Company Owners' stories about drivers

Lets give them something to talk about..... How about drivers.

Anyway, in 2005 I quit my job as a manager of a large chain of general merchandise stores and started a trucking company with a friend of mine. We did very well, grew to about 10 trucks and many owner operators. We had amazing freight contracts and some of the most interesting drivers out there. Here are some stories about a few interesting fellas.

 

It was the summer of 2006, we just entered into a contract with a poultry processing facility for transporting 8-10 loads per week from UT to NJ. I hired a driver with 20 years experience, nothing on his driving record (later to find out that he had just changed his license from CA to UT and the driving record had not merged). He was very excited to drive and make money. I sent him on a couple local deliveries, sent him on a couple of regional deliveries and then gave him this new lane UT to NJ and back. He was excited and took off that day with enthusiasm and ready to drive. It was next evening about 11 pm when I received a call from the Iowa highway patrol stating that the truck was banned from driving and the driver was arrested. They requested that I be at the police station personally next morning to give a statement and to maybe pick up the truck. After driving all night long with my business partner to Iowa we arrived in the morning and met with the Highway Patrol. He explained to me this:
"I pulled over your truck because he was going 90 mph down a hill that is under construction and speed limit is only 65. There were 3 passengers in the truck. The driver, his wife and their daughter. I was going to give him either a ticket or a warning about his speed. As a standard procedure I asked him if he had anything to drink or if he is in any way incapable to drive. The driver answered YES. Then I questions your driver even further. I asked him what he has taken. Then the driver with a big smile on his face pulled out a bag of speed, handed over to me and said: this."
As you can imagine what happened next, I paid the tow bill and the overnight storage, about $1,000, then drove to NJ to deliver the load. But the interesting part was when I received a call from the driver that same day. He had the audacity to say this to me: "Boss, we made a big mistake, I took my wife and my daughter and the three of us got in trouble. But the good news is that they want only 10k bond for each of us. When are you coming down to get us?"

 

I hired a guy from CT once. He was on a routine route from UT to the east coast. It was time for him to take a few days off and be with his family. So after delivering his load in NJ he headed home to CT for a few day break. He called me when he was ready to drive again and I scheduled him a load from CT back to UT. He went and picked up a load of chocolate and was on his way to UT when he texted me this: "I have to quit at this time. Your truck is at an Indian Reservation in CT. Sorry, I was just offered a dump truck driver job in Chicago."
He never answered his phone ever since. I had no idea where exactly the truck was. After an expensive same day ticket to CT, a cab drive through every Indian reservation in the region I found the truck on the side of the road without reefer fuel. The chocolate he picked up had turned into chocolate milk and a cargo claim followed. Anyone out there with cool driver experiences?

 

Alright I see you have a point. If you dont know how much those guys were paid or how much freedom they had you may argue that their actions were justified. I still dont understand how one can justify taking his whole family in a big semi truck and taking "speed" while flying with 90 mph but I see your point, how about this guy:

It was the winter of 2007. We had a contract with a distribution company out of UT. We would take their reefer trailers to their grocery stores within 500-550 mile radius. So from Salt Lake City to lets say Billings, MT. We had between 15 to 20 trucks dedicated to do this job. Some were owner operators some were company drivers. Our contract with the distribution facility paid us $1.55 per mile for night time loads and $1.50 per mile for day time loads. We also had fuel surcharge of somewhere between .27 cents and .32 cents per mile. So the rate was excellent. Especially when you consider that we took their trailers and they paid us the same both ways. We went up full of freight and came back empty. So this being said we were able to afford to pay very well and in return request the very best drivers and owner operators. There was never any pressure to the drivers nor the owner operators. We had more freight than we knew what to do with it and we had a very long list of owner operators and drivers waiting for a lane to become available. We had zero dead head miles, zero time waiting for the trailer to be loaded and delivery always happened immediately as the driver arrived at the dock. No lumpers, no appointment schedules, always the same route, always the same time the same day of the week. Company drivers were paid between .42 cents per mile to .48 cents. Always on a W 2 form always with workers comp, unemployment insurance, social security etc. After 90 days they were offered health insurance. Work related clothing was always on us. Our uniform was given to our drivers for free of course and included boots, pants, 2 types of shirts and a jacket. Due to the rural locations of the grocery stores where we delivered, as part of our contract lunch / dinner was provided by the receiving store's kitchen.

One of those company drivers was on his way one night to Helena, MT when I received a phone call from a MT state trooper. He stated that the driver and trailer are in his custody and we need to go to MT to release them. Of course I went picked up my business partner from his house (about 3-4 am) and there we went. When I saw the truck I couldn't even recognize the poor thing. It was covered in mud, branches of evergreen trees and the paint was so badly scratched that the truck was turning from its original red color to the gray color painters place as a base below the actual color to be painted. Anyway, I asked what had happened and the state trooper explained this: "I saw a detached reefer trailer on the emergency lane of I 15 mile mark 46 near Lima, MT. I pulled over to see if somebody needed help. I noticed that semi tracks were leading from the interstate into the woods near by. I called on a special unit to come follow those tracks and help me figure out what happened to the driver and the bobtail. We went about 2 miles up the hill on to the dirt road that leads into the mountain when we spotted your truck parked."

The driver was caught with 4 rifles and 2 pistols in the truck. He decided to take the truck four wheeling and hunting. Not only that he had guns in a commercial vehicle it was not even hunting season. Do you want to estimate the cost of returning this truck back to work? Let me just give you a hint. The truck was incapable of getting back out of the woods on its own. A wrecker was called. But because the truck sled down a small hill, as the driver parked it to go hunting, the truck was stuck in between some trees. In order for that very special wrecker to pull the truck out, two of the trees needed to be cut. Well you dont just cut a tree in MT we found out. You need special permission from the government. Well the wrecker already went there and needed to be paid for its trip. Then we started the process of explaining to the government what had happened and why we need to cut 2 trees, this took about 3 maybe 4 weeks. Then we sent a special crew to cut the 2 trees. Then the wrecker went to get the truck. By that point the truck not only had to be towed down to the main road but even further, all the way to Idaho Falls, ID because it did not want to start. Then what about the loaded trailer that needed to be delivered. Well we had to send a truck from Salt Lake to get it and continue with the trip. The truck needed new paint, much work done to the transmission, steering column, radiator and shocks. Plus more stuff that I cant remember now. Well on the top of this the insurance company did not consider this as an accident. But instead as a breakdown. We paid for everything but the paint job. The insurance company paid for the paint. This took at least 2 maybe 3 months of revenue, I went at least 8 maybe 10 times to MT to deal with government institutions and wreckers, penalty by the shipper for late delivery, my time not only on the road traveling to MT but also in the office on the phone arguing with insurance companies and government institutions. Do you want to take a guess on the cost? That was one very expensive deer hunting trip. On the top all this, only a few days after this incident, the driver came by our office to pick up his last check. Well he spent 30 minutes telling me how this was a one time mistake he made and that he deserved to have his job back.

 

I dont exactly remember the total cost nor was ever able to truly calculate it. The lost revenue, my time and my personal expenses were hard to estimate. But I would say no less than 20.