Do not waste your time working at this Trucking company you been warned.

Do what? What the hell is your problem? I'm not going to stay and argue with you. You act like that, you can do it alone.

 

Grow a set? How do I do that? Use soil and water? Stand on the interstate in front of ,80mph screaming diesel trucks? Go into the dark side of town, put on a football helmet, scream N***er, and run like h*ll? I'm trying to tell ya, been there, done that. Not much you can do when you're A rookie with no experience under your belt. Heck, after being otr for 6yrs and I walk into the shipper with an empty ,53' trailer and they tell me that I HAVE to vacuum the inside of my trailer with their little 6gal shop vac from top, sides and floor? I said, no way not me and they didn't wanna load me (no the trailer wasn't dirty inside, I had just swept it out before I got there) so I left and then dispatch called me and asked me if I had really left there (like I hadn't done that) and I said hell yeah I did. Told them what they wanted of me and that I'd bring the truck back to Olathe and clean it out before I vacuumed out a 53' trailer! They said to go back and they would make arrangements. When I got back, shipper never says a word, but they had one of their workers do it and loaded me! Shoot, I didn't play those games son!
I'm retired now after 16yrs of OTR. Had to retire early to come home and take care of my elderly parents.

 

Thanks. That clears up a lot of questions.

 

YW

 

First off, no where does it say the OP is a rookie. You might be assuming they are, but that's all it is, an assumption. Second, I highly doubt anyone on this board, rookie, or not, would have vacuumed a trailer with a shop vac, just ain't going to happen. Did your company threaten you, coerce you into going back? Hold your job over your head? "Force" you to go back? Because you wouldn't do it? No, they said something to the effect "go back, and we'll take care of this". So a company "forcing" a driver to run over the legal time, interrupt their break, spend their off duty time really on duty, work 24 hrs a day, is still on the driver.

 

Amen. They were lucky if I spent two hours of my time waiting in line to get a trailer washed out...

 

I probably would have. I was once just outside of shipper who I knew. Was picky about debris left in the trailer. After I unloaded at my last stop, there was quite a bit back there. I jumped back there with my broom, which, due to limited space is a handheld Broom not a push broom. Anyhow, the handle snapped on me. I had to sweep the entire trailer with just the bottom part of the broom on my hands and knees. It took me about 45 minutes but I got it done. I will happily do things like this when it comes up for the company I work for. Because they’re fair and they pay me anytime I put in for layover or detention. It’s never questioned. It just shows up on my check. And since they’re that fair with me, I don’t ask for every 15 minutes of detention pay. And if I’m doing a reset out on the road and I’m doing something fun, I don’t bother asking for layover pay. I know they would pay it but they’re fair to me and I try to be fair to them.

The OP, If you were really out there that long and only getting a few days off a month and you only made $40,000? Then yeah I would say you were getting ripped off.

 

I swept the same trailer 3 times once. Got unloaded in Battle Creek, dispatch says "sweep your trailer good, you're going to Kelloggs". So found a broom, and did a thourough job. He gave me directions to a brokers place, to get the load info. Broker says "back up to the dumpster over there, there's a broom there, and sweep the trailer" I told him I already had, but he said "it get's swept, or lose the load".So I complied. He gave me load info, and directions to Kelloggs. Get to the truck gate, guard comes out, and says "sweep your trailer, their rules, not mine". So I swept it for a third time. That was the cleanest Southern Pacific container in the fleet.

Doing what was required is normal. Being "forced" to break laws, drive tired, etc, is still on the driver.

 

Thanks for posting your story driver. I like reading and seeing that I’m not alone. Whether it be owner operator status or a company driver no one in the driving community Should be treated like trash. We do very hard work and should be paid for it.