JB Hunt - Lowell, Ar.

Of course JBH blacklists, as do all the hugeantics. When a big company burns a driver's DAC, that driver is effectively neutered, meaning he's off the market. No competing company will have access to him. The only option for said driver is to be stuck with the offending company or get out of trucking for a while. If he has quit the offending company, he must come crawling back begging for his job back or go get a job doing something else for a few years.

Isn't it great there is such a thing as DAC around to allow companies to do this?

 

Reply to skullitor:

Thank you for the kind advise.

 

Reply to Tip:

I believe that you are pretty much correct regarding the blacklisting of drivers by trucking companies using their "evil minion" (AKA: USIS/DAC Services). I believe that the OOIDA v. USIS/DAC Services class action lawsuit may change things somewhat, if it suceeds. The OOIDA has recognized this collusion to blacklist drivers between transportation services companies and USIS/DAC and has listened to the complaints of drivers for years. Hopefully, if the OOIDA wins their lawsuit, USIS/DAC Services will be forced to redact much of the "tripe" language they have used blacklist drivers in the past and will not be able to operate in the same way in the future. However, knowing trucking company business interests well, they will certainly establish a new type of DAC report using the ATA as cover for there community collusive actions. This is already the case in some states (like mine in NC) and the ATA is supporting efforts to form a similar state group in Pennsylvania. I have often found that "big business" acts "jello-like": When you think you finally have them by the tail, they squeeze out of your grasp like a "slimey slug". In my personal case, I have been so personally maligned and libeled that I am filing a lawsuit defamation this month in NC Superior Court against JB Hunt, their unemployment insurance carrier and possibly also USIS/DAC Services. Wish me luck.

 

What have they put on your DAC report?

Have you requested a copy of it?

 

Reply to trucking 101:

Actually, I am still unemployment and it has been over a year now. In that time, I have applied for well over 50 driving jobs within the transportation services industry. No takers. In addition, I have also applied for work outside the transportation services industry and "beaten the bushes" for substantial work that pays a "living wage" that will support my family. No takers. I have also made numerous calls and visited many potential employers. No takers. I am 50 years old, have an adavnced college degree and work that could "support" my family is not that easy to find for a "mid-lifer" who has been libeled and lied about by his previous employer. Therefore, as you may see, it is difficult to find work that pays as well as my previous work as a professional driver. I do not feel as if I have been too "lazy" to get off my "rear" and find work. I feel T101 is very quick to judge. I invite T101 to walk a mile in my shoes before T101 makes the determination that all I do all day is "play" on the internet and "cry" sitting on my "lazy rear". However, I truly hope though that T101 never has to experience the life-trauma and emotional pain that I have experienced during this time. I feel this time in my life is one of the lowest points I have experienced as an adult and as a man.

 

I especially liked all the "pro labor" thrown in. Care to guess my side of the fence?

I imagine JB is like everywhere else on this few spins of the planet I've witnessed. Promotion for the most part by default of scared little boys and girls. (I didn't say we were not all scared little boys and girls).

I've been through it with the starve out black list scene, too bad for both of us. Twice that I am aware of. I admire both of our uses of energy and impulse control. I did garage work for a while, wood work, other things, you would be suprized the badword people will purchase. Little things do keep the wolf from the door.

What do you consider a living wage? Gravel trucks around this neck of the woods, the guys don't look like they are starving. I won't mention the badword company, USFilter, that I work for, or Ozone AL Gores little love child, SafteyClean...

Oil field too, it is acting like the country is going to implode, really really starting to flag wave. Lose any display of egg head and stick your chin out and be patriotic around Haliburton or something. The vacume of thier lack will take you and the door on through. Oil field is dangerous feeling, oh, trust your feelings. But the pay is good, I've been told they hire us older folks, but have not seen any old hands, or been hired myself. Do see a few cats that have a major jail bird look, so standards are iffy, but only young jailbirds, not old?

I'm suprized no one called you a Commie, or did I miss it?

But this is my take on it, brother, sounds like you need to go up the chain a bit, and present to some suits, get a JOB TRAINING DRIVERS AND THE DISPATCHERS AND THE MECHANICS AND BUFFER MANAGMENT OF SAID, because if you stop and think about it, nobody wants to see a brake tag out by two trips 'round the sun. not nobody. Those are huge mistakes, when they happen, and they happen all the time. Do they not?

Dead trailer in the middle of the road, stinkin' to high heaven.

And I would call four grand peanuts.

 

Reply to D.A.:

Thank you for your kind input. I will take your suggestions into consideration. I have had the idea that I may be able to train drivers and/or management regarding safety issues and the USDOT regulations. I did make several work applications to employment in the safety departments of certain transportation carriers. I did not ever hear from them though, seems they may have checked my DAC, and/or contacted JB Hunt, and/or been more interested in maximizing their profits by quietly endorsing the illegal managment practices and exploiting their lablor force.

Oh well, the clock is now ticking on the case filed and I will soon tell my story to a judge. At that point, JB Hunt can speak up in court and explain why requiring their drivers to drive illegally fits in with their company montra "Safety is our #1 goal".

 

Burrows, tell me more about this lawsuit you're talking about. I can not believe it took this long for someone like OOIDA to realize DAC is being abused by companies. I realized about two weeks after I started driving that DAC is not about safety. It's about keeping drivers under control.

 

Reply to Tip:

You wanted to know more about the class action lawsuit that the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) had filed against USIS, also known as DAC Services. From what I understand, for years the OOIDA has taken a "boat-load" of complaints from their members regarding DAC Services unfair and (alleged) illegal treatment of drivers via the DAC Services employment history reporting. Basically, a lot of drivers complained that the DAC kept past employment information on them and distributed freely to potential employers without the driver's permission. Many of the complaints also dealt with the inability of drivers to get adverse or flatly "wrong" information changed in their DAC reports. In addition, some driver alleged DAC Services and certain trucking company employers "colluded" together to "blacklist or blackball" certain drivers as a form of illegal future employment denial.

All these types of problems led the OOIDA to finally hire a Washington, D.C. law firm to class action sue USIS (AKA: DAC Services). You can read all about the lawsuit starting at the point the OOIDA filed it during May 2004. The following "hot-link" will take you to the original OOIDA article announcement in the OOIDA's Landline magazine.

http://www.landlinemag.com/archives/2004/May2004/News/OOIDA_Warning.htm

If you cannot pull up this "hot-link" search for "landline" on the internet, go to the OOIDA site for professional drivers, click on the "archives" tab at the top of the OOIDA homepage and then use the site search box to look for articles in 2004 that have the keyword "USIS". You will find all the articles in 2004 listed there. You can also track the history of the class action lawsuit by also searching the OOIDA Landline Magazine archives for keyword "USIS" for 2005 and 2006 too.

The latest I heard on this lawsuit was that the judge involved recently said litigation could proceed in class-action-court-of-law and all involved parties were scheduled for verbal arguments in a Colorado court for mid-May 2006. If the schedule is still valid, I assume that we all should get an update soon at the Landline magazine site that will announce OOIDA's progress in the court case and the final judge's ruling on the matter.

If the OOIDA class action lawsuit wins, USIS/DAC Services may be required to removed certain language in all driver's employment history, institute new policies for including driver employment history information, legally notify drivers if their DAC report is being altered or accessed by someone or a company and, ultimately pay out a "large" cash settlement to the affected drivers (all professional drivers is the way the class action litigation works). It could also "bankrupt" USIS/DAC Services if the pay-out is very large and potentially could cause USIS/DAC Services to go out of business.

 

I believe the entire question of working for JB Hunt has to do with the "age-old" business practice of offering a supposedly great deal and then changing the terms and conditions of the deal later. This practice is also known as the old "bait-and-switch". JB Hunt makes all sorts of promises to potential drivers and (allegedly) their recruiters will say anything (including outright lies) to bring a new driver on-board with JB Hunt. Then during driver orientation, the promises made do not pan out. If the driver still stays on with JB Hunt and does not (wisely) tell them to "get lost" during driver orientation, the driver then experiences lower than promised miles and poor employment working conditions with JB Hunt having to do with "crappy" hometime policies and leases-to-own "head-games". In my experience, JB Hunt always pushed their lease-to-own program in hopes of "snagging" unsuspecting drivers into their "web of deception". After signing on to this "scheme", lease-to-own drivers found their miles-per-week falling dramatically and all sorts of "hidden" costs and fees within the JB Hunt lease-to-own program. Therefore, these drivers were unable to pay the cost of the lease-to-own payments and the truck eventually reverted to JB Hunt's ownership (also ruining the driver's credit history in the process). I would suggest NEVER working for JB Hunt or , for the "smartest" drivers, especially not getting involved in their lease-to-own program.