Shaffer makes the hit list

One of the problems with leaving one company and going with another is simply, you don’t know what you’re getting into. If you think things are bad now, then wait till you drive for company “X”. It’s not always greener on the other side of the hill. Keep in mind that going with another company you have to do orientation from anywhere of $300 to $400 a week, then go through their driver training for a week or two with some crappy trainer who is in it for the money only, and who knows what other little deceitful surprises await you down the road.

I try very hard in keeping a healthy attitude while doing my job but sometimes things get out of hand. One driver told me that there is really nothing hard about driving truck, it’s just very aggravating having to deal with others (shippers, traffic, drivers parking at the fuel pumps while shopping, etc…).

This isn’t the only issue I’ve had with Shaffer. A little over a year ago (before the drive shaft issue) I was pulled over in Spartanburg, SC. According to the ‘Off Duty Officer’ who actually pulled me over, I was driving reckless. When I got out of the truck, this officer told me that he received several calls from 911 that a truck with my description was cutting in and out of traffic. I made the mistake by telling the officer that he couldn’t have gotten any calls because what he was claiming was simply not true which only aggravated the situation even mores. Between the off duty officer and the arresting officer who didn’t care what I had to say, I was arrested and thrown in jail for the weekend. I was not allowed to get my wallet or cell phone out of the truck and in fact… the off duty officer even tried to say that I was smoking marijuana but that issue was never pursued.

After hiring a lawyer and getting everything dismissed, I learned that what actually happened was that the off duty officer wasn’t paying much attention to his driving that day and almost ran into the back of me when I put on the brakes to let oncoming traffic merge suddenly into the middle lane from the on ramp. When my lawyer tried to get all the evidence together in preparation for trial, there were no phone calls (as I expected), no witnesses obviously, and no police report was ever submitted. I was later told that I could have filed a complaint with the police department for falsely making an arrest but instead, I just wanted to put this fiasco behind me and move on. I did get my money back for the ticket and ¾ of my lawyer fees back.

OK, so what does this have to do with Shaffer? The day of my arrest (Saturday around 10:am), I was actually on my way home for some home time where my wife was expecting me to arrive that evening. The terminal manager in Spartanburg picked up my truck and took it back to the terminal. At that time the off duty officer admitted to the terminal manager that he was following too close and when he almost ran underneath me it somehow offended him. Whatever… so the terminal manager takes the truck back to the terminal and parks it, gets the load re-powered and throws the keys on his desk and closes shop for the weekend. Apparently, the terminal manager had time to contact or at least alert others regarding my arrest but didn’t do it, he seemed more anxious about getting home for the weekend. I tried to contact my wife along with other people but when I tried using my one phone call, it would not allow me to put a call through to a cell phone user so I used up all my calls trying to get through to everyone I know who only uses cell phones. I couldn’t place bail because I didn’t have my wallet and the courts didn’t take credit cards anyway.

By evening my wife tried calling my cell phone but it kept going to voice mail. She had a feeling that something wasn’t quite right so she called dispatch who insisted that everything is fine because they had located the truck at the Spartanburg terminal and there was nothing to worry about even though the load I was under had been re-powered. After my wife’s persistence, dispatch sent a message to my truck’s QUALCOMM and after no reply, asked one of the shops personnel to open the truck to see if I was lying in there either unconscious or perhaps worse. After about an hour working with Shaffer, my wife learned that this company hadn’t a clue to where I was or what had happened to me and apparently was not about to follow up on my whereabouts.

My wife learned of my situation through the help of 911 who suggested that she call the local court house which is something neither one of us would have ever thought to do - call the local jail. My wife then drove down from PA and got me out of lockup. You can imagine the very thoughts that were going through my wife’s head wondering if I was dead or alive and me sitting in jail wondering if anyone would ever think to look for me there, as this is the last place anyone would ever think of looking for me as I am not the type of person that would ever prompt such a situation for any reason.

So after I get some rest and get back into my truck from my home time, my home terminal (Deland) simply asked for the facts. Nothing else was mentioned as far as how I may have dropped off the radar while the company didn’t have any answers for my wife. They simply stated to “get a lawyer if you want to and let us know the outcome”. I have learned that the terminal manager in Deland has a heart of granite, and the attention span of a two year old.

I guess the other reason for not leaving Shaffer and going back to a company that could care even lesser for their drivers is that I don’t plan on driving truck too much longer (hopefully). My wife and I are working on other avenues in hopes to be financially independent from the likes of companies who only treat their employees like a pack mule. Therefore, why get into anything else right now… again, I try to keep a positive attitude (not necessarily about Shaffer) in my work ethics and look forward into joining forces with my wife and her journeys down the road. Meanwhile, I try to let as much as I can roll off my shoulders as possible while working for this company which is becoming or has become just another trucking company like so many others out there.