Transport America terminated and stuck 900 miles from home

WTF is wrong with people who don't believe that EVERY company driver that is terminated is ENTITLED to an all-expense-paid trip home? For that matter decides to leave a company for any reason?
You as a driver are not there because you want to be in a particular place. You are there to convey a load for a company. It is the company's responsibility to get you back to your home whatever the cost including all of your belongings.
In any other industry, if you are sent from your home to work elsewhere you are provided with a place to sleep, meals, and transportation to and from, or are at least reimbursed for these expenses. When these other industries give you a per diem for meals it is on top of your regular wage, not a pre-tax scheme so that the employers benefit from not having to pay unemployment, or matching FICA funds.

Do you feel your excessive wage should allow these companies to continue to get away with this outrageous behavior?

This will continue to happen until people stop letting it happen. As a truck driver you are not covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act and are exempt from the Labor Laws of your State.

Why?
What is it that makes a trucker less of a human being than a retail worker? or a factory worker? or a provider of services?

Why should we not be compensated for everything we do, every time we do it?

In any other industry unless you are salaried you must be paid for your work.
Not so in trucking. You don't get paid to fuel their truck. You don't get paid to inspect their truck. You don't get paid to adjust fifth-wheels or tandems. You don't get paid to trip plan. Most don't pay you to drop or hook unless it is an extra stop. Most do not pay you for sitting while their truck is being repaired or maintained (some will give you a layover pay between 20 and 40 bucks a day (barely enough to feed you on the road and not tax exempt)). All the while you are eating away at the hours you can run miles to earn a living. In other words it takes away from your potential income. Most do not pay you to wait at a shipper to load or at a consignee to unload unless you are helping or doing it yourself for a measly 10 or 12 bucks an hour. It is not the drivers fault the truck isn't earing why should they suffer the consequences for poor planning?

Why?
Why is this acceptable in trucking?
We all deserve Fair treatment and the opportunity to earn a decent living for the sacrifices we have made (being apart from our families and or loved ones) and the daily dangers we face (the road conditions, the others on the roads).

If these companies that are abusing their drivers were held accountable for their transgressions in the fair treatment of their employees there would be far less pressure on drivers to break the rules to get-r-done. This would in turn make the whole industry a safer place to work. It would reduce turnover and make them more profitable as well. The reduction in turnover would also decrease the Federal Subsidies these companies are getting due to so called "driver shortages" reducing our Federal tax obligations.

There is and never has been a driver shortage just a lack of people willing to put up with the BS that is trucking.

This industry is broken! It needs to be turned upside down and the crooked people in it need to be heavily fined and some even jailed for the way they treat their fellow human beings.

Does this make sense to you?

Thanks to all for letting me rant. I didn't mean to hijack this post but I am angry about this issue. I think others should be as well.

 

I couldn't agree with you more. Now what do we do to change things? Seriously!

I think we could turn groups like Public Citizen into allies if we could get them to realize that it's not the HOS that is the real problem but that the whole system is set up so that it is against a drivers financial interests to be in compliance.

If companies where required to pay the equivalent to what a trucker makes driving per hour for line 4 I bet things would change a whole lot.

So lets say you get .35/mile and drive in cal, I'll use a log speed of 50mph just because it makes the math easy and I'm lazy. That would mean you make the equivalent of 17.50 per hour while driving. Sure would be nice to get paid that for the hour or two you spend in line 4 most days. I bet drivers would be a whole lot more willing to log dock time as line 4 instead of off duty even though we really aren't.

 

Man that sucks,, thats not even fair to fire a driver 900 miles from home with all the stuff needed to survive on the road,, it should be mandatory by federal law to get the driver back to his home terminal then fire him, where he can get all belongings out of the truck and back home.. Transport America sounds kinda like swift and how they operate,, thats just wrong and very rude.

 

I HATE transport America. Be careful with that bus ticket. I took their bus ticket and ended up stranded 20 miles from the terminal (where my car was) outside a closed bus terminal at 2am in freezing January weather in Iowa. WHAT THE HELL!?!?! How is this stuff not criminal?

 

Hate to see it happen too, but I have to agree with the Company though. Sorry but what if he gotten in a wreck on the way back? the Company would been reliable. Now what if the Driver selling the Fuel out of the tanks? Or selling other equipment? (Not saying the OP was) But what if? Don't follow the rules you get busted, you pay the price. Simple.. Follow the rules and play the game right then you should not have a problem. If the OP done his logs right Logged the trip then good chance he would not gotten fired.

The Company was nice about it and did get him a ticket. That says alot about the Company MOST of what you may call a good company would not have.

 

The company was not just being nice about anything. They know it a Federal Law that they can not just dump you out any where they feel like. They are required to get you home-period. If they ever pull a stunt like this call the local police and explain it to them. YOU Will get home. Now if it was my truck and I caught the driver selling my fuel or any of that other crap I would be temped to leave his bu tt in the middle of Death Valley or Donner's Pass. But those days are gone.

 

Don't care for most companies anymore. It seems that they don't care about the driver and it's cheaper to hire rookies than experienced drivers. I have however been using a truckers log called DDL which keeps me legal and alerts me to possible log violations before they occur. However with Big Brother (QualComm) looking over your shoulder you have to be more careful.
Now back onto the topic they fired you because they could. If you were making more money than a rookie then its in there interest to get rid of you. Best thing to do is tell them to violate your logbook over the qual-comm and then laugh because you are breaking thew law.
With fines ever increasing companies are doing everything in there power to avoid them. They tell you to do something then ding you for it.
Good Luck in the future.

 

Actaully The company has doesnt have to even offer you a way home,(they dont have to get you there since there is no Law that says they even have to) .He said they offered him a bus ticket, and that wasnt good enough for him. I dont see the problem here. He said he wasnt sure what to do with his stuff. That is why my personal deal is that I never take anymore stuff than I need and I Never take more than will take me 15 minutes to clean out. He can ship his stuff home and then take their bus ticket.
Beleive me, they are not gonna strand you 900 miles from home and let you hang, even though they can but most companies wont. They offered a bus ticket and he was to good for that. What I would have done is ask them if they can send me with another driver that was going toward my home city, most companies will do that--unless, like someone else stated, you are a jerk.

 

Actually that is wrong. They can dump you wherever they want to--there is NO federal law governing that. Just most wont do that for fear of lawsuits or whatever. But if you contact either FMCSA or read the regulations, there is absolutely NO regulation or LAW that says that they have to get you home, this is a common misconception, but it is just that- a misconception.