Prime blackballs Driver

Agreed on DAC.

 

DAC is a joke, and yes this industry has had a history of screwing drivers over with it for too long. Unfortunately I doubt if it will change, too few will stand up and demand change, and the larger companies will still be shunning the older experienced drivers for trainees that can be easily brainwashed. Until people wake up, or enough incidents like this one come to light and the government takes any kind of action, (and whatever action the govt takes will most likely take a long time with the bureaucracy) don't expect a change.

 

The OP regularily tries to tarnish this carrier as a bad place to work... which is completely untrue. Like many large organizations, it's composed of many individuals with different personalities, morals, agendas... some good some bad. It's unfortunate, but dispatchers can use their position, and the isolation of the drivers to the disadvantage of the driver.

The incident pointed out by the OP should never have happened, and with better communication from the driver it may not have. OTOH, once the dispatcher went after the driver it appears to me the driver didn't have enough knowledge of who's who in management to appeal his case properly. It never should have gotten out of the building, and certainly not into a court room. It's illegal to operate a CMV when the driver is sick, and it is a violation of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1986 for anyone to coerce a driver to operate a CMV when it is unsafe to do so. Prime is a organization of individuals, and the dispatcher is an individual who went beyond his authority.

No one crawled out of that QUALCOMM and held a gun to the driver's head. A call to the supervisor of reefer operations or safety would have solved the issue. Allowing a dispatcher to coerce you into acting in an unsafe manner is never something you want to allow to happen to you.

 

Whatever.

I've had more than one former driver tell me to watch my DAC if I ever leave Prime.

Last one was a rehire. Said that Prime had no problem rehiring him despite the things they listed on his DAC that prevented him from being hired by another carrier.

 

That's true of pretty much any carrier... at least in terms of watching what the put on your DAC. It's pretty outrageous.

 

I pretty much agree, but I'm sure there is more to the story of what actually took place between the driver and Prime's dispatch... but we will never know... An I totally agree that drivers shouldn't allow a dispatch to coerce and BS them into doing something when they don't feel good or conditions don't allow... There's always tomorrow and there's always another load.... Bottom line it will get there when it gets there as long as it gets there...

 

Which is why I recently put in to get a copy of my DAC.

Stopped driving OTR in 2010. I miss the job quite a bit, just not the company I drove for (Swift). Although I left on good terms and followed the proper procedures, every once in awhile I wonder if by chance something which was incorrect would wind up on the DAC. Wouldn't want that to cause me any issues were I to decide to get back into OTR driving. (Which I've put some pretty hefty thought into as of late)

 

As a driver that left Prime and has a copy of his DAC, I can say that for the most part, the report on there from Prime is accurate. It is missing an accident (non-preventable removal of my hood in a parking lot), and has the date I left off by a month (I left 11/11, DAC shows I left 12/11). Other that those two things, it is absolutely correct.

 

Conway hit my DAC with made up accidents. They still email me if I'm ever interested in making less money and having no home life. Yeah, ok.