Is my company trying to swindle me?

They're paying for fuel out of pocket right then. That means their credit is shot and no one will accept their fuel card. They are robbing Peter to pay Paul...hence the payroll checks bouncing. Ever seen "Tianic"? Dude, the ship is sinking. You are waiting for a TWIC card, I understand you need that for your next gig. But the thing you don't want to happen is to be out and away from the house, in their truck when the ship sinks.

Remember on the movie where the bow of the ship stuck straight up in the air? When that happens, it's too late to do anything....you're gong into the deep. They will work you and work you and suddenly, they're gone. You' re stuck out on the road away from the house trying to figure out how you're gong to get your gear home. And you take money that you really can't afford to spend to ship your gear home and ride the gray dog. As I said earlier, even a lawyer won't be able to do you no good. You will lose.


Clean your truck out and hand it back to them ASAP.

 

There is a job hauling freight from the LA harbor area to the SF harbor area?

99% of the freight from LA harbor comes from Asia, hence once someone in China starts putting stuff on the correct boat isn’t that trucking job gone?

 

Once the ship reaches the port, the freight is off loaded then needs to be moved else where some how... it's just how its done

Did some fedex for awhile, picked up near the Los Angeles airport, then off to the bay area to another fedex facility. where they sort it some more and send it off. picked up other freight near the bay area and landed in Washington state, its put on ship and sent off where ever..

the list goes on

 

That is exactly what I'm going to do. When I first started I thought that being in unfamiliar cities was interesting, but by experience I learned that being potentially stuck without a way out 2000 miles from home is terrifying! Abandon Ship!

 

I don't understand what you mean by "starts putting stuff on the correct boat"? Are you implying that China and America will discontinue their trade with each other sometime soon?

 

JOIN THE REVOLUTION.[FONT=arial, sans-serif].to all companies drivers, we are being screwed by your 'employers.' Some of the companies are probably just ignorant about the law, but in a lot of cases I'll bet that the company made a conscious decision to pay people as 1099 independent contractors to save them money, figuring the odds are against them being audited and caught.[/FONT]
But the IRS and US Department of Labor announced that starting in 2010 they are cracking down on employee misclassification abuse.
Simple way to determine if a company has classified/paid you correctly:
If a company hires you to work for them (doesn't matter if it's for 1 or 40 hours a week), tells you what hours you'll work, directs you to work at their site, gives you tools/equipment/computer to use, supervises/directs your work, gives you instruction or training on how to do the work, and has the right to fire you at any time, you are their employee and they should be withholding taxes from your checks, paying you overtime based on state law, and they should be paying employer taxes on you.
If they are doing the above but calling you an independent contractor or freelancer, they are screwing you to save money! You can report them to the IRS, anonymously if you want.
Contact the IRS (1-800-829-1040)