OK, just to give some background, I've been a truck driver for 6 years, I started as an OTR driver with Schneider after going through their driver training program, then came off the road and drove LTL as a PUD driver for about a year until the economy tanked and I got laid off. My DAC was spotless, and I had a spotless safety record as well, no tickets on or off the job, and not even a scratch on any vehicles. After 4 1/2 months looking for a job everywhere, including fast food joints (one Taco Bell I applied to in the Charlotte area had taken in over 800 applications in 3 days for an entry level job, many of those from people with graduate degrees who were part of the many thousands of financial services layoffs in the area); I was hired by Marten Transport to drive OTR again. Everything I saw when I researched the company online was great, and I loved the fact that they have APU's with hard wired inverters on all their trucks. I thought I had found a good home with Marten, and everything was looking up.
I knew that freight is down for everyone, so I had no complaints when I started getting short runs (usually a 350 mile or so run followed by a 600 or 700 mile run), and when I would sit for a day or two at a time, I never complained, and never had any problem getting layover pay during the week (Marten does not pay layover on weekends). My fleet manager was nice, and seemed to be responsive to my needs, and I tried to make his job as easy as possible. I delivered my loads on time or early except for a couple of cases that were unavoidable, such as being dispatched for a "spot" (drop and hook) load that turned out to be an 11 hour live load, and I communicated those issues promptly on the Qualcomm; no problems there. My problems began when I had to communicate with night dispatch; I had a load that delivered to a Family Dollar distribution center in northern Virginia that was tight when I picked it up, which I communicated to Marten when I sent in my macro 32 (dispatch acknowledgment); so I ran hard, but legally; and ended up having to try to find a place to park at 10 PM in the Winchester area, which every driver knows is not easy to do. I ended up parking at Mt Jackson, and sent a message letting them know it had taken me a while finding a place to park and I was out of hours, and that on time delivery was going to be tight. I was then ordered by night dispatch to park at the consignee, which I knew from being at other Family Dollar DC's was not allowed, and I sent a message back letting them know that, and that I was out of hours anyway and couldn't drive up there legally. I got a message back telling me that customer service said I could park there and to "get going or get a service failure". I tried to call several times, couldn't get anything but voicemail. Since it was all on Qualcomm, I went ahead and drove up there; sure enough, no parking allowed, no place to park on the road or anywhere that I could find nearby, and ended up driving another hour and a half trying to find parking again. I documented it all on the Qualcomm and send in all the appropriate macros to let them know I was going to be late and why, and took a much needed break after driving 660 miles in a 65 mph truck. The next morning, my fleet manager called and wanted to know why I didn't deliver the load on time. I explained everything and guided him through all the Qualcomm messages, and he agreed that the night dispatcher was wrong, he said he'd take care of that on his end, but I still got a service failure and a written warning, which was mailed to me, I never got a chance to respond or even to sign the paperwork.
A few weeks later, I got my first good load since being hired, a dry load from Kentucky to Fontana, CA. Everything went well, and I arrived at the delivery an hour early for a 5 am live unload. At the facility, they had me open the trailer doors at the guardshack and leave them open. The driver's side trailer door was missing the chain that holds it open, and someone had put a shoestring in it's place. I opened and secured the doors, and checked and double checked to make sure they were locked open. The dock door I was given was on the back side of the building, so I drove around the building and found the door I was to back into was in a dark corner of the building. There was a dropped trailer in the door on the driver's side of my door, and dumpsters on the other side; and there was a dropped flatbed trailer in front of the door making it impossible to swing the tractor around as needed to back into the door; so I juked the trailer around and partially blindsided it in. At some point while I was backing in, the driver's side trailer door that was secured with a shoestring came loose, which I didn't see as I was backing in the dark, and before I realized it, I had backed the open door into the facility's dock door, ripping the trailer door off. There were no witnesses, and most of the damage was to the trailer door; no other damage to the trailer other than the one door, and according to the supervisor at the facility, less than $400 damage to the dock door. I took pictures and filled out all the paperwork, and talked to my fleet manager who assured me that "everyone has their days, you've got a good record, you'll lose some points but you'll get them back in a year, this isn't that bad, I've seen a lot worse". So my next load was from Ontario to Wisconsin, another good run, and I was scheduled for time at home in NC after I delivered that load. On the day I delivered I got a message telling me after I was unloaded to bring the empty trailer to Mondovi, it was sold and they needed to prep it for sale, and they would route me home from there, he should have a load either directly there or close by that he could swap me out on. Got to Mondovi late in the evening, unhooked, let the trailer shop know the trailer was there, washed the truck, ate, and went to bed. The next morning my fleet manager called my cell phone and told me to come to the driver's lounge and use the phone there to call his extension and he would meet me in the lounge. I did as he asked, and he told me to hang there and he would be there in a few minutes. I waited, and a girl came out of the office calling my name. She introduced herself, said she was from Human Resources, and she just needed to talk with me about my accident for a minute. I asked her if I was in trouble and half jokingly asked her "am I getting fired?", and she just laughed and said again she just had to talk with me for a few minutes, that they always have to do this with an accident. So we went into a private room, she asked me to tell her again what happened, and took notes on everything I said. After I was through, she took a stack of papers she had with her and started going over them with me, she said that they had investigated the incident and determined that it was preventable, which I never argued with, almost any accident is preventable unless you're parked and someone or something else hits you, and I'd been kicking myself for days for not getting out and triple checking before I backed in. She went over the points with me, 4 points for a backing accident, doubled to 8 because I'd been with Marten for less than a year. Then she said that unfortunately I was also on a written warning, and because of this they had to terminate my employment. She then gave me a few travel options, very few, there are only 3 rental car companies 25 miles away in Eau Claire; one doesn't do one way rentals at all, and the others had nothing available. That leaves a $200, 2 or 3 day long bus ride or a $400 to $500 flight; either way I'd also have to pay to ship all the stuff in my truck home. Now bear in mind Mondovi is not exactly in a metropolitan area, leaving me basically stranded 1100 miles from home with very few options to get myself, and all the stuff in my truck home. While they were within their rights to do whatever they wished as an at will employer, it would certainly say a lot more for the company had they at least separated me at Forest Park, GA; which is where I picked to truck up at to begin with. I also told the HR person that we should at least be allowed to respond and give our side of the story, and be able to give context if necessary when we are given any kind of warning. I also was given no opportunity to appeal or answer anything in the termination, which I know is not required, but would be the ethical thing to do.
There were instances while I was driving for Marten when I would be given a load that was not possible for me to run legally, I would tell them it wasn't possible and give them an ETA that was legal; and they would keep going through drivers till they found one that would take it. I am not a driver that spends all my time at truck stops, I don't mind running 600 or more miles in a day; but I do keep a recap and run legally. And the time I mentioned before where I waited 11 hours being live loaded at a supposed drop and hook pickup, I never received a dime for detention; because that shipper doesn't pay detention, and Marten only pays detention if the shipper pays them. And if you have to sit on a load during the weekend because the consignee is not open on weekends, you do it for free, because layover is not paid on the weekends (and all this is in Marten's employee handbook).
So that is the story, with every detail for all the detail oriented people. Marten has many good points, I won't deny that; but there are also many things they need to work on. If you insist on running legal, they won't force you to run illegally; but they will implicitly try to push drivers to do so. I talked to many Marten drivers who cooked their books so to speak, and their fleet managers willingly looked the other way as long as they made on time delivery. All in all, I think Marten is one of the better companies out there, but I think people should know the full story, and I do feel like the way I was terminated was pretty $#!&&% at best. And the worst part is now I'm gonna have this on my DAC, which is gonna screw me for a long time.
Marten Transport, the good and bad
Discussion in 'Marten' started by cbread, Jun 4, 2009.
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