Driver thought he was doing a good deed then got fired for it

I hoped that you do enjoy better times in your work.

Drivers for companies do not always get to either decide how to run the load into harms way without essentially being fired and or prosecuted etc. If they did, this whole industry would unravel as the entire country just dip into the trailers to take what they want rather than participate in the economy with actual money etc. It would lead to anarchy and collapse etc.

There are a number of situations presented here which developed during the day yesterday after this story broke and I feel which ranged from a big heart to help a bunch of strangers all the way through different ranges of possible bad things happening to murder for that load. Trucks and sometimes drivers are taken out or removed some way to access a valuable load.

We used to haul for McKesson and they load narcotics in Memphis into our trailers. These loads exceed one million in value and have a incredible array of supervision. The trucks are unmarked as far as possible and all trailers including tractors have qualcomm tracking in real time and so forth. We are used to dealing with the threat of memphis based predators (Or anyone, the cartel stuff did not exist in 2001 at the levels we see now, that would probably have caused us to conceal carry under several licenses weaponry these days and run certain states that are honoring those licenses disregarding employer bans against same... while running a commercial vehicle.)

That truck will be where it is assigned to within 10 minutes without fail. It will have to take a extrodinary event way beyond mere human control of drivers like myself and the wife to lose a single pill or vial of liquid that literally will be taken off that trailer at that morning hour in a given city such as Detriot and already loaded into IV's and dosed to people who have a need for it in a thousand good medical reasons partly to stay alive as they heal. Partly to save them from the pain.

In short, we loved our work and did it very well. And would do it again with changes to behavior and addition of certain things such as carry, and stab proof clothing etc.

In short we have done everything as mere drivers.

Dispatchers operate on a higher level. Owners and Managers such as yourself think in even bigger ways for the good of the company and via extension the good of the workforce employed by yourself. If you are say Mr Big, JB Hunt with 15000 tractors and twice that on trailers and more resources beyond counting, a mere load of plywood would be a day's loss, easily recovered by sending 5 drivers to fetch a basic half day drayage run for a few hundred each truck later that day.

But if you are a much smaller company like we were contracted to McKesson and lost whoops a million plus... there isnt enough KW2000 tractors in the entire fleet to make up that one lost load. And the company will simply cease to exist and be exploded essentially in a world of never ending ligatation, insurance claims and so on so forth etc.

I learned that you are a strong person and are willing to do what's right. And I respect you for it. But sometimes that's going to cost somebody. And most of the... stock of drivahs... (I use the ah's at the end to show basic drivers fresh out in first year or possibly still working through learning the first several years which are much more than just plain CDL training....) do not think or realize just how little control they have with the industry.

No overtime, forced dispatch and all the usual that fill forums and lunch counters every day. It's a business a industry. Drivers are by the bus load real cheap and probably even cheaper these days dare I say it.

My relations with dispatchers boils down to maybe a few hundred people who has had the need to yell bad words and enforce their commands over the phone pounding the table making threats. That's no way to be a dispatcher. But no way for me to yell back and pound the table. It's counter productive.

Boil the hundreds of dispatchers... to about three to five I can think of who would actually take 10 minutes to explain the battle space problem to use a Marine Comparison and then present it in a way to where we the driver... not drivah... has to sit and choose the best for what we might do on time or find a work around or whatever it may be.

To find such a dispatcher and driver communication at that level is a immesurable boost to any company. You will find a workforce in battle flexible and dealing with situations such as Irma or california falling into the sea or even a nuked DC.... or something totally outrageous. Most people thankfully spend 30 years driving peacefully around the west never worrying about these troubles or having issues other than the occasional wildfire or tumble weed etc. To be oversimplication.... follow me so far?

And even fewer are owners who are willing to let me, a mere drivah come and sit in his office and go over something now and then without fear of firing. The owner gains the insight to where the problem will get fixed if possible before it really really became a problem... rather than getting say a call from his shop boss asking permissing to comcheck me 1500 dollars on demand for a replaced AC system far away in savannah (Knowing #### well no one in the entire outfit would permit such a thing if they could get it back to indiana and do it half the cost.... fuel included...) Imagine that owner's reaction when that money just goes up in smoke.

Im not trained again in business. I had a varied and interesting life. And as you probably could see good and bad things. It's a mix. Im willing to do bad things to protect the load. Where it might cost you a few tires or whatever now and then. Rather than killing a car by taking them out because they presented a threat to us, the medicines in that trailer and your equiptment. Imagine the courts joys and mountains of papers generated by such a act if we did that so that the bad guys wont get a pill off our trailer.

I hate to think about such things. But I do sometimes. It's outrageous. Protect the load. It's a mantra. There is no point in going over the details related to protecting the load. We all should already know what that is.

Just to give it away? In a place the driver apparently did not want to be at all? And then commit further violations of company policy towards say unauthroized use going home to mass? from Fla? That's the least of any owner's worries at night. I wonder sometimes if madness, suicide or vices consume such people who dare to be a Owner of a trucking company. How do they deal with such losses? or are they so big that it's merely a bruise and laugh it off until they realize the entire company has a rotted workforce that needs firing?

Like a decayed tree. Do you follow me?

 

Erm I follow that show a little bit and there is a old saying in America going back a long time. There is always someone who has the impression that someone might be dirt poor and need a wad of cash. That someone might be a sucker.

America is a land where sometimes people show generosity. It is also a very, cold land for those who are not able to live among society such as being a homeless vet or something else. Baltimore rotted out from within in my life time before my eyes. In roughly 100 years of my family history and ancestry, that city totally endured many things and suffered great losses, but in the last.. 30 it would see incredible violence against he victim for whatever coins or dollar bill in that person's pocket or even better a backpack of drugs to quickly convert to a gstack (1000 dollars) or whatever. Some of these wolves in baltimore have the ability at 14 or even younger to generate huge amounts of illegal gotten money far in excess of what a working stiff would earn at the corner store for a year at a minimum wage. There is no Law.

Not for those who decide to live outside of it.

In regards to giving. We have demonstrated in many ways ranging from a dinner given to someone in the truckstop once in a while to a winters worth of timber cut by me and shipped to a family with kids who have nothing for utilities here in Arkansas for months. We have given to the church and so on. But Im not here to toot my horn. My Spouse has been allowed to give to where it put us into risk of ruin financially only to be burned once or twice by certain persons. Those years we learned the legal system in recovering, collections, tax write off etc. Those were really bad years. And it made us less willing to give.

Ultimately the waif crying out a story on the fuel line in Atlanta at the Petro is spinning a tale of woe hoping to melt my heart for a few dollars or whatever it is. (Define a few...) or is distracting me possibly to have his henchmen take me out and grab that million dollar load trailer with a mountain of narcotics aboard.

I have to tell that waif to go away, scram. We have NOTHING for him. NOTHING>while scanning for additional inbound threats.

So the dispatcher can rest easy knowing we are going to deliver that load, not do something stupid and you the owner can sleep at night knowing we will deal with that predator quietly and your load will be safe.

It has to be this way. Anything else is outside of what I consider reasonable and results in actions taken or things done like these gofundme pages. What is that?" Online begging? It's a new world. One I don't particularly care for.

I wandered just a little bit with my post, I hope you can see where I am coming from.

Not everyone here in America has a million they can access in a moment's notice. I see it as a tower of babel. Trying to accomplish one simple construct with a range of peoples not all working together, doomed to fail at some point in interesting ways if possible.

And boy... are there many weaknesses in our way of life.

 

You sir have given me tears of laughter today with your gift of gab. Reducing pages of my forum debating to three or so sentances.

How do you do that? I WUV this.....

The Media? I rather not. They babble about things they don't know. But... if you wait a while say three days, additional REAL stories start to emerge....

 

Fire him after he pays for the load of lumber that he gave away

 

I appreciated your view.

Consider Tampa.

Give away one little load of plywood to a mob. Filling a parking lot in and near a closed big box store with stacked wood that would load a 100 flatbeds. (To paraphrase)

What good is all these wooden riches to these people trying to armor up against a storm big enough to reduce Tampa, a powerful city to a state of ruin and stone age living in a flooded land for weeks to months if not years.

What good is to close a HD who lost the possibility of selling the entire contents of that place in a night. Or possibly losing the entire place to the storm.

Insurance, isnt it great?

I rather the storm come through prior to it's arrival would be the time to gather the 100,000 truckers in nearby states ready to go into there after and we will be able to do what it takes doing.

But we have gots to stop building crappy houses (Ships to your analogy...) so that these storms which are known engineering hazards etc and threat to life, liberty and health to so many millions.

I once evaluated a nuclear attack against the capitol building of DC using a Topol-M that was stolen from Russia and driven off far enough by terrorists to launch. A diamond pattern was used with one directly on the capitol building itself.

The resulting deaths are about a million in a week. Burns ranged to about 2 million. Just second degree to third degree and even bad first degrees in a radius of roughly 45 miles from DC's Capitol.

All of these people need help. NOW.

Do you understand that properly staffed burn hospitals in these entire United States amounts to just 15000 beds? That's east of the entire Rocky Mountain Range. Arkansas has 440 hospitals, about 10 with a couple thousand beds that can take burn cases from DC should they survive that trip. But we have meth labs that blow up every day and children hurting themselves playing fire etc. Even less beds for DC's People.

There are about 45 helicopters here in Arkansas certified to do medflight to these burn units. But they need several hops to make it to DC.

shakes head. Not anywhere near enough.

Does this help anyone comprehend just how weak we truly are as a Nation? They say DC is a armed fortress. I say BS, there is no THAAD anywhere. In my kid days we had 24 NIKE batteries around just DC and a additional 16 for Baltimore which was then a number three warport for the nation. That was the 60's

All of that has gone away along with the industrial base.

What good are we then? Someone tell me that.

 

Theft is theft, regardless of the reason.

 

I'm only a couple pages in and can't help but notice all of the "cargo theft" accusations. Do you REALLY think any prosecutor is going to bring those charges knowing that a jury of ordinary people FROM THAT COUNTY (many of which may have even been the recipients of or the neighbors of the recipients of this plywood) will be deciding the case? No prosecutor in his right mind is going to take on such a case, knowing that these same people who received the assistance are also voters who get a say in whether or not that prosecutor will get to keep his job for another term. Bottom line, the driver isn't going to face jail time, and given the circumstances, I'm surprised Western Express isn't plastering images of this driver's actions all over the place as a "public service in time of crisis" sort of thing rather than firing the driver. Their PR department really needs to be fired on this one...

 

Prosecuted or not, doesn't change what he is.

 

Here's a twist to the story. This was just released in the last 30 minutes:

Company says Springfield man quit after giving plywood to Irma victims

 

*Rubs headache... what you describe is theoretically theft by receiving. It will take truck loads of court papers to prosecute each person identified taking that wood that does not belong to them. Remember HD was closed. HD did not even have a chance to inventory, price and put that up on the rack to sell to these people. So they went and took it. That's why you have the theft word tossed around.

I don't think WE would want such a image all over the PR as you stated. Customers pay for the freight and pay for the trucking and so on. WE would find themselves pretty much out of the industry's good graces if such drivers were publicly hailed as some kind of robin hood by them.

In our area, if you recieve something that is identified as stolen and it's your possession, guess what? A warrant will be drawn up and the Law will come for that item and attach your body (Arrest) and hold you. You can always make bail to gain freedom until court provided you have been allowed one. Alot of people have been prosecuted with no trouble on that.