Hirschbach Motorlines/Liars,cheats and thieves!

If you did not sign a release to ok deductions from your pay then do as Grouch says and go to the state or labor board.

How many did they take from you?
Do you have a signed copy of anything that even remotely looks like it said $150.00 for a bad log page? I just know no one not totally fogged up on drugs would sign some stupid ripoff like that!

If they have one request a copy and to see the original. If they refuse then now you get a lawyer and see if they want to fight this BS $150 dollar fine with their more expensive lawyer or waste the time even going to a court of law!

Here is why no one should "JUST" sign every piece of trash put in that orientation book or thrown in front of you with "lets hurry folks the pizzas almost here" Tell them to slow the hello down so you at least can read what you are about to agree to! For all you know you are about to give your rights to being sexually assaulted by Bubbas boy friend! Or his ugly girl friend! OR to actually agree to a 75% reduction of pay per mile because the sun shines!

Good luck with getting that money thought. I do want to know how many times they did this!

 

Must have been sleeping during that part of Orientation when they told the "drivers" about log violations and the fine thing!

 

You are so right my friend..There is pretty much NO reason at all to get a log book violation.

 

They use to be a good company until they got bought out. They was hard to get on. Now they take students.

Hirschbach has took a nose dive ever since they closed their S. Sioux City terminal and lost all their good dispatchers. Ever since Jan 2010 most office employees are inexperienced. The couple experienced dispatchers are the ones with attitude problems.

Comment from one of them before I left... "I been here 25 years, I don't care if they fire me". After I lost my good dispatcher, I got that one and my first 3 runs were under 200 miles just because I wasn't one of her regulars. It didn't matter I was a three year employee with a good track record.

Then the next one I got was the other experienced dispatcher. Same thing, except he was a compulsive liar. My miles dropped from 2500+ a week down to 1500-1700. They got rid of half the work force and they tried a team dispatch approach with each team handling like 110 drivers each. That didn't work either. Comchecks were taking an hour to get at times. Going home wasn't a priority even if you were out 6-7 weeks. The last one I had was inexperienced and dingy. Her facebook profile was filled with about 200 pictures of her being drunk, lol. I knew why she missed many Mondays.

They bought out Tucker Transport which done the short regional stuff in the IL-IA area. AJ Tucker is a thorn in their side and has chased many good drivers away. He has regular short runs and will pay one driver $200 for a 100 mile run and the next guy gets $40 for the same run. The loads come out late at night and many times are late being loaded and the driver gets the heat if they are late. Logbooks didn't matter.

The old safety dept use to teach you how to falsify better and gave you the opportunity to correct logs. Last I heard the safety director got fired. So maybe that's were they fining is coming from now. Dispatch and safety don't work together. The driver gets stuck in the middle. Even the operations manager of many years left about the same time I did.

My last year there I watched most the 2 year plus drivers leave. Even the 5 year plus drivers were leaving. The lease operators would leave as quick as they came. The parking lot was always full of empty trucks.

They did pay drivers fines and have payroll deduction. They also cut the trucks back and took away the toll roads. They refused to have prepass and it took me awhile to figure it out. They didn't want the time stamps because the way drivers had to run.

I got many Tyson runs that took every bit of your hours to deliver. Time for the sleeper berth. Nope, you got 2-3 more drops to make. You either do it or sit. Take your choice. Be late and get fined $400. Tyson always had a 24 hour pickup window where you never got detention. They expected you there 10 hours before so you could run like hell when the load came out. The problem was you were busy delivering your previous load and by the time you DH there you were just an hour or two away from that load coming out. Those loads I would pick up after hours and hit the first truck stop. Then get 2-4 hours sleep and run like hell. You had no choice but do it, sit or quit.

They got me for my $1000 pet deposit even though I turned my truck in spotless.
I never had any damages either. One time I had a drop at the Sherman, TX Tyson plant. You dropped the trailer and the shuttle driver unsealed it and put it in the door. When they were done, I got the trailer back already sealed out in the yard. I get to the next drop and open the doors, There is two cases of fat thrown all over the ground where they tossed two cases up top near the edge. Tyson requires you call OS&D with all the case info and you get a claim number.
I called Tyson and since it was Saturday at 3 am I got a voice recording. I also contacted night dispatch and they ignored me over an hours time. I had one more drop, so I took pictures and had the customer document it on the bills. I wrote down every bit of info of the ripped apart boxes. I cleaned the mess up and since it was just fat, I tossed it all in the dumpster. I got charged $170 for them two boxes of fat because I didn't save them. Did the company stand behind me? Nope.

If my health didn't get me, I would of quit anyways. They are poorly run. Their safestat reflects the truth.

Meltom will be chiming in. I think he's one of the office people.

 

Air Breeze, i apologize that I misunderstood what you meant with the logbook fines issue. I had not heard of a company charging fines like that for the computer not matching your logs. My last company really gave ya a lot of grief over it though. I'd bet they had thought about it. I had read your post, as i had been thinking of giving Hirschbach a call. Thank you for the info. I'll pass on them.

 

Hey Rollover The Original....I misunderstood what Air Breeze meant....My reading comprehension is generally a little better. I did apologize to him for my misunderstanding. As far as the "one post wonder" comment, you where at one post at one time too...lighten up a little.

 

There is also a nice logging program well worth the money and it's cheaper than that fine AND cheaper than a DOT ticket and fine and points! Even with E-Logs it's well worth the money! Since the old rules I have NEVER gotten a ticket, OOS or a letter from the safety department except for one time which was a problem in THEIR program! DDL was on top of it! The company didn't do an update that was needed! Just an IT slip!


But still $150 for "A" mistake? I'd be out the door so fast they would have thought there was a tornado in the building!

The up to $500 for OS&D that was your fault I can live with as I bet whoever had to pay it would NOT do whatever they did again! I would darn sure be on the dock inspecting and counting and supervising the loading so that something could be "slipped" by you on the trailer! I have stopped loading to inspect loads and found damages that they hoped would get by and then put on insurance at the other end as a truck damage and not shipping! I even watched a spple product producer in PA drop a case of apple sauce and I heard the jars break and as I was walking over they removed a case and put that one in it's place and thought it was ok with me! It wasn't, and argument started and I called my OS&D office! The case went back into the warehouse and I was told never to return there again! I asked them if they wanted a picture. It didn't hurt my feelings as it wasn't the first time for me! That really set them off but my company was fine with it! That one case would have leaked down onto the those under it and cost us more in insurance. It could have cost me time trying to either donate it to someplace or have to throw it away for a loss.

But $1000 for letting the tractor get a little dirty inside?? ##### that must have been one shiny sparkling truck when you opened the door! Do they give you dark glasses to wear when you open the door?

I would be absolutely certain that when I quit I would not only get pictures from every angle I could get with geo tagging on, but I would video it to keep $1000 from going missing from the last paycheck and also have them see me doing all the filming WHILE THEY INSPECTED THE WHOLE TRUCK! Then get a copy of that inspection sheet!

I every once in a while will detail a truck for a friend but I only charge $200 and that includes unbolting the seats from the floor to get soda out from under them and doing the duct work to get rid of smokers left behind grease in them! You will not be able to tell anyone smoked in it but if there was an animal the price went to $500. dogs and cats are worse that their owners at times!

 

I know this is unrelated to the OP, but RtO is right:

I agree, DDL (Drivers Daily Log, Google it folks) is an excellent program, and worth every penny (including the hardware -- laptop, printer, inverter for both -- costs). Not only can you produce error free compliant logs (especially if you use some of the freebie add-ons), you can use it as a tool to accurately determine whether or not that "hot load" dispatch is rushing you into can be done legally (or even realistically), and if not give them a good ETA for swaps, repowers, appointment rescheduling, etc.

In my experience, CVSA and law enforcement love this program as well (yes, they know you enter the data), especially over the variety of e-Logs out there (the black box kind controlled by the carrier, not the driver).

The author of the program is also ALWAYS current on all regulations, and has written the program to force updates to the rules whenever a change occurs, so you know there's been a change and stay out of trouble. The program has a bunch of tools for owner-ops as well, many of them quite useful for company drivers (like expense tracking, especially the ones to be reimbursed by the carrier).

Geez, the author should hire me to sell the program, lol.