Looks like Omni specialized is in trouble

I'm sure your neighbor will give you an earfull !

 

Well I'm the driver that stuck out in Neosho Missouri were you guys able to find anything out I sure the hell wasn't

 

Jon hint The maintenance guy from Omni

 

Hint hint maintenance guy from Omni

 

Well I should be fine there's a driver recruiter coming from Ew Wiley supposed to be bringing me an application on the side of the background comes through soon they're going to fill the truck up and get it to where it needs to go in and I have a job

 

So far there's eight of us that I can figure out now that are stuck out here possibly more

 

But all the guys that I have numbers for they all made it home

 

Will you settle for someone who USED to work there? (WARNING - LONG)

I can't say I'm surprised. I worked there when it was Tennant Truck Lines, albeit on the dry-van division. It WAS a good company. Gravy runs, good running, 98% drop-and-hook, benefits, the whole nine yards.

And considering I got in with less than the normal experience requirement (A friend begged them to take me after my idiot Crash Roll Stunt Team co-drivers almost killed me on multiple occasions), a pretty d-mned good gig for a rookie with maybe six months' experience.

And save for the occasional dispatch gripe because I couldn't deliver on time for HOS limits, as long as I gave it my best shot, I didn't hear a whole lot out of dispatch. The guy I started under wasn't a bad guy, he just didn't understand that you can't roll consistent recaps running 10-11 hour days, and one day he's fussing at me to run out my hours, a few days later he's fussing because I need a 34. LOL. But I digress.

I'd been there a total of about 18 months (tried a local job here in VA that didn't work out), when around August 2015, a fleetwide QC message came across saying that Tennant was in a "partnership" with Earl L. Henderson. I guess Henderson bought the dry-van division and Omni was buying open-deck, something of the sort. Anyway, the message made a point to state specifically that "all runs, trucks", etc. would be "staying the same", with "exciting" changes in the coming months...

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I'm not sure I got the full story, (does anyone EVER in these things?) but I heard through the grapevine that a dispatcher on open-deck (Remember, I was dry-van) had been caught recycling DOT permits on oversize loads, and arrested/charged accordingly. It appears that Mr. Tennant decided to quietly dissociate himself with the company, as DOT was beginning to crawl up our a-s with a microscope. (SEVENTEEN Pre-Pass red-lights in 2 WEEKS, with maybe THREE in the 18 MONTHS prior)

So much for being "proud" of his employees, as he was fond of saying in safety meetings. And I actually believed that I lucked out and found a great company practically right out of CDL school. Well, I guess initially I did, but things change.

But what can you really expect? My understanding is Mr.Tennant is/was an aspiring politician, running for public office. And we all know politicians will pay lip service to whatever keeps them in your good graces. I'd like to believe that I'm reading all that wrong, but the proof is in the pudding. Keep reading. And if any of the old Tennant crew is reading this, or even better, Mr Tennant himself, prove me wrong on that.

Before long, a few shop staff had disappeared (some of which I shed no tears for), and at least five office people as well. My first hint of trouble in paradise was a Kroger grocery warehouse load from Purina in Davenport, IA to Louisville, KY. We had 66 mph ProStars with the Maxi-Pad engine, so this was easily a nine-hour-drive. I pick up the load at 3:30 pm and some idiot had already set an 8:30 pm delivery appointment before the pickup time was even known.

When I call dispatch about this, because there's no way I can make the appointment. I'm told to do the best I can. I ran out of time in Indianapolis and spent the night there, arriving the next morning around 10 am. I SPENT FORTY-TWO HOURS AT THIS SH-THOLE, and it was THIRTY-EIGHT BEFORE I GOT IN A DOCK. That's right, I got a thirty-four reset before I was even called to the dock. SIX OTHER TENNANT TRUCKS WERE THERE, BLINDSIDED IN THE SAME FASHION.

When I left for the truck stop (too tired to go anywhere else), I couldn't get a straight answer as to why seven loads were given delivery appointment times that weren't even close to doable. This was WAY out of the ordinary, so I made it clear that if this were to become a trend, that they would find their truck in the yard.

At some point, I was randomly selected for a sleep study (with no history of problems, that's the way I see it). I'm not sure if Tennant's requirement that I have a med card through their examiner in IA (even though I had a VA CDL) had anything to do with it, but...

I had to go home to VA for my doctor's referral, go back to IA for the study, go home again for my doctor's review of the results (they couldn't tell me directly - WTF?) They did me a solid on finding an inexpensive provider for the study, however.

On the tail end of this, my load home had me delivering Friday on the PA/NY line. Earliest appointment I could get was Tuesday. When I start tidying the truck up on Monday, I have 27 missed calls and my voicemail is full. Brand-new load planner (I'll only call him Richard Cranium here) who seemed to think I needed a load.

When I straightened out this miscommunication (one of many to come), he promptly scheduled me for a Tuesday evening pickup in Baltimore. Two full-size backhoes with loader attachments, and only one would fit in a 53' dry-van. Should have sent a step-deck/RGN. I then get sacked with a single mini-excavator to Medford, NY. Naturally, I'm getting irritated because one of the reasons I had liked working for this company was it was pretty much all midWest-Southeast, no NE, and certainly no NYC.

This jack-ss proceeded to blindside me a few more times, one of which was planning a five-stop ending in Berkley Springs, WV - four hours from home, when the fourth stop was 30 minutes from home, mind you, and the closest truck stop for that one was ten minutes from home. IDIOT.

Apparently my dispatcher was out of the office, and someone responding to my QC messages (presumably Richard Cranium) kept insisting that I call in for reload info, with no cell service and no payphone available. As opposed to sending it via QC, which was the norm. After 28 hours, at least a dozen QC messages back and forth, and a visit from a local deputy (at the company's request), I was finally told to move the truck until I had cell signal, which I could not guarantee for at least thirty minutes.

At which point I was told the reload was cancelled because I hadn't called in. I had a few choice words at that point - I was P-SSED that this was being made out to be MY fault. This was on a Thursday evening, and I was told that I'd be contacted the next day. No call, no QC, no nothing. At 6:30 pm, I did my pre-trip and drove home for the weekend.

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When I had to be home for pressing business, Richard Cranium, knowing I had to be in court at 9 am Tuesday morning, plans a delivery 3 hours from home, then plans another load AROUND my court date, delivering 5 hours away. Wound up getting home at 2 am Tuesday.

Then while I'm IN COURT, Richard Cranium leaves a voicemail threatening to call the cops to "check on the truck". What did he think they would find, BIGFOOT? Sounds like an abandonment setup to me. And yes, I HAD submitted proof I needed to be in court. That wasn't enough, they wanted proof I appeared in court that day.

At some point, I received a call en route to Menominee WI, asking to mark the load delivered before I actually delivered it. I told them if they put it over the QC, no problem. They didn't, of course.

A month after "the Virginia situation", as it was condescendingly referred to, I was basically fired for going to see the doctor while my truck was in the shop... Here's the QC message where they went back on authorizing me to put the truck in the shop...

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Pay CLOSE attention. This message was sent at 9:12 pm on Thursday, Nov.19, about nine minutes after I sent an empty call in Davenport and didn't pop up on the QC until I was AT the yard. I was out of hours at this point and couldn't make this load anyway. My 10-hour wouldn't be over until 7:15 am CST, and I'm supposed to drive from Colona, IL to load in Rockford, IL by 9 am, and be in Monroe, OH by 3 pm EST? No way in hell with a 66-mph truck that won't get out of its own way loaded.

But it gets worse. Overnight, I got bit by something in the sleeper (hitchhiking spider, according to the doctor) and about daybreak, the bite started swelling and turning purple, and I felt like death warmed over. Car broke down on the way back from the doctor and they wouldn't send anyone to bring me back to the yard. I wound up walking back roads in the area all day, trying to find my way back to the yard.

When I arrived back, someone I presumed to be Richard Cranium spoke to me in a very condescending manner, cussing me, the whole nine yards. In spite of my initial instincts, I held my cool and calmly cleaned out my truck and reserved a rental car that night.

I got a voicemail the next day from someone at Henderson purporting to want to bring me back... Convenient that I couldn't reach the person who left their name on the voicemail (which I still have a recording of). THAT'S just what HENDERSON did to the DRY-VAN division, so perhaps Richard Cranium did me a favor. I shudder to think what OMNI's drivers are going through at the moment.

As an aside, I wonder what Mr. Tennant plans to do exactly. Sure, he has seller's remorse. Who wouldn't? And while he'll probably get the company back, since you can't get blood from a turnip -- the reality is that a lot of good former employees are gone, and likely all the good contracts. It's really a shame. Given an opportunity to go back, guaranteed that all would be restored as it was before, I might. But truthfully, can you really ask someone to trust you when you already sold them down the river?

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