier I spent 9 months out one year and did many $ to six month tours by choice)

Your day starts out rolling out of the sleeper no bigger than a coffin onto the doghouse. Wait, let me bring that up to date. Your day starts out sitting up in a cathedral roofed 8 x 5 plastic lined room.

You walk into catering and get the dinner left for you to eat at load out and fill your thermos with coffee. Nope, wait you walk into a truck stop that charges you $2.50 for a 99 cent hamburger and pay them $2.50 to fill your thermos with coffee.

You go to the venue and wait your turn to have the union guys load your trailer, all 5 in 3 hours and hit the road. No wait, you go to the customer, get told they are running behind and they will get you loaded out as soon as they can. 5 hours later they give you your paper work.

You get to the venue and the workers are waiting for you unloading you in 30 minutes. Foods cooked for you in catering, clean private showers and off to a hotel on a good gig. ######, you get to the shipper and they tell you, we are going to get to you park at the door. 8 hours later after paying lumpers $200 you are unloaded. Not enough time to make the next load so you park at the closest truck stop with the rest of the herd.

Maybe half the truck drivers out her have jobs that are rinse and repeat of the second option. Particularly the 1099 vultures who profit from unexperienced drivers.

So now, getting to my point. As a driver, do you condone a business owner expecting drivers to falsify logs? Do you condone a business owner not allowing a driver responsible requested home time?

See what happens is an unexperienced driver is taken advantage of. Yeah, if you don't like it quit. I agree, but. A person who is in the situation may be fearful of leaving for just the reasons Hurst stated. Intimidation is a powerful thing.

The way I see it is if a business owner plays by the intimidation rules, screws people over, has them operate illegally (particularly for low pay) then the big F dot u rules apply.

He should have paid the driver because the business owner defined the rules. Course there is the leagl thing with wages, but agian the driver was not an employee but a 1099 contractor. Of course we all know what type of business owner does 1099s. Someone who is skirting the law or riding the thin line between criminal and not.

 

It's your story Hurst....I'll never call you anything close to not being factual.....But , to me I would have delivered the load , fueled-up and headed to his yard. If I couldn't make it on what fuel I had , I would have tried to fuel again , if he then cut-off my fuel card , or refused to pay for the fuel the truck would have been where ever I could get it to where I would be in a safe place til I could make arrangements to get home....Like I said...you did what you thought was best.....I would have also , the methods we each choose are our own choices. But , this stuff doesn't just happen either....You had options , many of them , other than abandoning that equipment.

You said you were away form home for 4 to 5 months at a time , in all that time , you did have time to try and find other work , this guy wasn't your only option...they never are...
It's only 775 miles or so from Oakland to Tacoma...that isn't a full load of fuel. You had every opportunity to make sure you had full fuel tanks , some extra cash for a cab to the airport , and airline tickets can be bought over the phone....All of this could have been put into place weeks ahead of time....deliver in Oakland , drive to Tacoma , have your valuables ready to carry out of the truck immediately on arrival at the yard in Tacoma.... Give the guy the keys get in a cab and head to the airport....might take some time to set all that up....but it's just as believable a course of action as your description of how bad this guy was.....

YOU had options.....

 

I didnt leave the truck loaded. The Windixie DC was my last stop. I lumped and broke down the last load myself. How do you wash out a loaded truck?

Your still not looking at this with an open mind. You are blinded with self interest and your own personal feelings. Like I said,. my integrity level is above and beyond what most others have. I tried to work it out.

You are entitled to your opinions. I'm done explaining myself.


Hurst

 

I make no excuses for what I did and how things went. I had things figured out 2 weeks in. I wasnt a newbie driver. Newbie reefer yes,.. but with 7 yrs of heavy haul,.. my experience level was more than enough to get the job done.

I was unemployed, 2 teenaged kids, disabled brother with medical expenses, a hard working wife, mortgage, car payments, bills, I was one of the 99 weekers on unemployment,.. hustling my pickup and trailer on the side and doing door to door lawn service. Running low on money,.. push came to shove,.. I chose to continue working under the conditions the company owner put me under. I could have,.. and should have left months before I did. I'm hard headed like that. Once I set a goal I will do what ever it takes to streamline that path. I felt I needed a minimum of 12 months to show I was a stable and reliable driver. I held out to the bitter end. I knew within the first 2 weeks that I would be quitting. I worked out an exit strategy within a few weeks and stayed the course. I started trucking back in the late 80's and quit in the mid 90's. Running hard and doing things illegal was not a new thing for me.

Did I have options,.. sure. But once I committed to stay the course,.. that was it. Like I said,.. it was not my intention to abandon the truck. The owner forced my hand and thats how it ended up. I have no regrets.

Hurst

 

there are plenty of reasons to abandon a truck, how many have done all the right things and still got the short end of the stick DAC Report wise or whatever? I have done it and could care less about the company...if they were worth a dang, they wouldn't have to recover it. Good for the guys that haven't, but don't act high and mighty to those that have. Sometimes things have to be done.

 

thank you for all the self rightous posts from the do gooders that were probably alter boys and boy scouts ...trucking is a dog eat dog biz and anyone that has lived in the real world of otr any length of time knows it .
treat me well and il bend over backwards for ya ..cuss at me and my wife , lie to me , screw me outa my pay and its game on !
the scumbag i worked for deserved everything he got and then some ..hes lucky i didnt know what i know now or his truck would have eventually had mexican plates on it lol.