Need some old school drivers advice.

Employment with a Company whatever that company might be, is a risk in and of itself. I remember I did dishes for three months to raise a thousand dollars cash so I can fly down to join ATS which was at the time a rather large company. I made two mistakes that first week during orientation, first is staying with the van division. What they issued me (A one fuel tank of 130 gallons usuable tractor) caused problems because now I have to fuel 2 or three times a day to keep it fed and moving. That would create problems beyond in time. Fueling is not the hassle, it's the logging it and constant hunt for fuel with a list of authroized fuel which you just cannot pull up to anyone with a comdata sign and throw the hose into the tank.

The second problem was I did not understand at first the nature of the mental health test I was taking the second day in orientation, I managed to while wandering around exploring the facility gain access to a prohibited space that included a printer with data on the results of those tests with very pointed questions. As luck (Sheer blind good luck) I identified my own SSN and test results with specific questions backed by higher (Supervisor somewhere in Headquarters) making notes to my recruiter who administered the road test and mental health tests with very specific and damning notes to the effect that I will eventually be a liability to the company because my attitudes in the logs against typical ###### if you do and ###### if you do deliver or not deliver legally with logs would cause the company no end of problems because I wanted to run legal. I was yelled at and told to get out of that particular room because it's not for drivers (Duh... no wonder) I read enough of it.

Putting the two together, during the road trip which consisted of pulling a flatbed with tombstones that are barely restrained by large chains and able to move around on the deck (Some 1x4 pine boards and a few nails and hammer on the corners of the stone stacked would hold them nicely...) the recruiter used the test information to question me closely. For example.

If you were two hours from arriving at the customer with a load and your logs say stop because you are out of hours what do you do? My answer is to stop and call dispatch for a new appointment time. Which is something that higher in headquaters frowned on heavily. I finally said to the recruiter, I don't know what I am walking into but as you can see by my driving this here flatbed truck Im not doing that bad at all what with those stones rolling around on the chains and if there is a problem with dispatch (And there WILL be eventually) the customer is just going to have to suck it up and get the load when he gets it.) at that point in time I was fighting back against the prevailing culure in trucking to run three logs, illegally etc.

The fact that I raised the thousand dollars with a throw away fast food part time work so that I wont have to borrow any more money with comchecks in a effort to start things off with the employer on good terms made me a little more combative than usual. I put alot into getting going with this out fit and I will be ###### if the employer wants to throw me away over federal laws on hours of service. I was so over that crap by then.

I did about 6 months with this employer. Finally there was a load that did not get there illegally implied pressure etc. They cut miles. Miles cutting is preciesely what companies do to percieved bad drivers. It's a form of punishment by taking away the miles and reduce very greatly the money coming in on payroll to that driver. Essentially forcing same out the door. I had savings and resisted the low miles for another month. Finally one day I had a load of tires. Out of NC ford tires for a plant in the midwest that builds ford cars. These tires are not only JIT but also required to be at the customer in the afternoon of a monday so that the entire plant will be able to continue moving cars and workers in production without running out of parts.

As luck would have it there was no pay the previous friday due to the treatment by dispatch to short miles in time. And there were no funds starting monday for anything. So. I quit. Trailer gets dropped in a truckstop, tires and all bobtailed home and told them to come get it. The monies involved was maybe 150 dollars at most, enough for 15 days service until the pay roll caught up in less than 10. Even with the 150 deduction. Higher headquarters started asking me on qualcomn why am I doing this? I told them you start with talking to dispatcher why the miles are cut short over a bad load several weeks ago and so on as it goes. It's ridiculous.

I hear in the grapevine gossip months later that the ford plant had to stop that monday. And it costs a bunch of money to halt stand around and then restart that big of a facility. A whole bunch of money. Part of me hoped that the company ate the burn on the costs imposed by them for what they have done towards me. But another part remembered what the Orientation was like and thinking about it as a 50 plus year old adult I would not have stayed to finish the orientation and gone into van I would have gone into specialized low boy hauling of anything from tanks to musuem peices all the way up to 150 ton electric transformers for power plants under escort.

That was my biggest mistake in life choosing to go into any old crappy van service where any one can abuse you. I should have gone into a special kind of hauling where there is escorts, stacks of permits extremely strict hours day or night in moving of heavy cargo etc. Ultimately I blame myself not the company. But when you are younger you do not get to process the ... evidence as you are presented with it in timely manner to make a good choice that I explained just now what a good choice heavy haul would have been for me I had the right mindset and courage to handle these loads because there are alot of supervision and you just cannot close the doors and take off just when you feel like it.

Stopping the plant was a deliberate act on my part. And the result was the next 4 years of my life having to put together something that is not on DAC anywhere I had one of the worst DAC by the time this employer got through writing it. How is it possible that something that seems like a good risk between employee and employer can turn into such a horrorshow. It takes money to make the world go around in Trucking. Not a alot. But enough to cause a 150 dollar problem to slowly over time to take root and turn into a monster capable of halting a billion dollar plant and people who have had absolutely no fault of their own except to be angry at my employer.

I write this story partly as a warning to others who think they may try to do bad things against employers and also partly towards employers who think they can continue to in the industry abuse drivers with old school punishments like reducing miles. Come on don't be stupid. It takes both the driver and employer working together to get that load delivered when it needs to be delivered.

All the rest of Drama? Not welcome, nor is it wanted by anyone. Consider that carefully. A part of me am glad I never had a fleet to take care of, having to ride herd of 100 trucks or a thousand trucks requires someone who is better than I am. But anyone who is smart would not be in the industry at all in the first place driving a truck for someone. Buy your own truck and make a go of it. Have at it. (I actually did that process for oh three days until a discrimination from someone shut that down to my deafness. One does not have to do with the other...) But I do wonder sometimes.

I don't wonder too much this late in my lifetime. I had a good run and am no regrets. Some of my employers will and do think quite differently. And as well they should But they NEVER ever think about what old school punishments that have been done to drivers who might need a little shove in the right direction will do to them eventually given enough time to fester.

 

Good God almighty he wrote a freaking novel.... And your point?

 

I am hoping he writes a novel. He's the Hunter S. Thompson of trucking.

If you don't get his points, perhaps remedial reading is in order.

 

I agree. He's trying to operate the truck at the driver's expense. I'd rather take 22% of gross instead of 40% of what he has after paying for the family vacation. Sounds like one of those slumlord operations, where a driver won't see $200/week. I'd rather deal with the A Hole boss as long as the money is there.