Need a second chance

Also the reason I'm not jumping straight to Western is because I had a bad experience at Western when I came into trucking. There's allot more to this story but here's the main problem I and my friend had. I started off there with a long time friend who was running a team contract on his lease truck and was pulling down 2500 dollars a week net. He told me to go get a CDL and he'd take me on. I do it all and start my orientation with Western. So they tell him that when he goes to get me they won't pull his contract since it's a 24/7 thing and he'll need a day or two to come get me. He does it and drops his student off to grab me and then what do you know? They pull it and string us along that they'll give it back after we are practically going negative. I mean we were only making enough to pay for food and expenses. This continued for several months and we stuck it out thinking of course natively that our hard work would pay off. It never did but the straw that broke our back was the DM that was running our loads asked us to dead head 500 miles to help him out after we had just ran a negative week. This guy then proceeded to berate us for telling him no since he was unwilling to pay us the miles to get there. Guy tells us "you know I always take care of you". Dude was totally out of touch and seemed to think we were idiots so we decided to leave and go elsewhere. When we told them we were done and leaving the head of their payroll department in Nashville tries to offer to break us off 15 grand to keep us and that the manager would be punished but that was after all the ######## they ran us through. We had been complaining about this guy and the loads he was bringing to us for months so we weren't going to let it slide. To top it off they kept all the money in my buddy's escrow account stating that we had damaged the truck (this truck was kept in immaculate condition). So I've got a serious feud with them especially since they made me feel like an ####### for being the reason my friend lost his contract but if I have to then I'll go back but only because I can use them. I think they're the scummiest bottom of the barrel company as far as I'm concerned with my own experience. Sure many of their drivers are former criminals but that doesn't mean they should be treated like ####. Some of the stuff I've seen them do to employees is wild. I'm going to see what options are on the table before I have to go make Western another dollar on my time. I am willing to do whatever it takes to get my license back on track. I've driven for months before without seeing my home and many weeks without hitting a 34 so I'm not a sissy or anything. I've just got to find companies that desperately want a driver like this. The biggest hurdle though is the insurance companies unfortunately.

 

Yeah Chi Town's account of his time with Western is fairly similar to my own. They are a cruel company to their drivers and know that the people coming there have few options. His AC issue is not uncommon. They don't care about your life as long as the truck runs and will get you to whatever freight they send you. On the truck while training our AC went out in 100 degree heat too and it was just miserable with me and him in there. Some of the nicest drivers I've known have been at Western but they get turned through that meat grinder and it turns them bad.

 

Blind hill and there had been no sign or notion that people would be living this deep into the country off a highway like the one I was on. It was a country highway but it was totally divided with a deep median used as a drain ditch. Terrible planning by the engineers. It had gotten deeper and deeper because the rain would erode the center. Normally it would probably only be 3-4 foot deep but was now at least as deep as 7 foot deep as I stood in it after walking out of the windshield of my truck. The ditch had steep dug out walls from rain water eroding it which didn't help my rollover as the soil had become very soft and didn't have the back fill to hold my tandems once they dropped off the road. I was very nearly back up onto the pavement when the trailer came off and pulled me into the ditch. Slid for only 10 yards after it laid down so I had managed to slow down a bit but was well past where the bus and cars were by that point which affirmed my choice to take the truck off the road. If I could do it again I'd probably just try to drive the truck straight into the ditch in an attempt to avoid the rollover and keep it off my record despite the damage likely being equally totalling to the frame of the truck. The whole event has pretty much permanently altered my plans for my career as a truck driver as I had planned to get hired on with Walmart once I had the time in and just stay there for 30 years. I am very experienced for the short time I've got in the seat. I've done allot of NYC loads and I mean it, tons of winter runs on I80 to salt lake, all over the Pacific NW, and did my schooling in the Smokies. I've backed my rig into docks most box truck drivers would have a tough time getting into over there in NYC. But screw all the experience I carefully collected because these insurance companies have more pull than I or anyone else does.

 

You're a real joker. But I have considered becoming a seaman quite heavily. Almost did some school for it before my friend told me to get into trucking with him. Maybe I'll give it another look and forget about driving.