I Was Illegally "Terminated".

In February, I started a dedicated job at a company that totally doesn't drive orange trucks. I would only consider working for a company this size if I'm getting paid a fixed rate, and not mileage pay, especially with the slow-### trucks they run. At first, I actually enjoyed the job. The customer was pleasant. The pay was uncharacteristically-good for a big slimy trucking company. Most importantly, I had Sundays off.

At first, there was no permenant management on that account, but it worked better that way. Around Easter, a new manager who was definitely not named Brendan showed-up. He was very incompetent. He couldn't manage his way out of a paper sack. He called and harassed drivers on our phones, and used a (personal?) cell phone to do it. Besides that, he REFUSED to communicate on the tablet, on an office line, or by txt or e-mail. When he first showed-up, he tried to accuse me of being habitually-late, because he put me on a load what wasn't ready on time to make delivery and wouldn't make a new appointment. He ignored numerous requests to reschedule the load. Because of that, and because of his bizarre communication rituals, I began recording EVERY conversation. This is a one-party state. By the way, this manager/dispatcher (definitely not DBL) was universally-disliked by all the drivers. I caught him demonstrating spectacular incompetence many times, but never got to use it. He was replaced between the end of July and the begining of August. A new manager/dispatcher (whose name was definitely not Andrew) took his place. Initially, all the drivers were relieved that the other manager/dispatcher was gone. Also, a person whose name is definitely not Jeremy showed-up. He was very nasty hostile and threatening to drivers out of the gate.

Over the course of my working here, I had issues with being forced to work while fatigued. It didn't happen all the time, but periodically, a load would not be ready at a reasonable time, and as far as I know, they never made new appointment times for deliveries. Even Werner would update an appointment if you begged them enough. Here, they just smugly said I have to be available and ready to work whenever a load is ready. I thought this company had more class than Werner or Swift, but I am now doubtful if that is the case. These incidents became increasingly-frequent. If I finished a trip at 02:00-03:00 periodically, I could bear it, though it isn't fun. What I couldn't do is wait around all day to start a trip at 00:00-03:00, especially when I had been up all day waiting.

On 3 August, I made a delivery at a chain store that we are dedicated to. and things went normal. That was my last day of work. On 7 August, I was told that I was being terminated for hitting a mailbox at the store on 3 August, over-speed, not being willing to work overnight, and they also told me my license is suspended. I had just been at the DMV, registering a vehicle I bought, so I was pretty suspicious about that. I paid for an abstract, and they were lying.

I'm pretty sure they lied about the mailbox, too. I keep a dashcam in the truck, and it was running when that incident didn't occur. I have video of me taking a wide turn to avoid the mailbox, and a stop sign I'm pretty sure I would have also hit. I can even see the stop sign and mailbox in the spot mirror in the video. Not Andrew and Not Jeremy insisted that someone hit that mailbox and it must have been me. AFAIK, the mailbox may have never been hit. There are no witnesses or anything. I was never asked to fill-out or sign an accident report.

The overspeed is questionable, also. They hold it against drivers if they exceed 63MPH, like when you roll down hills with a load, if there is more than a certain percentage of your total drive time. According to Not Andrew, you also get dinged for "excessive over-speed" if you exceed 68.5MPH. It would be cool if they used numbers that actually show-up on a speedometer. Anyway, I was not aware of my "over-speed" percentage being above 4%. Regardless of that, I was never given a warning about "over-speed" or "excessive over-speed". No one ever contacted me about that.

I was also told that it is unacceptable that I can't stay-up over-night, even though I am not able to sleep in the day, especially in a truck in the summer when I'm not allowed to idle and there is no alternative for air conditioning. He simply dismisses my concerns with a "you have to be ready to work whenever the load is ready". He actually said that, and I have a recording.

He also told me I have a suspended license. I thought that was sketchy. I paid for an abstract, and guess what. It's not suspended. At this point I am not inclined to believe anything this person says.

Throughout the time I have worked here, I have never received a formal warning or any kind or any write-up.

I've been working on applications for other jobs, just hoping to move-on, but have been afraid of what malicious things might be said about me. I have been going back and forth for a while. No one at the company will talk to me. I talked to HireRight, and they told me that nothing negative shows-up on my DAC report. No entry from the not orange company. I checked an Employment Data whatever from Experian. It shows me as "inactive". Not terminated. I just saw this. It's going to get interesting when the state Department of Labor contacts them, since I made an unemployment claim. Just a re-cap. Not Andrew told me he was firing me. I have a recording of that conversation. I just now saw something that says I'm "inactive". Like furlough?

I know for certain that the company's own policies and procedures were ignored by Not Andrew and Not Jeremy. From what I hear, they are making-up their own policies for discipline and firing people arbitrarily. I tried to file a grievance with the company, using their own internal mechanism, but was ignored. I didn't trust those SOB's enough to give them the form, I scanned it on my computer and attached a PDF of my written statements, asking to dispute the aforementioned accusations, and e-mailed it to the person in charge of the account, whose name is deffinitely not Jeff. That person never went on and on at orientation about how ethical the company is, or how they would never fire a driver without having a good reason. Anyway, I was ignored. I haven't received any communication from anyone at the company.

Please tell me what they're doing is super illegal. I'm not a lawyer, but I dont' think this is right.