9 days of breakdown!

I'll be ###### !!!
A gold star & a cookie for ya @Judge

 

How long would you sit for free? What is your bare minimum before you say you need a paycheque? One day quickly turned into nine, then what? Fourteen, twenty one? If I’m sitting for two weeks not getting paid I’d want to be home with family.

 

I have been a day cab driver for 20 years, luckily I have never had this situation happen to me despite driving a 2011 International Prostar for 5 years. I do run most of the East Coast staying in hotels 1-3 nights a week.

One night on the way to Boston the high pressure fuel pump housing cracked near New Haven CT. It was spraying fuel everywhere but still ran ok, parked it at a hotel for the night. Called road service to take a look at it the next morning, of course they couldn’t help me. Had it towed to the nearest dealer and grabbed a taxi to a Penske location and rented a tractor. Just had to push back all my deliveries a day.

Another time I was heading home from Boston on a Friday night, heading West on I-84 near the NY/PA line when I heard a loud pop pulling a hill. I pulled over to investigate and found a lot of smoke rolling from under the hood, I couldn’t figure out what happened as it was coming from behind the engine where I couldn’t see. I called my buddy who also happens to be our company’s fleet manager, he said to try to limp it to the closest dealer which turned out to be in Scranton, PA .

I drove it despite being down on power, but about a half an hour from Scranton the cab started filling up with black smoke. I rolled down the window and stuck my head out to be able breathe, but just then the sky opens up and starts dumping buckets of rain 10 minutes from the dealer. It was either stick my head out the window and try to see thru the stinging rain, or keep my head in the cab and breathe the noxious fumes seeping in.
Somehow I made it to the dealer and then had to wait 2 hours for my buddy to pick me up. Luckily he was available to come get me as my daughter’s birthday was the next day and I definitely wasn’t missing that.

I feel like your company should be paying you much more. I ran for a propane company for a couple of winters. One year they decided to give me a sleeper truck despite me being home every night. First and only sleeper truck I have ever driven, ironically it was also a Prostar. A couple days after I got it I was rolling around the Baltimore beltway loaded and the truck just died after hitting a particularly rough patch of blacktop. I get out and pop the hood and find a rusty front shock broke and knocked the fuel line off the water separator.
It was a Saturday and the only mobile mechanic they could get to come out there was in this raggedy pickup with an air compressor bungeed in the bed. He wire ties the shock out of the way and fixes the fuel line. After consulting with the company’s shop manager they make him remove the shock completely so it doesn’t do anymore damage.
I was able to complete the load but I really didn’t like driving around with no front shock even though I couldn’t feel any difference in handling. I started having problems with low engine power the following Monday, and found the mechanics jerry rigged fuel line was crimping causing fuel starvation.
The company had me take it down to a dealer about 30 minutes from my house. It was in the shop for 4 days and the company paid me $200 a day to stay home. Worked out well for me as it was hunting season, and they even paid me mileage for my wife to run me back and forth to the dealership.

 

Believe it or not, I've done that. I was working for a company that was a bottom feeder to the max. 1099 joint. I went there because I didn't have a choice. I didn't make the best choices as well documented on here. My record needed to get cleaned up. That company had a cheap owner. I had some money saved. He threw me a few dollars here and there, but no where near the compensation mentioned in Lenny's first post. He eventually got me on the Greyhound home. After 2 weeks, maybe even 3 of being down, ingot on the bus back to Memphis because it got to the point of no return. He put me in a different truck and dealt with that one later. It ended up turning out ok. I wasn't going to get rich there, but I stuck it out for 5 years. To answer your question, I never want to go without a paycheck. I'd like to be compensated for that time, but I've been in the game long enough to know that a breakdown equals a gut punch with some companies. If I'm down, of course I'd rather be home with my family, but companies are gonna do whatever is best for their business interests......heavy on the business. The bigger companies are gracious enough to throw a little something in your pocket and take care of hotel costs. How long can a driver sit for free, you ask.....I can't give a number. Only the driver him or herself can determine that.

 

And the drivers or any employee is not the best interest of any trucking company. Oh, I have read and heard about "our drivers come first" or seen trailers with a sign, "our best resource
sits 65 feet ahead", I get a big laugh over this because I know, from the minute a driver is hired, a file is kept on him just in case he becomes a "thorn in the side".

 

Maybe you're confused. But the driver sitting and the truck sitting. Both are doing the company no good. So it's in their best interest. To get him in a truck and moving freight.

Paying $100 a day AND not getting anything in return. Is losing money for them both.

But guess what? Some companies actually do take care of their drivers. I'm a perfect example of when they do.

 

Some companies do. I'm sure this company would have done their due diligence and took care of him had they foreseen this taking as long as it did. Yes they are losing money. Each company does what's best for them and that's according to them individually. Sometimes drivers and companies have to just take an L and be ok with it. We all have or will have to at one point or another in this industry. Those Ls come for various reasons. The method of how the company takes the L, that's subjective.

 

If they are paying you $100/day, why are you only getting $500/wk instead of $700/wk.

 

Good question, perhaps it is being treated as a 5 day work week vs. a 7 day work week. Again, this is just a guess.

God bless every American and their families! God bless the U.S.A.!

The absolute sheer driving force of our national economy - without truck drivers, our entire national economy would come to an absolute standstill - if not outright be dead.

Over the mountains, through the woods, into the valleys, coast to coast, from sea to shining sea - truck drivers can and do go anywhere and everywhere, every day, every night, all year round.