Leave this company or not?

I love telling stories as they actually happened. They seem to improve with the telling. But I don't always know everything... thank god.

Enjoy your day, whatever it is you are doing.

Good luck!

 

I hear you.

It's all good. If I did not do some of the more outrageous things trying to get that extra dollar in the work day... I would not be who I am. Or was. Thankfully I grew up and behaved. For the most part.

 

I like your spirit.

The reason I am all over this is because this is one way newbies were treated on the job by being removed from the one task they are hired for and stuck onto a totally unfamiliar task, preferably involving physical labor all day. It's actually a form of punishment. I resent that very much.

Someone has it out for you. And frankly Ive experienced that a couple times in my working years also. I don't stay long once I got wise to what is happening. You hired me to drive a truck for a specific task. I see that truck sitting cold and not running with 30 more like it. Do you have a load for me today or no?

No. Get on the pick.

No sir, Im gone. You find someone else to kick around. Im not your abusee. Preferably spoken in a loud voice overheard by half the drivers in the room if possible. In those old days back then we had dedicated drivers space with lockers etc and in that space is a staff window containing many dispatchers and bosses. They would speak to you through the glass. (Which should have been a clue. Just like the Korean Selling me awesome food through bullet proof glass in Randallstown area which is west side of Baltimore near Madoniawn mall which itself is a extreme threat area for non blacks who do not live there. Hence the armored Korean serving food.

If a boss or staff cannot come out and talk to drivers man to man in person while hiding behind (Not hiding but... eh it's there in between you two... Or one boss and 50 drivers...) then there is not much respect that goes up. And certainly none that comes down.

I thought those days have gone by but your experiences are most recent and ongoing tells me nope, it's still alive and well in some jobs. This should serve as a warning to others considering your type of work and what is possible.

One of the rules I had with a assigned truck was never to allow any other company driver run it. Its My truck for as long I work for the company. If they want to give a tractor to another company driver, that driver is more than welcome to walk behind the shop among the bobtail row and pick out a unit number go to dispatcher and get the key for that particular truck. Provided they will let you have it. If you had a chance to get a long nose 379 pete or a W900 studio KW or some really nice iron back in the day that was your chance.

I once went home with my tractor trailer for 4 days, and this home was like 50 miles from Baltimore (Nearest taxi stand) and about 70 from dulles and 55 from DC. (Alternate bus station is Frederick about another 35 miles and a taxi service that is restricted to just frederick)

They sent a driver to baltimore by bus, had him endure a ginormous 300 dollar taxi fare to drive 50 plus miles one way to my truck and trailer, take it on down the road with a promise to return it in 4 days.

I got it back on the 4th day. Trashed. Disinfecting, cleaning the animal stinking monkey non shower smell out of there took half a day. Then redoing my ravens flatbed covered wagon, redoing every single knot that I had been maintaining for 5 months with loving care because the western winds don't ever stop blowing. All of them were untied and retied like a child would tie shoes. Half the bungees were missing and several binders were damaged by the coils. Either a panic stop or a J turn stressed them. (How is that possible you ask me. Stretched chain too? whoo... I got a problem)

Examine entire rig. Find three tires patched. Find one brake shoe set glazed. the other three on the drives cooked. checked engine electronics, discover the alternator output is less than ideal. Fortunately we had a truck shop that did outside work across my home town. Replaced altnerator. Tires got replaced by company shop in Rockport Indiana. until then, bump bump bump bump bump for 1000 miles, one bearing ring starts to walk out of true. Leading to more issues back there. shake shake shake.

I was not happy when I present that truck to boss man in teh company, asked who had that truck. And want his head on a platter.

Bossman said don't worry about it, we took the truck away from you for a few days to teach you a lesson. Yea right, teach me not to ever do that again in my life time. I actually dug in the next time another company tried that and they fired me for it. It's stupid how corporate acts sometimes.

I think sometimes the message they try to give me is even more stupid when I stick to my principles and refuse to be abused in one way or another by the bosses. If I ever become a boss I would be a good one.

Well I have been a crew boss and a pretty accomodating one too. if I am not yelling, everyone is having a good time. And they enjoy it, smiles all around. But if something screws up and I gotta yell.. yea... no smiles for a while. I'll have to make it up to them somehow. Maybe let them out early by ones and twos into the afternoon. It's a gift. Enjoy your day. See you tomorrow, and don't do that mess again. lol.

They learn.

Trucking is a difficult culture. And downright abusive if you are not careful to recognize it and nip it in the bud before more serious abuses happen to you. Sometimes that requires leaving a company for another one. The last time a company boss threatened me to my face early one morning in Little Rock over something that really is a minor issue, easily handled (I was arriving 20 minutes early and warmed up ready to roll once the boss unlocked time clock so we can all clock in. What I should have done is ignore that clock and be already 30 miles out towards Hope Ar to load cement.)

I quit instantly in front of 20 drivers when boss man got uppity. I told him Im twice his age, old enough to be his daddy and no cause to talk like that. Cya. He turned purple and said see here you little *&^% Bye.

You cannot let the industry roll you over.

 

Try to be good about it. It's pretty clear to me that you will be using a auger tomorrow which is not your job description as a driver. You are doing things I dont get to do so if I was a company I would hire you.

Try to count your potential losses before you quit when and if you choose to do this. I think you have every reason to.

Document everything, name names in your document, positions of the officers dispatcher etc. Say in the document exactly what they told you and when. That way when you go to unemployment office your claim will have some strength when the state investigates the claim you are making against this employer and I think they will rule in your favor, you are hired to drive trucks and here you are doing manual labor as punishment for something you can or cannot prove within the company.

Normally I would not tell anyone to get out or quit but in your case provided the information here is valid and what that dispatcher plans for you to do tomorrow that has nothing to do with driving and laughing at you too? Nuh uh not acceptable. Anyone who is that... childish and made it into the dispatching feeling secure in his position like that is a form of evil. Unfortunately there is nothing you can do about it here within the company grievence process because it appears to me the stacked deck is tilting the table thier way.

Make sure your last pay comes in with every penny accounted for. And I wish you best of luck should you exit. But spend this time thinking carefully before you try something dramatic, it wont matter to these boys. It might even be better you do not show up at all, but send in your resignation etc at the front office and go home or something. Don't even go in the back office and find yourself stirring up trouble. They can call the law and say you are trespassed etc and suddenly you have way bigger problems. So try to do this quietly if you decide enough is enough and quit. In this case probably a phone call will be sufficient here. Make sure all your company issued property is back in the ternimal, even if it is at the general receptionist front desk.

Good luck to you.

 

Find another job

 

The two pictures you sent, they are macks for sure.

But these are not the big class 8 vehicles Im familiar with.

It's possibly a class 7 Mack, maybe a light granite class model.

Your second picture reinforces the idea it's a little truck. I think the department bought it bare frame with cab and engine etc and put on whatever they thought best for the work planned for it.

Again, it's a educated guess. There was a time period during the last 20 years I have not kept up with mack trucks. My last newest series was a CH model day cab and a sleeper version way back in the 1994-5 time period which I will have to examine my work history to be sure.

It's not much of a truck, but I wont say anything bad about macks, I have tried hard over the years to put mack into a situation where we get through this or break something in the process maybe turn over and get killed. But they have done well with the class 8 trucks.

Now the new macks with the square steering wheel coming out, that is really a bad idea. If you don't watch it you can easily break something trying to hold on to it in certain specific situations.

After careful thought, I think they crank the trucks in your yard now and then to keep them in a state where they can be relatively easier to start for battle purposes when they are needed. It has been my experience over and over in construction type situations, if trucks are sitting around not working, and no one is being around or in them hardly at all, then it's a sure bet it's just in storage and there is no work.

Ive reached the end here on this thread. Whatever happens, make sure you are quiet and low key. If they fail to send you a check, double check with the State's dept of labor to make sure that they send you a last check. If they don't they will get in trouble.

Do not mess with these people. If I understand those kinds of people correct, you will find it a bad day. You don't want that. Turn in what belongs to them, clock out and leave the property. You have effecitvely quit and next stop is the unemployemtn office with the documentation in hand (NOT this internet thread. Internet third person opinioons are not admissible. It's literally hearsay the UE Office will not care about all this. What they want to hear from you is names, dates and times and sequence of events, what you are told by dispatcher etc. to you directly in your own words. There will be a mini hearing court light version held on the phone via conference call with you present and the employer present to answer questions. They will reach a verdict really quickly.

Especially if they can be telling the State that they put you on the ground as a punishment. Things get real interesting at that point.