BEWARE!Universal Am-Can,Mason Dixon

I am an Owner-operator,have been for 23 years,i have been a Trucker 37 years.Last year i went through a Divorce and decided to pull my Truck off an I-5 carrier and go 48 again.I signed on with Universal in nov 09,In the early part of 10 i had a truck breakdown and after the divorce didnt have all the funds to fix the truck.I needed around 4 thousand more.I went to Universal and asked for a Loan,I was told there was no way they would do this and i was on my own.After borrowing from family i was still around 2 short,Universal agreed to loan that but in the meantime had sent in an Outside carrier truck to offload my load without me Knowing,by the time i found out the guy had stolen everypiece of equipment i had on my trailer.Universal had me Playing Private eye to prove what this guy did,I found eyewitnesses who signed letters and then Universal bought Me new equipt.Took 4 days to do this,im stuck with no equip.Then the amount of money they charged for this guy to Take the load was added into my loan which turned it into around $7,000.They had doubled the rate on the load to move it they said.I fought this and eventualy got some reduced,around a 1,000.Still they were taking every bit of my settelments for pay back for around 7 months and i am Running $4,500 to $7,500 gross a week.I wanted to pull my truck but they Had made My Broker Co-sign behind me and i am not letting a friend get stuck in my mudd.Here we are a year later and they have been paid back i believe more then their share,My truck,Its a 99 with over a million miles just lost her bottom end and $9,000 is the repair bill,For grins and Giggles i called Universal,and explained that i stayed and payed them back all there money before and here on my yearly anniversary i am one of the top producers for the company.Would they be so kind as to loan me the repair money?Emphaticaly NO!So now here we are,Deja-Vu.They are trying to get a Truck to haul my load And not having any luck and this load is now three weeks late.So be forwarned if you are an owner-operator suffering some setbacks and trying to make it in this high fuel,high repair world and you need a carrier to partner with,this is no place for you!I have heard That Mason-Dixon,once a good company has had mass bailouts of O/O since Universal bought them.They Are getting Known for leaving their O/O stranded 1600 miles from home and not giving a ####!

 

I am hiring Lawyers to look into the Money part of it,how much is missing we dont know yet,as far as the company standing behind their owner ops it has been that way as long as i have been in Trucking,37 years.They have always taken a Percentage of the revenue,What do you think that is For?If an Owner op had deep Pockets they would be independent and not need a company behind them.As soon as we let Companys get away with this it will be the end of the Owner Op.If you check prices on repairs you will see in ten years they have tripled,That happend because the repair shops realized the Money they were being paid was coming from a billion dollar corparation,Yes it did come from the owner later but for the most part it is a billion dollar Entity paying this bill.

 

Well i guess now i am understanding what has happened to this industry.Rent a Truck?How in the heck does that happen with no Money or credit?Spent the Money after truck was paid for?Truck isnt paid for,Just bought it in 09.So carriers are not supposed to stand behind their contactors?No wonder we are getting run over out here!We just give thousands of dollars to the carrier for what?Im confused when you say they are the "Customer".How are they the customer when they do nothing but collect revenue?The agents do all the load finding and i do all the hauling so where do they fit into this equation?Other then their authority they have no stake in this,Hell some loads we haul we have to get extra insurance because they are so cheap they carry a Minumin $100,000.Every other carrier i have ever been leased to stood behind there o/o,No matter what.