West Side Transport, Inc. - Cedar Rapids, Ia.?

Wondera; I have worked for Westside beforeand found out that they use the driver as a tool only when needed to cover a load. This means low weekly mileage, in turn means low income. The satelite said that i drove my allowed hours for the day, when actually i was just starting my day day, and as a result, I was told to park for an additional down time of rest. I quit due to this as soon as i got back to the terminal. I also noticed that ears get clogged belonging to all personnel in the administration levels when a driver wants to communicate to them. I had a meeting that included my dispatcher, human resources, and the vice president. Nothing was done to correct a single subject that was proven by me concerning any of the company policies that were not followed by administrational areas. Other drivers I have com to know there also quit due to similar and additional reasons.

 

Be careful with the folks at Westside. Their runs are very short and always within the same small area.

Also, they are very bad at wage theft. They wrongfully terminated me and are keeping over $1,000.00 in past wages over aligations that are completely false. I have the Federal Dept. of Labor after them, so will have this money back. Watch theses folks. They are ruthless at keeping your $$$.

 

westside is worse company out there didnt like what they sayed in orination was a sign a truck was wait on another to get back with they call me and i left the dispacth told i would only get 250 mile run and had to do two a day after i left check dac and they put on my that i failed drug i have never fail and drug screen they get madat you because you wont stay and put thing on dac to end your driving career a much of low life stay away from westside out of iowa

 

They were a very good company to work for before the economy got slow then the owner Don took the company over and it went all to hell. Was there 4 years and saw all the competent office workers and dispatchers get fired or forced to quit. Most of the runs when we left were short 250 miles or less and pay is based on how many miles you average. The more you average the higher your pay but who controls your miles? If you don't want a life, don't want any home time, will run illegal, and are willing to lie and cheat on your logs then you might eventually get to top pay for a minute or two.

My wife and I ran as a team so our pay wasn't affected by that but we were averaging only around 3200 miles per week near the end because we refused to run when we were over 80000 lbs. which happened way too often. They blamed us and claimed we had too much stuff on the truck. So two weeks of clothes, a microwave, some food, our bedding, and medicine and we had too much stuff. Oh I forgot we also had a laptop, guess that took us over the top.

We hooked on to one load from another driver who had not scaled the load and it was in excess of 83,000 lbs. We may be over weight but don't think we are that heavy. Of course you are refusing to haul their freight so you don't get any loads. Run around the scales and ignore equipment problems and you might get some miles but God help you if you get caught.

 

I worked at west side in 2006 not bad money i believe i made a little over $40,000 in just under 11 months.But they do have a lot of short runs.I drove out of there lima ohio yard i think they got rid of that yard.Most loads were no
touch but they did haul a lot of loads of HON office furniture. Some were not that bad others were loads from hell.The worst i ever had i don't know if they still have them hon loads.Over all its a run of the mill trucking company no real surprise's.

 

I see we've gotten some recent comment contributors regarding how Westside is definitely on the downhill slide in its treatment of drivers. Just wanted to weigh in to confirm observations posted by both mbt6020 and ratyrell, both of which (from my experience and word from others) are absolutely true.

I am going all out to get my back wages Westside officials are actively working to steal: $1,170.50 from my last two weeks on the road with them.

Iowa law makes it very difficult for employees to recover Wage Theft funds taken from former employers. The recovery process is multi-step, with the burden on former employers to prove their case at every step. Also, Iowa State funding allocations for Wage Theft recovery is so sparse that the government employs only 2 investigators for the entire State.

O. Nicholas Cicero, Iowa Workforce Executive Officer, has had my case under his investigation now for over 7 months, and he is still dragging his feet with things while Westside freely hangs on to my back wages. If anyone falls prey to Westside's "sticky hands," keep plugging away to recover your pay. A great resource is the Federal Wage and Claim Division in Des Moines. They have told me that I will receive at least minimum wage for hours worked (logbook lines 3 and 4).

If you can afford to hire an attorney, former employers can be forced to pay back wages, a $500 fine for each Wage Theft instance, attorney fees, and court costs. There is also a wonderful worker's rights advocacy group out of Des Moines, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (you can find them on your Google). They have given me both some wonderful advice and encouragement along the way on this huge battle.

Anybody needing advice feel free to contact me or simply post here, and I will be sure to respond. If enough of us raise our voices against the unscrupulous actions of some of these companies, head honchos will start to realize some of the consequences of their actions and disregard for the law.

 

I worked for them back in 2006-07. They are near the bottom of my list. At first I got good miles, then they made the move to hauling short stuff. My miles dropped from 2500 or so to 1500-1800.

I also hurt my back while with them unloading some HON furniture. They denied me medical treatment and I couldn't even stand up. I went to the hospital on my own and ended up having to get the state on their arse. After they got threatened with a $10,000 fine, they filed my claim and the bills got paid. That goes to show you how much they care about their drivers.

 

I worked for them for over 4 years. They were a good company to work for in the past,but there has been a change in corp. vision. They are not very responsive to driver complaints anymore and the pay sucks.I had to leave in order to just keep a roof over my families head. I talked and tried to to reason with them,but was told "this is just the way we are going to do business"namely short runs and pay based on how many miles you drive. In a better place now.

 

for the most part this company is good!! Pay was good. The only real probem i had was with the night dispatcher screwin with me and stoled money out of my pay check! I was told to do something and then the dispaches were switch around to show something different and they charge me for their screw up. Plus told them at time of hire that could not unload trls because of back problems. after 6 months of working there was told that i had to leave if could not perform the job. I had no problem performing the job of driving just bending over to take blocks from forkllifts.

 

I have driven for West Side for 6 years, had a few different dispatchers, recently had a bad one but she got fired and now I have a great one. You have to be willing to drive hard and accurately trip plan, but they will get you miles. I run a lot of 250 mile loads but I have another 250 mile load waiting so I get 500 miles that day and average 2700 a week the last 3 months. The dispatchers might have some bad days but over all they are very nice people, a lot of them having driving experience, some don't, but have a lot of transportation industry experience. Overall I love this company and don't like when people talk bad about it because of the pride I have in West Side Transport. They will really work on you if you are getting low miles to help boost them back up. In July/August I only averaged 1900 a week but they put me in a special category and helped me climb back up, now I am out of that category and still getting great miles. They want their drivers to get as many miles as possible and to make as much money as possible because that also means they are making money too. Sorry I am long winded but I get very touchy about the pride I have in the company I work for.