Saia- Unsafe

I worked for Saia Motor Freight in Indianapolis IN. I was terminated after two years for doing what i am legally bound to do. I refused to drive a tractor that i deemed to be unsafe. This tractor happened to be an old freightliner with automatic trans, which constantly jumped out of gear will going down the road, then you could not get this truck back into gear thus having a road or intersection shut down for sometime. The company believed the mechanics they have but the problem is these mechanics are not C.D.L certified so they could not road test this truck to see the problem that the drivers were experienceing . My terminal manager says that they do not consider it a safety issuse but just a nusiance to the driver, (he is wrong) and has no sense of safety as is the mentality with the entire management team at Saia.
If you value your C.D.L i suggest that you stay away from this company, because thier motto is (no matter how unsafe conditions are the freight must deliver) putting the driver at a high risk of accidents

 

Hum!!!!!! This has to be the first time ive ever heard anyone bad mouth this company. Maybe when some more guys quit I can go get me one of those Line-Haul jobs that pay good.

 

Nearly every week they have an ad looking for city pedal drivers. $17+ an hour. I wonder why as there is so many out of work.

 

They are one of the LTL carriers that may not make it. Your time as an employee there could be quite limited.

 

I can say with 100% confidence there has to be much more to this story. No reputable LTL carrier, which SAIA is, will terminate you strictly for refusing to drive a truck that you deemed to be unsafe.

Even non-union carries have somewhat of a check and balance system for terminating employees for violations due to the threat of lawsuits and unionization. This is why you get letters to your file for small things like attendance, small violations of policy, and minor accidents. They will use those to hold up their position should they terminate you for a major violation. The only one time instances that I can think of that will get you fired every time are stealing time (this is an automatic 100% of the time), refusing work (not an un-safe truck), and a major accident. The accident can vary but a major one that you caused is pretty much automatic.

 

something like that happen in the 90's here in Arizona. A driver refuse to drive a truck which he said was unsafe. They fired him. He got a lawyer and had a dot inspector to do a inspection on the tractor. The report said the truck should not be on the street. it shouldn't be licensed. The driver won 3 million bucks. you should see saia trucks here. They are old and running on borrow time.

 

You gotta love those automatics, just sit about 20 minutes and the computer will reset itself. 20 minutes lasts forever when your stuck in the travel lanes.

 

I cant tell you that they are a bad outfit however the equipment they run in this area looks like 2X hand me downs! Not uncommon to see them parked on an off ramp with the hood up and triangles out.

 

Don't know about this. If you got fired for refusing to drive an unsafe truck, the company just opened themselves up to lawsuit.