Holmes Trucking LLc Wichita, Ks

Grain hauler. Mostly midds and the like.
Pay is okay.

Do not ever work for this guy. He has ads in craigs list all the time. Always an open truck. You know there is a reason for that.
1. Pay will be late to the tune of 2 - 4 weeks behind.
2. You will be left to sit quite often at places that do not want the load you took to them. Either because they are broke down or simply do not have the room for it. you will not be compensated no matter how many days you sit and wait.
3. The mechanic just does what he wants or in reality does not do what he does not want to do. Sam knows this yet ignores it. You can go to the shop a dozen times for the same small problem and leave with it not fixed yet the mechanic will get no problem from the boss, but you might.
4. You will make 60 to 65K a year. No you will not. Maybe 40K - 50K.
5. Home on weekend means in the area working not home.
Now lets get onto the nitty gritty of my complaint.
I was there 11 months. Pay was always late and if you complain you get a crappy response from the owner like you are doing something wrong by bringing it up.
Mechanic not fixing wiring problem in trailer. 2 1/2 months of this going on. blinkers would trip breaker and lights would just go out.
Got tired of this crap. Lights all out on left side. Blinkers, stop, running , gone. A little over an hour outside of town. I call for a mechanic. Owner , Sam , tells me no. Just wait for daylight and go to Springfield , Mo. WTF ?
I managed to get the stop and turn lights to come on the next day so I went on. Could care less if he gets a equipment violation for the running lights not working. I was only driving in day time.
1 month later the blinkers on right side kept blowing fuse. This was an ongoing problem that was not being fixed. I called for help from McAlester, Ok. Was ignored by Sam who just kept sending me my next load number in Tulsa, Ok. I insisted to be able to have the blinkers fixed before leaving. Finally mechanic advised me to put in larger fuse and see if I could make it back to Wichita, Ks . I di and made it to Tulsa.
In Tulsa Port 33 the fuse blew and caused major problem and I could no longer get blinkers to work.
I was told I had to pull the illegal unsafe trailer back to Wichita, Ks . I refused. Told them I would leave it in Port 33 and go on home if I could not get it fixed as I would not pull a trailer with no blinkers.
Guess what I got then ? Yep, fired. Amazing. A company with crappy safety record firing someone for refusing to be unsafe.
He of course lied to unemployment and the Feds about this. Stating that he fired me for driving off duty. Yep I was driving alright. Right after getting his text telling me I was fired if I did not pull the trailer back.

I seen quite a few drivers quit while I was there. One lasted two days. Another lasted about 4 days. Long time drivers quitting over pay being late and sitting unpaid at destinations.

Lesson learned. How ever makes it hard to get a job with him lying to companies that inquire. But he will pay as soon as we get to district court as I have all his texts and video of the blinkers blowing the fuse along with all my maintenance requests.

 

Took 2 months to get my 4 weeks from him and still owes me 750.
As for running illegal I only had no running lights so just a ticket on him not me. Big difference in no brake or turn lights and running lights in day time.

I might just have to post some video of the dangerous truck I was driving. Compliments of his mechanic and his disregard for the mechanics nonsense. Also all them text messages that day leading up to being fired for effusing to pull the trailer. I actually have the one where he tells me I am fired if I do not pull it.

 

nothing that is not public information.

 

Just too bad that I have to now go find a job to pay a lawyer. Did not need one for the OSHA part but when it goes past that to District Court I will need one and have yet to find one willing to do it. They all say they are worried about him paying up since he does not pay employees.

 

I was hoping the Feds would do something about him when I filed the coercion complaint. Who knows since they do not tell you the outcome of complaints for illegal actions against you, but seemed like they could care less.

Forgot to mention that they had the nerve to send me a fake W2 form. I guess just trying to harass me hoping I would file it and cause myself some problems. I turned him in to the IRS. They had no record of the payments he claimed to have paid me. I was not even paid by him. Holmes was managed by a company because of his crappy safety record and they paid me.

 

yep he has already tried that with the unemployment office in Ok and Ks and with OSHA. Claimed I was driving while off duty so somehow that makes me a unsafe driver that should have no problem running around with no blinkers. I guess he needs to justify it some how.

Here is something funny. His mechanic left an air filter in my truck for so long, must have been years, that it was completely clogged up to the point it crushed it from trying to suck air. One of them plastic kind with the small filter inside the filter. it broke that one clean off and crushed the outside. A old boy that used to be a Detroit mechanic was at the shop and he pulled the hose from the after cooler and shoved in a rag and it came out soaked in oil. Sucked so hard it blew a seal in turbo . 2500 bucks. The turbo was not very old.
He did not even say anything to his mechanic about it.