Mo Vaughn Transport, Solon Ohio

I was working for this company in summer 2014 for about 12 days. The owner is some Baseball Star that has given the name for this company, In sport, fairplay is important,, I have seen none of that in his trucking company. MV transport uses E log,, pays a flat rate of 150.-- dollars per day, 50.-- dollars if you stay overnight (away from home...), and 10.-- dollars if you have HAZMAT endorsement, so over all this is a good pay, and I even think, this is a good solution to pay a flat rate, since they operate mostly regional, lots of live loads and live unloads involved. At the time, in summer 2014, the had a yard in Charleston SC, where I had to pick up a Freightliner Columbia that just came back from a shop for EGR issues. First impression, inside of the truck was very dirty, some lights where out, AC not running. I took this truck and did a live load in Savannah Georgia,, went home for the weekend, my wife and myself spent an entire Saturday, cleaning the inside of this tuck, to bring it to a level where you don't feel miserable to be able to stay in that truck. I called up the company, and told them, that this truck has no AC, and it needs to be taken care of. Next Monday I unloaded in Cleveland, after spending a hot night in that truck,, inside temperature in the high 90 ts,,, after uncomfortable night in that muggy truck, not rested at all,, brought truck to MV shop in Solon OH, where a mechanic started to work on unit to solve this AC problem. Meanwhile I was introduced to an employee that acutally hired me (over the phone..), and I had to go through the standard things, sign contract, safety information, company policys ect. The contract I had to sign, already was set up in a way, that was not really right. So I asked them to explain, what they mean (driver is responsible for damages on the truck, damages can be detucted from pay stub ect...). I understand, that unprofessional actions of a driver, and damages that result as a consequence,, a company might have the right to make deduction,, BUT, I am a company driver, not an owner operator,, so I am not willing to sign a paper, that gives MV a freepass to charge me for whatever damages. Actually,, in this moment, I should have step out of the office,, and forget about this job,, and I will in the future, if I am asked to sign off such things. In the evening, after getting back the truck, I see that the AC still is not working, and the mecanics went home already. I called my "boss" (the man that hired me...) and told him about it. So he calls back the mechanic,, he fill in more Freon till seals pop... Okay, AC don't work, I go on that trip since load has to deliver, my "boss" assures me, that on my next return to Ohio, it will be repaired,, so I have to go to boiling hot Georgia end of June,, make some delivery in North Carolina before that,, spend another night in hot truck. Next day make delivery, spend next night in Suwanne GA in a motel,, my "boss" has to approve the motel overnight stay with his boss. Okay, whatever,, I can not stay as a OTR driver in a boiling truck,, so company pays motel. Days later, after staying a couple of nights in Motels, I was brought back to Solon in the shop,, my power inverter should be mounted that day, and my AC taken care of,, I told my boss,, that I wont take no more loads, before this AC is not working, and my power inverter installed (my "boss" at the time when he hired me, agreed , that MV will mount my power inverter, so I can run microwave, coffeemaker ect...).This time, a mechanic is working on the truck that acutally knows what he is doing,, the Solon shop had 3 units down,, and they were there in all those 12 days, no one really working on it,, so this shop didn't seem to be well managed,, the "mecanic" that blew the AC seals was there the same day,, and had a discussion with my "boss" , he didn't wanted to install the power inverter, cause this is not his job and against company policy. ???? Well, I was kind of happy, that the very talented mecanic didn't wanted to install the power inverter, cause with his poor knowledge,, the chance to have ruined the inverter was pretty big, he should have worked better on lawn mowers anyway, this would fit better with his capacity,, big trucks seemed to be a bit to tricky for his talent. So another better mecanic troubleshoots finally after 12 days with no AC,, my unit, and it looked like, there was a bigger issue involved,, and the whole passenger side dashboard has to be unmounted,, the truck would be down for a couple of days. I wait there a couple of hours, till my "boss" comes back,, and tells me he has bad news,, that they don't allow no power inverters,, and I can even not mount it at a different shop on my own expense,, and that a trailer is waiting for me and they fix that AC later,, since it would take days,, I can take another unit... I handed him the keys and told him,, "no power inverter,, no driver,, I quit... I was guaranteed to get that inverter installed,, and now I am not allowed to do that ?? "So , I handed him the key of my unit,, took same night a motel in Solon on my expense,, got myself a rental car (400.-- bucks to drive it back home to Tennessee...), next day I cleaned out the unit, got all my stuff in the rental car and went back home. Weeks later,, I still didn't got payed. I call the office,, the woman that take care of safety, and that I was introduced during my orientation, told me, that my money is on hold by a third party, and they don't pay myself directly, and that this is out of their control,, and that I left the company "under a load" and I didn't comply with company policy ect. ect. About 6 weeks later, I finally after writing letters, calling up labour board, I got a part of my pay,, I still don't get payed 210.-- dollars of my work on the 4 to of July,, even though there is proof on the E log, that I was working that day,, also, the nights I stayed in motels,, MV didn't pay me my overnight rate of 50.-- dollars,, their explanation : "if you don't sleep in truck, and we pay you motel, we do not pay you "overnightstay". The reason I stay in Motel was one simple reason,, on temperatures close to 100 degree,, it is almost impossible, to stay in a truck and get rested,, and do a 14 hour shift next day,, I do not think,, that office people work 8 hours in an office building,, when the AC is out ?? But for a truck driver,, that don't matter... So,, I have never seen 210.-- dollar for my work on 4 th july, and never seen another 200.-- dollars for my overnight stays away from home,, that were a part of my salary.i tried various times to get hold of the manager of the Solon operation to talk to him about that,, I was never transferred to him, nor could I talk to him. MV transport probably does such things with most drivers, since they know, that the cost of hiring a lawyer and all the BS involved, is too much to justify the loss of a drivers money. So Mo Vaughn might have been a good Sportsman,, but they way his trucking business operates, has nothing to do with playing a fair game. I know I will not get my money, I have to pay bills and support my family like everyone else,, 450 buks is not a peace of cake,,, anyway... My point is,, that this blog is warning drivers of some companys that are not honest, screw drivers ect... So do yourself a favour,, don't waiste your time with MV,,, if you do, you be warned. I am from Europe,, worked for 1.5 years in Canada, and now for 4 years in the USA,, MO Vaughn Transport is the first company, that I had problems with,, every other company has payed me for the work I did, never had any issues, if I didn't like a company I left,, and I get payed... Not with MO VAUGHN,, so don't walk on that landmine... Ciao

 

hey superflow,, I did call the labour board in Ohio,, there is simply too much BS involved and a waiste of time and energy to fight for those 410.-- ,, to my surprise, I was told, that I can get back the money only to a amount of minimum wage,, ??? I asked them,, how can that be,, there is proof on what they payed me on other pay stub,, so why can I only get back minimum wage ?? I was told,, that this is the way it is... Ohio is a "at will" state,, so a company can fire me whenever they want,, same thing for a driver,, you can pretty much walk away whenever you want it,, so accusation that I quit "under a load" was ridicoulous anyway, but whatever... Never mind,, I sure appreciate you trying to help me.,, but I will not spend more time to fight for those 410 bucks,, I even called a lawyer,, but with hourly rates of 200.-- dollars,, this is just to time and money costly to fight for,, and this is why such companys do that,, because they know, that they will get away with it. But they will not get away with it all the way,, that's why I posted my experience, to let others know what happened to me. This blog is not only warning drivers from bad companys,, there are also a lot of threads, that give you an inside look behind the curtains,, to figure out, what other drivers do and experience with other companys,, so that makes it easier to find out,, what companys could be a fit,, and what companys are better to stay away from. So MO VAUGHN was a complete waiste of time and money for me, maybe others are doing better with them,, so this is just my experience, a very bad one, and I hope, this helps for another driver to get a info to be careful and make further investigation before eventually have a similar unpleasant experience...

 

hey mp4694330, if you had a look at their shop, and mecanics that have already a very hard time to trouble shoot a Air Condition issue, , there aint no surprise there score is bad,, if they do maintainance as lousy as trying to fix a Air Condition problem, it aint no surprise,, that there maintaneance score is bad. Back in summer 2014 they had mostly older Freightliners, and those older trucks need more maintainance and repair,, how successfully this can be done, with a shop not well organized,, is up to your imagination,, especially if there are HAZMAT loads to be pulled,, a driver needs a shop that take care of the equipment,, cause you WILL be inspected on the scales,, especially with HAZMAT... So after a 12 day journey with a Air Condition issue,, and poor shop performance, that made it a easy decision, to give them back the keys, there bad maintenance score,, and not having been payed all the money,, that was a good call I think to bring that to a quick end...

 

well,, I would not say it like that,,that companys in Ohio in general have the licence to thiev drivers, this maybe only works as long, as a driver is not willing to handle all the BS to fight unjust behavior, but it just takes too much time and money to fight them, especially for a relative small amount of money, on top of this,, I am out of state,, I would have had to go to Ohio to do that,, traveling involved ect.. but I do think,, that the laws are set up in a way, that make it easyer for companys,, to get away with doubtfoul methods, and of course some companys know exactly how to set up their paperwork,, so it is vague enough, to not be held responsible in case of a disput, and most of them have a law office in the back,,that fight for them, so I was stupid and I blame this also on myself,, I should have walked out the door, right after orientation when they put this strange contract, company policy in front of my nose,,, you live and learn. so if someone else can avoid a similar experience as I had,, he or she will be warned that there are sharks out there, and that's the main reason I put this on truckersreport.com.