A&A Express

Alright, to those asking, I'm back in the saddle. To say the last few months have been peachy would be a lie. I won't bore you with the details, but I will tell you the facts. I am still a driver for A&A Express. I just got hit with a few mishaps along the way. My wife nearly died in May for DKA (Diabetic Ketoacidosis) and I had to take a little time off from the job and this post for a while. She's doing well thanks to the good Lord above and I am now able to focus more on the highway knowing that she can be seen by a doctor if things go down again. Now as far as the last few months, let's just say we had a little fun.

I returned to work after my wife was doing a little better and had to play a hardcore game of catch up. The only problem was that I noticed that I was being kept between Iowa and the east coast. Anyone who drives here will tell you that the rates out of the east are trash compared to the west. I brought this up numerous times and wondered why they were keeping me away from the west where the rates were better. I mean, they'd give me a good west coast run only when my hours had been dwindled to barely over 25 hours after all of the ########. Then they'd repower that load and send me back in the same direction that I just came from. This didn't bother me as I was only a few weeks away from a two week vacation at that point, though I did bring it up to some of the head honchos. About my two week vacation, well I didn't take it. When I saw the checks I made for those few runs, I reduced it to one week and notified the Texas dispatcher of the change. I went home and enjoyed time with my family in preparation to return to work on July, 11th. That didn't happen. I was made to stay at home until Wednesday, July, 13th despite my protests. When Wednesday came, I woke up early waiting for load information. I didn't receive that until 12 pm and it was a multiple stop in the Laredo area. I inquired why they waited so long and was told to get there.

Now as many of you know, I live about two hours away from Laredo. My projected time would've been after 2 pm. Also, the guys in those produce warehouses seem to move in slow motion after 12 pm and night shift is no better. I've also made it a point to the companies to which I'm employed , that I, under no circumstances, park my trucks in Laredo, St. Louis, MO or ATL for extended breaks. The first was that every company I've ever driven for didn't like us parking the units in unsecured places. The second one was because I was almost robbed in 2019. The last is that every truck driver in America knows that ATL is bad news. So we argued about not staying in Laredo all night. So through Wednesday and Thursday, I picked up the loads. In between, the dispatcher called the head of operations on me about the argument we had. I explained everything to our operations manager as well as raised to grievance of why my income was dropping and I was having loads pulled from under me. I now have his office number and his personal cell phone number should any problems arise. That Friday, I picked up the last of the order and was heading to Dallas, Texas. It would've been an 8 hour ride to Kansas City and I'd already received my return load to another location. However, the Texas dispatch called and told me that he didn't want me to deliver the load after all. He instructed me to take it back to the truck stop near my house and wait for the replacement driver as he had another waiting in Dallas to get the load into Kansas that night. Did I forget to mention that the delivery had until Saturday at 4 pm to get there and I could've made it? When asked if he was punishing my family and making us sit another week without funds was where he was taking this, he confirmed it. No skin off my nose. I called the operations manager and with how apologetic the dispatcher was after, I'm sure he gave him an earful. Thankfully, I keep a sizable personal escrow and we survived.

Since then, I've had no problems getting decent loads. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you get the right people involved. For anyone reading this, you will have your own opinion on either me or A&A Express. I'm here to say that at least I know that A&A Express will fire a dispatcher before a driver. I'll post again soon or when time allows.

 

While I know that no one is reading this, I figured I would update this post. As of yesterday, I have officially resigned from A&A Express. If anyone has questions, I'm willing to answer why ASAP. My mind is just a mess of burnout and emotions that are so bad, that I can't begin to talk about it currently. I will update after I get home and unpack.

 

Stay tuned. You may want to go from the beginning and you'll see how we got here.

 

It is doable.

 

I'll be back shortly with the end the result.

 

On January 2nd, I was assigned a two pick up, one drop off load to Hopkins, MN beginning in McAllen. This was $3,700.00 run that would've helped clear up some of the debt I had gathered while also making sure that I got a decent paycheck in the end. The dispatcher (also the supervisor of operations) was replacing the usual Texas dispatcher and agreed that I should take the load. My instructions were to be at the shipper at 8:00 am on the 3rd with time to get a washout as the trailer was filled with blood and other things I'd rather not describe. The mistake I made was that I didn't research the shipper like I usually do. I stayed in communication with dispatch keeping them updated and trying to keep the broker happy as we were doing everything we needed to do. Unfortunately for me, the original dispatcher for Texas found out I was in the area and berated me for being there. As I would, find out later I was on a list, that I was not notified about effectively banning me from picking up loads in the Laredo area after the fallout in July.

Apparently, this guy forgot our conversation previously and pulled me from the load and gave it to a company driver. He also got the company paid an additional amount by doing so. In the same effect, the same dispatcher wrote an e-mail to the broker, throwing me under the bus as a problematic driver. This was an e-mail that was read back to me by the president of the company and is important later. He then called me and told me that I'd cost him a customer and that I'd "lost his trust" for the second time. When I returned home, I called and asked since he pulled me from that one, did he at least have something else. His words: "To be honest, I haven't even thought about you. I have actual drivers who want to work." When I asked if it seemed as if I didn't, he responded with yes. I also asked if he was still going to hold on to the issue from July and effectively make it to where I couldn't feed my family, he confirmed that too. This was the second time. This is the point where I requested a meeting with the president and vice president of the company.

On January 4th, I was assigned a load from San Antonio, Texas to Atlanta, GA for a measly $2,000. The freight in that area is no good and we can't get anything out of there over $1700. After a trailer malfunction, I ended up taking a 34 hour reset in Lincoln, Al as I ended up missing that appointment. Thankfully, I was assigned a load that got me to the main terminal for my meeting with higher ups. In that meeting, I brought up the fact that I couldn't stay here as my finances were seriously suffering from these past mishaps. I brought along my e-mail from November to the meeting but their e-mail all of a sudden vanished when it was time to compare notes. There was also the fact that I was having to borrow money from A&A Express due to my truck breaking down and receiving negative settlements no matter how many miles I drove or loads I pulled. When it came time to talk about the dispatcher, they claim that it wasn't in his character to do that despite me having record of him telling me #### me and #### my family on more than one occasion. As luck would have it , I'm not the only driver he was known to do this to either. I've come across many others in the forums who've had the same bitter dealings with this person. At the end of the meeting, all they offered me was the chance to drive and pay back the $10,000 in repairs. No mention of how I was going to recoup those losses due to this person nor mention of how I would get out of the areas where the freight was bad. After going on to get the load that I promised to pick up, I decided that it would be best to just depart the company. I even told the vice president who called me back to his office to talk it over. I told him that there was no way I could possibly continue my employment there under these conditions. I've since cleaned out my truck and returned it to the yard in South Dakota. I was on a plane right after and am currently working elsewhere.

@KMOtrucking the best thing I can tell you is to watch your six. They have a "preferred" list which I apparently was on until last July. If you ever get on it, stay on it or kiss your ### and money goodbye.