Employer possibly paying me wrong, possibly made to break DOT HOS by termination, public safety??

I was on the phone all day yesterday trying to talk to lawyers. I'm waiting on a call back from any one of them. There doesn't seem to be many lawyers that handle law regarding labor and employment in the state let alone area. I don't know if it's just here or if that's a specific area of law that's less in demand. But I called maybe 12 or 13 from here to the other side of the state and I was told they will call me back by their secretary's. And I got this job by a friend thats basically my brother who works within the company who has been here for a year and 4 months. He just doesn't ask questions and went with it because he had it rough and honestly this is nothing to him. But he confirmed what I'm saying is true and not just dramatization. He just didn't realize that this was possibly not okay especially since he planned on leaving soon as we are starting a business. And financially he gets money from his previous job for life so he knew he could walk away and be okay.

 

That's what I said, when I did roofing and construction I handled the estimates and paid subcontracted companies % on completion, which there's alot of sketchy things that go down in that line of work, I broke down materials on site plus extra for their use and their value, what the job total was to us as the company and the the subcontracted so they knew I wasn't taking them for a ride, a bonus for early completion up to code, labor costs for x workers for x days until completion, and a bonus just for not using extra materials and completion just for not only being fast and correct but they didn't make mistakes costing materials I could use down the road.

So when I'm not shown a breakdown of what companies we charge for providing services specially when paid comission plus being dispatch an driver. Then you say some companies we have contracts with and it varies based on info only the owners, general manager, and accountant know. And I'm like sweet I did 15 tows, one of which was like a $400+ tow that was to go 90 miles away, 4 tire changes, 1 AAA wreck, 1 PD wreck, and a Jumpstart I should bring home like $1200 or so after taxes no less than $1k for sure. Bam like $763 after taxes. I made like $478 hourly after taxes Mon-Fri, 8.5 hours a day. So I'd be like what the hell and nobody could explain to me how that added up to so little that I made less comission than $13 a hour but was doing so much more work. Like basically if you count the 2 weeks consecutively on call plus the 2 weeks at the shop hourly I was basically working. That's 421 hours a month, or 16hr+ days every work day average minues the 4 days off a month. Most of that time being in the consecutive 2 weeks on call. That's crazy to me, if you said that upfront with no benifits and being responsible for any damage out of pocket if it's not mechanical failure with proof it wasn't user error and we don't have trackers on the trucks, time logs written or digital, no clockin or out system, or cameras. Meaning your arent gonna have anything proving you innocent unless a camera in public you can get the footage sees it, you have a body cam, or witnesses. Like truck has compression issues and jumps when working the rollback and the cable snaps and a call rolls off into a wall causing 20k damage. There goes a years pay, would you like to pay installments or lump sum?

 

It's not about

One, yes I moved here after a bunch of traumatic events. Nearly resulting in the death of multiple people close to me I had to drop everything to care for. Due to covid and everything my family and I lost millions all together. I went from basically okay for life to almost nothing in a town with my daughter that was destroyed by a cat 5 hurricane and has charged 2k after utilities for a 600 sq ft 1 bedroom apartment in the ghetto. Want another bedroom or a better area? Let's talk 3k or 4k easily and must make 3x the rent on top of losing your savings due to the economic side and investments.
Then move across the country for a job offer that was a lie just in a desperate situation after a family tragedy and financial loss leaving a job making $70k-100k a year.
Then the house you move into gets robbed a month after you get there. Thousands in guns and property gone and told there's nothing that can really be done. To just move on and hope you hear something eventually and get some back if they leave it at a crime scene, get busted with it, or try to pawn it.
Then your realize your making roughly 25% of what your used to with no savings and sold a lie.

It's hard to move on when it feels so personal, specially when you work that hard and your boss knows all this. An when he fires you tells you he doesn't care about you or your family and can't work with you in any way.

And then your driving a commercial vehicle 8.5 hours a day minimum weighing 20k towing vehicles that make it possibly 30k or more. And then 24 hours a day for 14 days straight and being told you can sleep when they say you can. If all you get is a lunch break Mon-Fri and other than that get out of the truck when there's no calls. Literally drove nonstop for days, no sleep, no break, too bad.

So not only is it personal it's a matter of moral and ethics for me. I called saying I was concerned I couldn't drive due to being so tired by day 11 and didn't want to make a mistake anor doze off and just wanted to sleep for a few hours and come in and was told too bad even tho I never left the truck but for a couple hours for almost 72 hours straight.
I don't wanna see on the news there's a road fatality when it could have been my daughter or someone I love knowing I said nothing.

If he's wrong then it should be corrected for the safty and protection of the public and employees. If not then I guess when enough bad things happen the law will change like it always does when too many people stop just moving on.

 

So I know this is gonna sound mind blowing, I did go in blind. That is true, desperation and and being overwhelmed and stressed beyond words makes for poor and rash judgements at times. But the mind blowing part is I do not have a CDL. I was told we don't tow a combined weight of over 26k or whatever it is that requires a class A. But I didn't know that at all.

This is something I'm totally unversed in and only planned on doing it for months until our buisness equipment got here, work vehicle got delivered, etc. No employee is even drug tested, only background check. And they let you start before even that comes back. Like I'm talking same day walking in that you sign your w2 and paperwork saying you will take a drug test and approve a background. No physical or anything like that either.

And as I noticed they started to have us do things that were questionable even with the little common knowledge I had and I researched more and more the more unsure of continuing my work there. But I also was confused as to if I was being paranoid, if between the state and federal levels along with exemption laws if I was making a fool of myself my suspecting my boss. But also a local inspector came and cleared all of us to drive. I don't think anyone there that drives has a CDL. Maybe 1 guy out of now 5 drivers.

And then the incident with the officer calling and saying that wasn't okay to my boss after finding out my hours in conversation and how I looked on top of being threatened with termination when I said I was dangerously tired for my performance. It set the boss off, that's the owner as well.

This hasn't been over a long period. Just long enought for me to have started to get it slightly back together and start focusing on moving forward before I started to see the issues and ask questions and then basically refuse to continue once I was sure this wasn't right, atleast to me. I told him I wouldn't work hours like that or violate what I thought to be DOT or state laws. And that was the end he said do it or get your stuff and get out.

So I do apologize for my ignorance, on this topic I am for sure. I spent 2 years in law school with a 3.8gpa but it was criminal and civil law with my minor in cyber crime and forensics. And even for me the laws are confusing and not easily understood with exemptions, weights, materials, state, federal, etc. And so it took me a little bit to get confident and say no with little understanding, no guidance, and person and situational matters on top of bring worked to what felt like death. So please forgive me, I mean that and I know ignorance is not a excuse. It's why I'm here trying to find out what to do. If I can do anything.

The drivers aren't bad dudes, most are out of the army and just trying to make a living in a town they got stuck in after coming home to nothing. And a buisness owner who can make you feel crazy for believing he's doing something wrong. I'm just trying to make sure I'm not crazy and that just walking away is the best thing and me and all these guys are fools for being taken advantage of who are gonna end up arrested, fined into the ground, or a vehicular accident they are held responsible for doing something the didn't even know was wrong even if it was ignorance. And stop it from continuing or let someone know who can.

Please believe I'm just trying to do the right thing. I wouldn't even get that much money if there is something here. But I could save my brother or others from ruining their lives for this guy or costing a life having untrained, unlicensed, severely over worked for nothing but problems and no career workers.

 

But I am dispatch when on call, we don't have a dispatch or open office during after office hours. I have to take the calls from customers, insurance, and AAA. Give quotes where applicable, assign and dispatch the jobs to myself, complete required paperwork before and after dispatch, keep the truck at home where if a anything is stolen or damaged I'm responsible for, I'm require to respond to all call either in our area with atleast a 1 hour maximum response time from first call meaning I have to stay relatively close to the truck and dressed for work if I go out usually taking the truck with me to respond in time. If I get a police rotation call I have to respond in 25 minutes. When it's after hours or the weekend the on call is the business. You sleep or don't answer the buisness phone everything stops and on Monday dispatch and the owner read the emails and listen to the voice mails of how the phone wasn't answered, jobs sent weren't accepted, and now your in trouble.

Is that the standard definition of on call? One man doing all work to run the business, the only help you have is a backup driver who's only jobs is to help if you have a ETA of 3-4 hours locally due to so many calls, or you get a long tow worth hundreds by itself.