On Time Express/Tempe,Az/Grand Prairie,Tx

Parts of what you have described is in violation of Federal law. Some of the accusations you have made are fraud. Contact a lawyer, then be prepared to bring charges.

I would contact the IRS, and charge/accuse them with tax evasion.

Contract labor can NOT be forced to do anything. They can be required as put forth by a contract. Other than that, the treatment of a contract employee is very limited without a renegotiation of the contract.

Rest assured, any contract they have. Can't treat you as an employee. unless they want to make/submit payroll taxes.

 

If you are an owner op, or lease op. And you are referred to as "contract labor", which most are. You can not be forced to do anything. Otherwise, you are considered an employee. And as such, they must pay taxes as they would on any company driver.

Now, you can be forced/told to abide by your contract. You signed it, and they did too.

And I'm sure there is a clause in it stating they do not have to pay layover, if you refuse a load.

Take your contract, and speak to a lawyer. I am not one !

The last thing this company wants, is the IRS up in their s### about this. Your lawyer will know this, and state it bluntly to them. Just strike while the iron is hot, otherwise you may lose even more if they file bankruptcy, before you bring suit.

 

It took 4 years to figure this place out? Interesting.......

 

Ok Chuck, now lets give the other side of the story. And yes Mr........ I know its you because you are the only O/O who has left the company in quite some time.

You have issues with PC Miler, fine. Sometimes it shorts you a few miles, sometimes it gives you a few more. Not the companies fault. I assume you also complained to the company when you were overpaid because PC Miler showed more miles than it really was right? Not likely. You have a better idea of how to track mileage? If so, managements ears are open, ready for suggestions, I'm sure. They always listen to driver suggestions, yours are no different I would assume.

Problems with pay? Maybe so, maybe not. Never heard a driver, company or o/o leave because of that. I've had issues with pay not being right before, they always fixed it within a couple days. Not saying it doesn't happen, just have a hard time believing its that big a problem.

Intimidating forced dispatch huh? I've never had that happen either. Do you mention this because that's your claim to why they let you go? Because you refused the load and On Time had to charter a plane for $20,000 to make service because you had to "do your laundry"? Even though your contract says you are required to service our customers, and you didn't. Here's a friendly tip, they have washing machines, and dryers in most truck stops. Your going to put a customers business on the line because you have to do your laundry?

Didn't get paid detention time huh? Did you follow company procedure and send globalwave messages so the system would update when you arrived and left shippers and receivers? Oh thats right, that piece of junk satelite never worked right, because you cut the wires on it. You were going to mention that in your next post right? Your pay wasn't right because you werent following company procedure.

Dispatchers lie to you. We all know the old joke, how do you know a dispatcher is lying? Their lips are moving. Well, having been on both sides of this fence I will tell you this. Things change, and quickly. Dispatchers often change loads due to customer demands. It happens. I always thought they lied too, then I took a dispatcher job briefly and learned it's not about lying to the driver, its about meeting customer needs and changing plans on the fly. That really was an eye opener for me and made me a better driver because of it when I went back to driving. They didn't call you back on the phone huh? Wow, your really digging deep there. Ok, fair enough, legit complaint. I too have trouble getting them to call me back. Turns out they arent sitting at there desk staring at the phone waiting for my call. Seems they actually have other things to deal with than just me, who knew. They do their best to get everything done, sometimes our issues are put on the back burner, thats business, and thats life. Come on, stop whining about it.

Super singles??? Never heard the term before but I will definately keep my ears open for it going forward. They drive more miles than a team does huh? Would that be because you and Karen don't drive like a team? A team can theoretically drive pretty much around the clock, for days on end. I haven't been in this business for as long as some but I have yet to see any indvidual who can drive around the clock for days on end, at any company. Your lying and you know it, fess up.

OH MY! They call you when your in traffic? That alone should be punishable by death. How dare they? They should be checking your satelite to see where you are then checking the internet for traffic conditions in that location before they call huh? Thats what every good company does right? Oh wait, you cut your satelite wires to that wouldn't work either would it? Yeah, they are famous for asking about a dozen times what trailer you have, slightly irritating, I will give you that, but not really worth complaing about on a public forum is it? I just laugh when they ask me for the tenth time and give it to them again, whats the harm? Either that or I follow company procedure and send it over my globalwave so it automatically enters into the computer system, but by now we know why you don't do that.

They force you to tell them why you need to be home? Again, I have experienced them asking why I need to be home. "I have personal business to take care of". Its not their business what you need to do at home but they have always been understanding when it comes to this. Maybe you have had different experience than the rest of us with this, can't fault you for that if its true.

They told you the Globalwave was for communication and it turned out to be for tracking? You mean they wanted to know where their equipment and freight are and that their trailer and their freight aren't being hurtled down the highway at warp speed? How dare they? You have, at times, over a million dollars worth of their property. Why wouldnt they want to track it? Don't you think customers would like to know where their freight is? Is it unreasonable for the company to want to see their tires are not being burned up at 90 mph in the middle of the Arizona desert? Especially since they pay for the maintenance and they don't even charge you for the use of the trailer to begin with, which most companies do. Yeah, they probably track me to see where the equipment is, what do I care? Satelites just keep honest drivers honest right? Track me all you want, it will show what a safe driver I am and what an asset I am to them. I have never been called because I was going too fast, as a matter of fact, never heard of anyone being called on it. Seems they have them just in case the customers need info, and to communicate with me. How would you know anyway they were tracking you? How could they? You cut the wires, remember? Then admitted it and said "if you hook them back up I will cut them again, nobody needs to know where I am or how fast I am going".

Dispatching company trucks before O/O's huh? Again, I have never seen this but maybe your experience was different than the rest of us. They dispatch based on who is empty first and ready to roll, plain and simple. That and if one guy wants to go to Dallas only and one will go anywhere, usually the second one will be out first, just basic truth. Its easier to find a load to anywhere than one specific place. When you have a guy, such as yourself, who won't go to say Boston, or Chicago, or Seattle, its harder for dispatchers to find them a load. I know, you don't like to go up north in the winter time, theres snow and ice. You are a professional driver right? Imagine if On Time told our customers "no, we won't cover that load to Chicago, don't you know there's snow there", what would happen? They would find someone who will service their needs and our trucks will stay parked waiting for a lightweight Dallas load. Its not that easy Chuck, and you know it.

They want you to haul hazmat at no extra pay? So that's who's been hauling all those hazmat loads. I havent had one in probably 3 years. And I thought they just didn't haul much hazmat. Many of the drivers say they didn't even know we haul hazmat because they are so few and far between, turns out we are just fools, and your a sucker, taking them all. What did they have you hauling? Leaking radioactive material I presume? It had to be bad I'm sure, and probably no paperwork to go with it right?

Intimidate you to take an overweight load? I have been overloaded before, of course. Each and every time they tell me the same thing, bring it back and have it offloaded or move your axles to get it right. Company policy says you are not to take an overweight load and dispatch is not to ask you to. Did you call Safety and let him know they were asking you to do something illegal? I am guessing no, its easier to just trash talk them than to try to resolve the situation. Again, maybe they did it to you but I have always seen the opposite. I have even called the Safety guy at 11 at night to ask him for help in how to get my axles legal and he helped me do it, over the phone, AT 11 AT NIGHT! He didn't have to do that, he did because those are the types of people who work there. I don't buy this intimidating overweight bit for a second.

Heavy loads cost more in fuel, fine. Heavy loads suck, we all know it. Again, what would happen if they told customers "oh no, we can't help you, that load weighs over 15,000 lb, and to Boston no less". My goodness, whats it going to take to make the customers understand there is snow up there? What was your average load weight anyway? Being they haul a bunch of air freight and expedited freight, I've found most loads are well under 25,000 pounds. But again, maybe the rest of us are just lucky, and your just a sucker, getting all the heavy loads. Yeah, we get them sometimes, at times we get 3 or 4 in a row. IT SUCKS, but its part of trucking. Not every load is a cherry 2000 lb load from Phoenix to Dallas, get over it.

They lie about the contract? Hows that work? Seems if its on paper, they can't really lie about it can they? Let them say what they want, show them where it says otherwise in the contract. Your contract says you can refuse loads, it also says you must satisfy cutomers. According to you, they breached that contract, seems you breached as well, right Mr. .........? Lets be fair.

They didn't give you an itemized monthly statement on your escrow account? Those dirty ########. You did have money in the account didn't you? You didn't drain it all out when your motor blew up and was in the shop for a month because you didn't have the money to pay the bill, did you? Or perhaps they charged you for when you fell asleep at the wheel and ripped off one of the axles on their trailer on a guardrail three years ago? Oh wait, no, they didn't charge you anything for the $5000 repair bill, they covered it, out of their pockets. "Got blown into the guardrail by the wind", right Chuck? Thats you story and your sticking to it. Yeah, wind blows you around a bit, fine. Not that the wind really did blow you but lets say it did. Slow down, ####### and it won't happen. Or was it a freak gust, perfectly calm night, all of a sudden, one gust just threw you off the road. You fell asleep, admit it. Or you were reaching over to grab your urine bottle and swerved off the road perhaps? And that evil On Time covered the bill, no problem.

How about the time you hit a low bridge. They didn't even fire you for that. Perhaps they should have, they could have saved $20,000 dollars on a charter flight a couple years later. If it were my trailer I would have told you to take my decals off your truck, and learn to read a clearance sign before you get on the road again.

You were going to tell us all they do for owner operators in your next post right? Heres just a few items, in case you forget to mention them. They pay for all permits, plates, fuel taxes, scales, tolls. When I say they pay for all this, I don't mean they pay them then charge you for them, they actually pay them out of their pocket. Add to that, they pay for Idle Aire use. That's right, the company pays for owner operators to use Idle Aire, name one company that does that for owner operators, just one. That alone is worth $1.65 per hour by itself. As mentioned earlier, they don't charge you for using their trailers, even when you bring in a trailer with a flat, never mentioned to anyone, most likely because you didn't inspect it when you brought it in. They didn't even charge you when you brought in the trailer with the power lines cut because you dragged them down the highway for who knows how long. You remember that right? About a year and a half or so ago. Cheap fix, under $100, but they covered it, your stupid mistakes and they paid for them. They even let you travel way out of route so you can go home to Fort Worth in the middle of a trip from Chicago to Phoenix, didn't they? Who paid for all those extra miles on their trailer? Did you pay them for the extra mileage on their tires, brakes, etc? I assume you did since its the right thing to do. Just a hunch but something tells me you didn't, and probably weren't going to mention it here either. That cost the company money, and not a thanks from you, was there?

I see you have a problem with the contract you had with them and how they allegedly broke it. You did mention to them your truck did not meet their standards anyway and should not have been allowed to remain in the fleet, right? Company policy says tractors must be no older than 7 years and yours is how old? They let it slide, they cut you a break, no props for that huh Chuck? The truck is missing a front bumper for the last who knows how many years, has mismatched tires, no heat (going off what you told people anyway, can't personally verify this as true), cracked windshield, etc. I have heard the term sh** spreader with headlights before, pretty accurate in this case. But they let you slide. They didn't hassle you too much about it. Even though you didn't have an annual inspection on your tractor, they let that slide too didn't they? Even though the contract clearly states you must maintain your truck to meet all federal regulations. It only takes 30 minutes to do the inspection and $50, why not do it? Your stopped to get that tractor wash done anway right? Nevermind, I never saw your truck clean in the 4 years you have worked here, probably never saw a wash bay. Or did you not want it washed because the truck leaks somewhere? You could have had a nice shiny annual inspection sticker put right there on the frame, over the load bars you admitted to stealing from the company. Remember, you were going to come back and turn them in when you got your truck out of our yard, decided against returning them I guess? We all heard about it, don't hide it. We also noticed your truck was in the Grand Prairie yard for two weeks after you were let go. Turns out they allowed you to leave it there until you found another job because you didn't have a place to park it. If it were me I would have told you to get your eyesore out of the yard the day you were let go, I find that mightly nice of them to let you leave it so long. They thought it was a nice gesture, turns out they are fools eh? I was even told they gave you phone numers for companies who you might be able to get on with, just to help you out. May not be true, but I heard it from someone who claims he gave you a name or two. Again, I wouldn't have done that, I would have told you get lost.

How much money were you making there anyway? I imagine you weren't making as much as any other owner operator right? You werent making $.90 a mile, loaded and empty, plus fuel. How much is the fuel surcharge anyway? The way I understand it, its far above what others are paying. I know it doesn't make up for the amount fuel has risen but sure beats the $.35 cents many other companies are paying.

I also don't understand why you stayed four years when you were getting screwed so badly. I remember when you started with On Time Express and I talked to you personally several times and you told me you liked the company. Its sounds to me like this is all about sour grapes. You finally got canned after destroying equipment, not meeting customer needs, etc. and now your pissed because of it. You say more owner operators were fired after you left. Name them Chuck, you are lying and you know it. Not a single one has left, either by being let go, or by quitting. Even after you left the nice note on another O/O's window stating "you need to get away from this company, bunch of idiots", that driver still stuck with us. So classy you are, a note in a window? Come on. He thought it was hilarious and showed it off to everyone. Fact is, industrywide driver turnover rate is around 100%. On Time turnover rate is less than 5%, has been since 1998 when new ownership took over. Why so low? Because they cheat all us drivers and we are too dumb to know it, until old wise man Monroe posted to let us know? No, they treat us more than fairly, we are paid a reasonable rate, we get home at least once a week, more if we ask, the people in the office respect us and treat us as humans, they don't nickel and dime us for anything and they work with us to ensure everyone is happy. We don't turn our backs on them because they don't turn theirs on us.

"Being told once by the owner he only listens to those in the office, he goes by what they say". Sounds like this is a crack at the owner, Bart. Let me tell you this, I have known and worked for Bart for about 10 years. He is the most generous bosses I have ever had. He bends over backward for his people. You ever had a boss who walks in to work every single morning and talks to every single employee in the building before going to his office? Every single morning, every single employee, including drivers, including owner operators. That's not common, for that he is better than me. 100+ employees in this company, thats a lot of good mornings, and for what? What does it do for him? Maybe makes him feel good, maybe he thinks its only right, maybe he just wants to check in and make sure everyones in at their scheduled time. To me, it means a lot that he does that. That simple gesture says a lot about a person. You got some set of balls talking about Bart, and there are many people who work for On Time who will back me on this. Bring me one person who says otherwise and I will show you someone who hasnt been around Bart much. Further, his door is always open to anyone who has a complaint. Don't expect us to believe he wouldn't listen to you.

So this class action law suit you mention. If nobody has left the company, how big is this class? Perhaps you have hired a private tutor for the class, a little one on one? You had a good name at On Time and they liked you, and you try to drag them through the mud? Why DID you wait four years Chuck? I really want to hear this.

On Time Express is a fairly small company, doesn't take long for stuff to get around. We got wind of your little tirade here and apparently nobody else felt the need to respond, I couldn't resist. As the saying goes, there are two sides to every story, this is no different. I have been here far longer than you and have a certain amount of loyalty to them. I refuse to allow you to come on here unchallenged and spread your retoric. On Time management would probably tell me not to reply here but I'm doing this as an indvidual, not as a representative of the company. Granted, I have not worked for many companies (2, including this one) and have not seen all there is to see in regard to what companies offer but I am hard pressed to believe there is a better place to work. Yeah, On Time has their issues, every company does. I just can't get over why you would stay here four years if they did all that stuff to you. And why to you and nobody else? Sour grapes, tell it like it is Chuck.

 

THE TRUTH SHOULD SET YOU FREE!!!!!! great post FONZ tell it like it is

 

Mack E-6...why do you think Fonz is in management for this company...just curious?
To me it's hard to believe that both of these individuals work for the same company...just two different opinions...