Shaffer (Last Straw)

That applies to all big companies too. The IT field is really similar to trucking in the way techs are treated.

 

Shaffer Trucking keeps hiring new drivers while more drivers go out the door because they have no freight. The recruiting department will lie to you over and over again. Drivers are getting 1400 miles a week. You could work at Wal Mart and make more and be home every night. The recruiting manager will tell his recruiters to inflate the miles just to fill trucks and make a quota. No one cares how many drivers leave as long as they can fill trucks. The higher ups will not lower the rates to get more freight. They say we will wait it out, while they lie to drivers left and right. Stay far far away from this company.

 

It's happening at alot of companies !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Even in these slow times the old turnover keeps a coming. Companies say it hurts the bottom line but in truth it helps it. Most companies require you to stay six months to a year or you pay the oreintation cost: hotels, travel, drug testing ect. Because they can get that back what have they really spent? The recruiter and person who does the oreintation are both fixed cost that doesn't change no matter how many they push through. In the time they have you there it cost them nothing on benifits, you work at the lower end of the company pay scale, and get no vaction/paid time off. Many states are giving tax breaks to for hiring new workers companies take advantage of. If the Fed Government gets that jobs bill through and those HUGE tax breaks are put into place for hiring workers out of work 6 months or longer that will be the next thing the larger companies will want. A CDL holder with 1 year or more in last three years of OTR driving but hasn't worked in 6-12 months. Get em in the door for about six months then push them out to get the next tax break.

I am not a big fan of unions but right now it could be the best thing to happen to the American Truck Driver if one of these larger OTR companies could organize.

 

why should they lower rates?
They are a for profit bussiness.

Lower rates to much anf they may not be around.

 

am not a big fan of unions but ...

O my gosh isn't that heresy in here?

 

It can get you burned at the stake or horse whipped but it is what the industry needs. The lies, coruption, and DAC reports are reason enough. Hire Right has a policy of not recording anything but work history and criminal for it's gaming, nursing, and retail clients. A company can't say quit mid shift abondanded register for a retail clerk or is bad nurse who is late for work often on the nursing side. If you want to know what kind of worker the person was you got to do a reference check and contact past employers. The Government and courts have proved they will not defend us (truck drivers). To stop much of the bad stuff in this Industry we are going to have to stick together and change it ourselves. That is what a Union is about solidarity is sticking together as a group. Our Government screwed us to by allowing DAC and USIS to become one.


If say old JB became a teamster company it would be a wake up call to the other large carriers, change behaivor or get organized. Old JB dispatchers couldn't push employees to break hours of service rules or break promises of scheduled days off because of grievance terms of a contract. Recruiters couldn't lie about the amount of work the company had. If just one fell it would change the whole industry and allow Independents back in.

That being said I got a huge problem with the teamsters and the way they are in the Democrat's hand. All political donations need to end and dues used to promote the Union and workers instead of lobbying and donating. That is the biggest turn off for me. I was in the AFL/CIO for 3 years while working in a factory to, same story with them.

 

They are not exempt from the law. It just cost thousands to fight it in courts. If you live in say New Jersey and Crete DACed you. You got to sue them in a Nebraska Court, even if you do it in federal court it is still going to be in Nebraska. Then when you win you got to sue DAC, in OK. You can spend $20,000 in lost wages, lawyer fees, travel, court cost, and other fees. In a majority of cases you can't get that money back either you spend to clear your name in a suit.

Before this recession it didn't matter that much because you could find a company that would hire you as long as your MVR/criminal record was good no matter what a company said about you. Why spend the money to clear it up when you could just move to the next job. Not know! For the first time since DAC was created back in the early 80s that trash companies put on it is causing GREAT SAFE drivers to not get hired with good MVRs, criminal records, and several years driving. Before this a company like JB might not touch you if say a unauthorized drop location was reported but mom and pops would if you had the years it took for them to insure you because of driver demand.

Well here is deal with DAC. The last time OOIDA sued the reporting agency in like 2002 or 2003 it won a bunch of new rights for the trucker that started in 2006 or 2007. But it also failed to end the false reporting. It failed to shut them down and the Government merged USIS, which was a federal reporting database to DAC a Private company. That really hurt the driver. Many insurance companies and trucking companies didn't use DAC, Union companies in general didn't, USIS didn't allow companies to report anything but dates employed and if you had an accident to report it required a police report or it didn't happen. The Bush Adminstration gave DAC a Monopoly in CDL records and reporting with USIS handed over free of charge. Even Castilini a Union Company in Cincinnati uses it now because no other service is out there.

*The new rights was we have the right to file complaints with the FTC under the fair credit reporting act. The FTC is supposed to investigate anything you complain about that couldn't be settled in the report disputing system. However just like in a credit report it takes an act of god to get them to do anything.

*The records didn't require a signiture but now you got to consent to have your record opened in writing by a company.

*negitive information was to stop reporting: things like quit under dispatch, being fired, ect after a certain amount of time. Companies that no longer were in biz could only be reported seven years.

 

Ah, the government selectively enforcing the laws and not doing their jobs, as usual. And they wonder why planes keep flying into buildings and heavy machinery runs amok in the streets.