Getting forced to haul a load, with a wrecked truck?

Discussion in 'Motor Carrier Questions - The Inside Scoop' started by Sad_Panda, Jun 10, 2007.

  1. Sad_Panda

    Sad_Panda Road Train Member

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    Has anyone had to deal with a DM that wouldn't, or couldn't understand what the word no means? Let's say, you were sitting in a truckstop, relaxing when all of a sudden a over-tired driver pulls in and noses in next to you, so tired he forgets he was pulling a 53 foot long trailer and rips the headlight, turn signal front mirror and side mirror off your truck, or damages it in a way that it no longer works as a headlight, turn signal, side mirror. Let's also say that you as a driver suffers a pulled neck muscle from bouncing around in a truck while someone remodels the front of your truck.

    After talking to safety, who tells you not to take a load, your DM keeps telling you to pull that load, and won't let up, to the point that you put down the qualcomm and leave. Then the DM gets upset with you, and then shuts you down for a medical reason, just because he finally starts to read all the qualcomms you have sent over the last 24 hours. Then the doctor shuts you down for, yes, your neck just wasn't sore, you did something bad to it, and puts you in a neck brace. This angers your DM to the point where he orders you off the truck and onto a greyhound bus, where, you, and your neck will spend the next 4 days crossing the USA because you were on the wrong coast. But before that happens, your DM tells you the wrecker will be there shortly, and to grab your gear and get off and find your way to a greyhound station, in a town you've never been in before. And as you read this qualcomm the wrecker shows up, and you grab what you can, but are forced to leave around $500-750 worth of stuff on a broken truck. The wrecker driver is nice enough to drop you off at a greyhound station, where you were told that a ticket was going to be waiting for you, which it wasn't, so you try and call anyone you can before everybody leaves for a holiday weekend to get a ticket home, while you are trying to work around with having a nek brace and on painkillers.....

    So the question is, is this normal for trucking? :biggrin_255:
     
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  3. Hill-a-billy

    Hill-a-billy Light Load Member

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    Jun 3, 2007
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    I had a couple of similar things happen to me a long time ago.

    I had to do the bus thing when my truck's fan bit the dust, and it was going to take a week to get the part. I hate bus rides, having to lug all your gear around, and transfer it twenty times is a pain in ***.

    The other time I got side swiped by a truck on the interstate, and ended up with a chewed off the driver side stair on a COE. I wasn't at fault in the accident, but my DM wouldn't route me to a terminal to get the damage fixed. I was having to climb up using the lug nuts on the steer axle, and the handrail. I drove for two weeks listening to the sweet promises of "This next load will get you fixed". I ended up having to tell them if they didn't fix the truck, I wouldn't drive it. Wouldn't you know I got a load back the very next day.:biggrin_25512:
     
  4. Brickman

    Brickman Trucker Forum STAFF Staff Member

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    Sad Panda let me guess................. either you drive for Swift or else you had a Swift driver driving normally take off your front end?
     
  5. whispers65233

    whispers65233 Medium Load Member

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    My husband was sitting at the Gary, Indiana yard in the sleeper birth when a trainee with his trainer came by. The trainee got too close to my husband's truck and hit the front end of his tractor with the trailer knocking out the right side mirror and fender. His DM had him take a load up to the home terminal to get fixed while he was given a loaner truck.
     
  6. Sad_Panda

    Sad_Panda Road Train Member

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    Well, the name on the door of my truck doesn't say Swift, and the name on the door on his truck didn't say Swift....:biggrin_25513:

    And my company won't get back to me about my stuff in the truck! I'm about ready to just give up on trucking and take up something less stressful, like fingerpainting. :biggrin_25523:
     
  7. Hub City

    Hub City Bobtail Member

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    I ran on old MACK all over NE and finally broke a shock mount and the shock was just hanging down. The wheel-hop was so bad my nuts still ache today! I called dispatch and they said, bring it on in for repair Two days later i went to pick up the tractor and did my pretrip The shock wasn't hanging anymore! You know WHY??? Because they CUT IT OFF WITH A TORCH! They actually expected me to drive it that way! Needless to say I put it OOS!
    AND, imagine, this was the SAME company that owns NETTS!
     
  8. Gearjammin' Penguin

    Gearjammin' Penguin "Ride Fast-Truck Safe"

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    Oh, man...I'd go speak with a lawyer. There's most likely grounds for a very nasty lawsuit if they did you like that. :biggrin_2552:
     
  9. roadhog

    roadhog Medium Load Member

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    Did you get your stuff back yet? Isn't it considered Private Property? My husband had the mirror, door, and fender messed up in NJ, the guy was WAY over his hours and just trying to find a place to sleep. My husband was told to rip off the rest of the fender, bungy the hood and finish the load - he was in NJ, the load went to PA, and he had to bring the truck to northeast OH to have it fixed. After being out 3 weeks, tired, mad as a trucker can get, and just wanting to get home - he drove it, CAREFULLY! I thank the Lord he made it, or someone would have had one heck of a problem on their hands!! Good Luck with it!!
     
  10. Sad_Panda

    Sad_Panda Road Train Member

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    Funny little story add ons.

    Nope, I don't have my stuff, and nobody will return my calls about my stuff, and when I finally got ahold of somebody, they said that they didn't have my stuff, unless it was in a pile of junk they have laying around their job (no joke) and that they don't know where my truck is. *I* know where the #### truck is, because I can track it on the internet, and while they have moved it out of the yard on Conley GA, it still is in the Alanta area.

    I'm none too happy at the moment.

    :biggrin_25516:
     
  11. frexican

    frexican Bobtail Member

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    Jun 16, 2007
    Southern CA/48 States
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    Man I'm starting with the company you work for on Monday. am I Sh*ts Creek? I can see why you're upset but is this pretty much the way this company runs it's ship?:biggrin_25524:
     
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