Stay Away from this Owner/Operator

I can NOT make it clear enough!
MAKE A COPY
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Own a laptop and a scanner or scanner/printer and have it IN the truck!
It is cheaper to own one and the other than to pay for the following:

Copies at a pay per copy machine!

At the end of each day scan every piece of paper that crosses your fingers pertaining to that truck and load!

You scan each piece into a file named after that load! Either the load number the boss or dispatcher gives you or one of your own making and here are a few examples:

load #123456
trip number 123456
Dallas Tx to LA
the date 04232011
or whatever you want just as long as you have copies. COPIES are like pictures, worth a thousand dollars! Or more!

Remember most programs will not let you use / - or , or many symbols. If you are not to computer savvy there are a few of us who will be more than happy to help you figure out the basics in using a computer to make files!

But I can NOT stress it enough to make copies of every thing that you touch and keep it! DO NOT give your copy to anyone but a copy of the copy!

I also can not stress another point! Make a copy of any checks he gives you that he sends to you with your pay on it. This is NOT ComData or anything else BUT a bank check. This way you have the routing numbers to his account in case you have to take the POS to court to get your money. The routing numbers will be used by the clerk of the court after the 45 day waiting limit so they can fill out a garnishment paper and take it or have it delivered to his bank so you can get what money there might be in the account! When a garnishment paper is sent by the court the bank MUST honor it! The amount stated on the form is then removed from tthe account or if it's not all in there they just pull out whats left and that's what you get at that time and you can try again IF moron didn't figure it out and not put more money in it BUT if he has a lot of checks out he'll have to or be paying an awful lot of bouncing check charges! I watched it happen to an arse I had to sue many years ago! he lost all of his trucks after they wiped his account out and the bank didn't tell him until he got his bounced check notices one at a time in the mail!

That scanner and laptop can become your best friend and a cover your arse device!

As I said and will keep preaching not only to you O/O's but yes you L/P's AND company drivers!

COPY IT!
EVERY THING!

If you paid cash out of your pocket for them like scale, oil, fuel, loading unloading or anything....
MAKE A COPY!

Yes even for that $1.00 light bulb if you want to get your money back for it!

I worked for a moron from Olathe, KS, a "bigger" company that that lousy office could loose paper work like you would not believe! I never in my life had more paperwork commit suicide by wiggling out of a Trip Pak as what went on at that company! I even had to write the idiot owner a letter and send it to him registered so I knew he got it and the idiots STILL would tell me a BOL or lumper receipt wasn't in the thing and even go as far as LIE to my face that the Trip Pak didn't come in but for some reason every time my logs made it in to safety from that missing envelope! This after they KNEW I had copies and their email address and fax numbers and could sent any copy they needed from the truck! This BEFORE it became a "thing" to have a computer in the truck!

COPY IT! No matter what it is. If they want it then copy it!
It will become cheaper to own the scanner in the truck over paying that copy price at the truck stop AND easier to do so in the truck at the end of your day. Scanner/copiers are cheap. Yes they take up a bit of room but still what do you want? Toys, way too much clothing or things that pay for themselves? There are some travel scanners that will fit in the case with the laptop and they cost more but still it's cheaper to do your paperwork where you park instead of having to drive to a truck stop and spend time and money messing with the counter people or that scanner crap at the J and other stops. You stand the chance of losing a piece of paper from the truck back to the truck!

It won't be long before that scanner in the truck stops bows under to the pressure of tech savvy drivers wanting to be able to scan from the truck into their website OR these companies that are slowly coming on line will have it scanned straight to them and bypass that cost to these on line services. Yes many owners are still scared of the internet and computers! They'll figure it out or die first!

Once again.....
If it cost money, can be worth money or worth something
MAKE A COPY!​

 

I must agree with RollOver, a copy will save your arse and money in the long run. They even have small ones that have specific programming and automatically recognizes what it is and files it accordingly. Of course you enter name and any other information.

 

Googled the guy, and came up with this from late 2007... this isn't Paul Merchant's first rodeo at this "missing receipts" claim:

"In my last job at Don's Frozen here in Caldwell, ID, the owner op we were working for, he had 2 trucks and a buddy and I were driving, we just got screwed out of over $5000 in wages. We thought everything was fine, a big happy family, and after I ran to N Carolina, when I got home on the 4th of Nov, he told me to let someone pick up the truck for repairs, and on the 8th, he fired Dan and I. He said I lost $5000 in reciepts, and Dan lost $4000 in reciepts. He told Dan he was taking care of his child support, that was not being done either. Paul Merchant Trucking out of Weiser, ID. If anyone hears of anyone going to work for him, get everything in writing, and be careful when he hesitates to even hand out fuel money. We are going to small claims court in Jan. of next year."

 

Sounds like this guy sucks. Good advice on making copies of everything. This might serve as a good reminder for drivers to research the people they are getting into business with. Thanks for the post!

 

I thank you for warning us about "MERCHANT TRUCKING" in Weiser,ID.

 

Another warning as this is a 'thing' with some of the POS owners.

NEVER TRUST ANYONE WITH YOUR CHILD SUPPORT!
EVER!

If anything the only way it gets paid is if you make the payment unless it's garnished straight from your pay.

Lowlife scum do NOT want that as, well, it's money they can't control! If they have a problem 2 things will happen.

-They will not hire you or will let you go if this direct withdrawal were to happen or when he says he ":might" have a problem with it call the NEXT number on your list!

-If he even has a "might" problem with a government withdrawal from his account then he "might" have a money flow problem.

Anyone calling themselves a business will have NO money flow problems where there is not enough money to cover any costs or expenditures such as a child support payment.

Anyone in business should have enough money in the bank to cover costs for at least 60 - 90 days in case payments come in slow or not at all. It's called in most college courses and even in a loan application on the attached business plan that there is X number of dollars to run the business while waiting for checks to clear the bank! it's called that

OPERATING CAPITAL!

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If Joe Blow has 2 ,3, 4 or 50 trucks he has (SHOULD HAVE) enough capital to keep running to ensure that he will have money coming IN to add to the account to stay running!

If he doesn't and tries to live paycheck to paycheck like a lot of L/P or O/Os then you will be the FIRST ONE to NOT get paid as almost everyone of these POS will make sure their house payment, car, food, wife and child gets their support and payments but you, the one who did the work, will get squat!

Keeping this short which will shock most of the TTR members

NEVER trust another to support YOUR children! They aren't the ones who can go to jail! The same with any ticket! You pay it and let them reimburse you for it! Unless you like jail!
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Might try looking for him with his new EMPLOYER

Paul Merchant

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of Weiser, Idaho​

Dec. 30 as a new I-5 Owner-

Operator for BCT Express.​

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Heres the link , look on Page 2 http://boiseinc.com/company/BoiseTransportation/Newsletter/mainContent/00/columnOne/0/text_files/file0/02-2011%20BCT%20newsletter.pdf

 

Interesting... if there's ever anyone who needs to be strung up by his feet for all to see... it'd be this guy.