JB Hunt - Lowell, Ar.

ok fellow drivers, I was trying to make it short. but in long detail.. i was under a pre plan on sunday .i went to the truck and it would not start. I sent qualcome message and advise them of the situation and also told them that i refuse to drive this unit they need to send a tow truck or service truck with another driver.the weekend dispatch took me off preplan and done nothing else. on monday my fleet manager phoned me and i told him verbally ..i was not driving an unsafe truck..he like any other computor geek advised me the truck was fine and he will send road service out to start truck so i can drive it to columbus ohio and switch into another unit. when i told my wife and family what he said..they was furrious and it was at that point we made a family decission to send a qualcome message to him that .once again i refuse to drive an unsafe truck and you need to send a tow truck and or service truck with another driver..and that i felt that with the first truck being a recovery truck that i couldnt drive,this unit with all the issues,that JB hunts older units is unsafe and that i was not going to drive for them unless they could issue a newer truck..so my fleetmanager had called my cell all day that day and i refused to answer the phone .but i kept checking the qualcome for messages,there was none.so on tuesday the first phone call that i recieved was from opps manager making his threats to me about ..theft cause they had no clue where the truck was and if i did not drive truck back to columbus ..he would make sure my DAC report showed that i abanded the truck

 

Sounds to me like the situation has gotten out of hand. There is only so much power a fleet manager has. Like I said, had you called road service first, the truck would have been flagged as a downed unit in the computer and the pre-plan would have been removed, and you wouldn't be available for dispatch until the mechanical issue was resolved to your satisfaction. That truck is your ship, you are the captain. If you don't think it's safe, then it can't be driven. Period. They know that.

The trick to survival at JB Hunt is to have as little interaction with your fleet manager in Lowell as possible. When you have a mechanical issue, you call road service, when you have a safety issue you call safety.

 

Lord knows I have had my issues with JB Hunt, with their unfair hiring practices and the way they abuse drivers in general, but this one reads a little funny... a truck can be a piece of junk but still be safe for the road. You said you told them the truck wouldnt start and to send a tow truck? If that is all you told them no wonder you FM was getting upset with you. You said they offered to get the truck running and you take it to Columbus and swap out.
I spent many years with JB and unfortunately I have seen a ton of drivers come across this same way, for different reasons.
To me this reads of a driver who couldnt follow procedures (call road service) and either was upset about other things or wanted a newer truck. Either way I believe you created your own problem there.
I will bash JB all day long about empty promises and no miles, but the equipment is well maintained if you notify road service of issues with the truck/trailer. Poor condition of truck falls directly on the assigned driver for not doing proper write ups, notifying road service, and then verifying problems were corrected before leaving the yard.
Calling after a weekend at home and then telling your FM your truck has issues, well lets be fair.

If you were working for anybody and sat at home all weekend with a truck that needed work, you would find the owner of that truck pretty upset, whether its JB or John Doe Trucking.

 

That's the way to do it . Write up the defects on the DVIR . If reports are sent buy Qualcomm by reports t a truck stop . Write up all the defects and ask the service truck driver to sign them off . He'll either fix the defects or have you towed . Then the shop will have to sign off the repairs . This info is for all those complaining bout driving unsafe trucks . You are required to do pretrips and fill out posttrip reports . It's all on you . You're the one responsible if you operate an unsafe vehicle .
This "family decision " business is nonsense . What do they know ? Did they ever drive a truck ? Did they learn company policies in orientation ? Did they do a pretrip ? If you lack the ability to make decisions on your own you chose the wrong career .

 

I drove for JB back in the 90's and had an old cabover that would never start. I was constantly in the shop and they changed out practically everything that could have caused the no-start isuue. I was on a dedicated account at the time and my fleet manager hated JB even more than the drivers so she actually instructed me to never shut off the truck. For the next year I never shut the truck off unless it was in the shop for regular service. It still had to be pull started even after the shop worked on it. Old JB, it sure was a crazy place at times.

 

I was a manager at JB for some years. I can tell all of you a bunch of inside politics and scams they pull on drivers and managers. One word to the wise...do not go for their truck purchase program, you will go under and need to return the used vehicle to JB. Thus giving them another truck to sucker in a driver.

 

Hey Naps, at which terminal did you work?

 

My base was East Brunswick NJ but I traveled the entire North East territory.

 

Another bunch of scammers in the freight transport industry. When will it ever end? Never.

 

swift does it too