Laws against driver coercion usc 49 14103

Maybe I'm an #######, but that chitter chatter on the dock would have lasted seconds before I shut that #### down. If someone does something that justifiably results in a ### chewing or #### talking, then fine. But if a fella, or a group of cats feel the need to berate me for something similar to what you mentioned, then I've got zero problems establishing dominance real quick, and it can be done without even raising your voice in return. At the end of the day, most folks that run off at the mouth for things such as that, simply haven't had their ### beat one good time in their life for talking out of the side of their mouth. Anyway, strange scenario in regards to the suggestion by the security guard, and something I'd take with a grain of salt considering he offered up such "off the wall" advice for no reason it seems.

 

The trucking company I work for lets drivers log off-duty and only show 10 minutes no matter how long it takes. While being loaded and unloaded. I don't think that legal but they said if I want to log unloading or loading as On-Duty can. They don't log sleeper berth, they log off-duty

It's not coercion if you point it out and they back off from my understanding.

 

I'm going to put my pitchfork and blow torch down and just make a simple reply. My comment might not be what you want to hear but it comes from decades of experience. First you are going to hear legal expert after legal expert give legal opinions about "lumpers". I highly recommend you ignore all of them. Get you company to give you that comcheck or EFS check give it to the person and leave the dock and go where ever you go to wait. As for as that other stuff goes. All i can say is welcome to the wonderful world of trucking! make sure you wear flame resistant panties because over time your going to need them. Oh one more thing. Gate guards are the last people I would take legal advice from!

 

Been there did that. I actually got in my truck pulled away from a door and parked on the side of the street because I was called a ignorant (redacted). The guy crossed the line and I left. I drove off another place in Atlanta much for the same reason. I am generally a low key and patient person. However it is a huge mistake to confuse my low key and quiet nature as being accepting of a berating. This kind of goes hand in hand with comments I have made about not being scared to tell a FM or dispatcher where to get off when they want you to do something either illegal or beyond your ability. In that last case my company said to go back or be fired. I asked them where did they want me to park the tractor? Since we already had an Atlanta Terminal I drove straight there and started cleaning out my tractor. One of the safety critters inside came running out waving their arms like a chicken. I bring this up because I did quit that day. Walked right off the job. Guess what boys and girls? (gasp) nothing bad was placed on my DAC!

 

It wont be the first time we run into warehouse nuts.

If you want some fun try some of that Irish sometime.

As far as Corection, that one is not usually taught to newbies to the industry. Which is unfortunate.

As far as the stuck 5th wheel and people waving shoo.. I'll just work slower. Make em wait a little bit.

 

Exactly. Well put sir.

 

Well I try to stay low key. I also do my best to stay patient these days because as it is I am sometime taking nitroglycerine. Helps to count 1 2 3 4 -----.

 

So this morning I am talking to one of my drivers who called me about a stupid issue on the way back home.

He is telling me that he is at an appliance D.C. and he is waiting to get his paper work to get on the road. While he is waiting, there is a guy there falling apart. He has a scheduled appointment at 3pm, but his stuff isn't ready, the customer changed the order for the load, so the girl told him that he has to wait. Now it is 5 pm, this guy is all bent over waiting, the girl calls back to the warehouse, they said they are half way through pulling it and my driver can see they are staging the load right in the first dock. This guy is now getting pissed off, he tells the girl he has to drive 250 miles to a warehouse to drop it off and another 50 miles for the next load picking up tomorrow night and sighs then says this trucking thing is too hard.

So my driver is getting ready to get out of there, signed all the paper work thenthey spring it on him that there is an additional piece to go. This guy pops up and says something really out of line about how this place screws over the drivers and calls the girl behind the desk a b*******. So my driver said to the girl 'just stick it on the end when it is ready' and say back down. So the girl tells this guy his dock number and then tells him they will load him when the order is ready.

Now there are three trucks in the yard, two are at the two out of 45 docks and this guy has his truck sitting in the yard waiting, just idling. When she told him the dock number, he zooms out to the truck, slams it into gear, goes flying into the dock area and pulls into a dock. Not the dock he was assigned but the one next to his assigned dock. After twenty minutes the guy comes in and says "when the ******* are you idiots going to load my truck?" She said when he puts into his assigned dock, which at that moment he walked out of the office and back into his truck. My driver got the additional piece loaded, got his appear work, and as soon as he got the light to go, he pulled out of the dock and back onto the yard. He was there for ten minutes and in that ten minutes he saw the guy go back into the office and back out twice, not moving his truck to the right dock.

We both agreed that some drivers need to grow up. I've seen this happen at several places that drivers act like they have some reason to get upset when there isn't one. In the case of this D.C., the dock people are separate from the people who pull the orders and those people pulled orders in sequence of either how the trucks are scheduled or first in, first out system.