Why no uniformity in laws, state to state?

Flaps at the ICC bumber are like a blade guard on a table saw being mounted under the table. It still works. But not like it is supposed to.

Tinted windows. I assume you have KY base plates? So I can't help you there. MS writes tickets for it, if the truck has MS base plates. Or if they see the driver has a MS based CDL.

The straights ? Were you running your jake?

 

Ma'am,

There's an out for that with the U.S. Dept. of Labor as it's illegal to terminate someone for reporting something a company is doing illegally.

Workers are protected in this regard under the so-called Whistle Blower Act. It gets their job back, all lost wages, and 18% interest. Then if your husband was getting 3,000 miles a week & after his return to work only gets 500, Labor gets the difference & 18% interest. But there's also a statute of limitations of 6-months on reporting the misdeed.

 

In the real world, little is done for the truck driver. Contact was made for a friend who did not receive payment for loads delivered as a company driver with a truck with qualcomm. The company received payment from the shipper for the delivered loads. Since the driver could not prove other than the log book that he made the loads, the company decided not to pay him.

Contacted the Illinois Dept of Labor and he was advised that they did not cover truck drivers.

 

danc694u:
( 1 ) I live in TN, and our laws on commercial truck is it can have tinted windows, and all windows can be tinted but front can only be tinted 6" down from top of front window. Mine was done professionally and legally as to how dark they could be according to TN commercial truck laws.
( 2 ) I was not using the jake when I was pulled over, I was running down the interstate pulling a little grade.
( 3 ) I do understand the mud flap deal, but when stopped in ID after having the problem in OR I asked ID inspector if there was any thing wrong with my mud flaps, and he said NO. On my next trip out I asked OR inspector if there was something wrong with my tinted windows and straight stakes, and he said NO.

I was running these states: TN, KY, IL, MO, NE, WY, ID, OR, WA. The messed up part was I get the tickets after running the run for 6 months, one load a week every week, and that was first and last time I got a ticket for those things and I continued this run for almost a year more. The tints the same, the mud flaps I did change, and stacks are the same.

The best answer I received and I believe is I was looked at as a rolling ATM, which to me if that is the case then that is a bunch of BS.

 

Roadmedic: It's a federal deal, not a state dept. of labor, but her problem appeared to be unrelated to your statement, and a different problem. And I would agree that without proof other than an RDS it would/could pose a problem.

Don't shippers still offer 3 or 4 copies of the B.O.L.? I do know U.S. Dept. of Labor used to say they would accept one of those as proof of delivery and copiers are everywhere for a dime per copy and that would also be a business related expense to write off. I do know that U.S.D.O.L./O.S.H.A. handles motor carrier problems but this problem may be a problem in and of itself without anything other than an RDS for proof but it's worth a shot if it's within the statute of limitations.

But what I also see on here is it may be a larger problem as suggested in that the carrier could terminate the lessor/lessee agreement which could be a larger problem in these economic times as suggested here.

 

Carriers basically laugh or shrug off any comments about investigations from the Dept of Labor. They feel exempt.

The driver left the day he found out they would not pay him for the load which was the week after the load was delivered. It is not easy and certainly not cheap for the driver to get copies of the BOL for his own files. This driver does not have a computer, copy machine or anything like that in the truck.

 

Why not burn a copy at the truck stop. If I think I was not going to get paid I would make a file folder for each trip, copying everything from the BOL to log book, toll receipts, fuel receipts etc. Much like I make a case folders on my investigations I conduct, who says a driver can not or should not protect himself from this. Yes it could be time consuming and you would need to be an organized person, but some of the drivers I see are very organized anyway, having your ducks in a row if you filed a complaint/lawsuit or whatever would greatly assist you in your case/cause.

An example that is kind of similar was I recently built an addition on my house. The jacka## that called himself a carpenter for the company I hired failed to tie the addition into the house properly. So when a Tropical Storm approached in the form of a Nor-easter it flooded my new room, the old section the house doing an ungodly amount of damage. Well when i called the company to notify them, which was less than a week after they finished, I got the vibe that they were placing blame on everyone but themselves. Hence my investigative skills kicked in. I was a patrol officer/detective for many years handling every call imaginable before I was transferred to my current assignment. Documented every call, the conversation of what was said, numerous pictures and had it organized the same way when I would make a case file for anyone I have arrested. When I filed the insurance claim my insurance agent was amazed at the information and documentation that was available to him. The investigation with the adjuster was quick, just long enough for him to go through the case file. He called the companies insurance company gave them the low down, hand delivered a copy of my file to them at which time less than 24 hours they were authorizing all the repairs to be made under their insurance claim and not mine. In all about $20,000 in repairs.

No reason I see that you could not document each trip you ran. Now if your going to falsify log books and hide things this may not be something you would want to do. But hell, I know, you know that there is no way to stay in the sleeper 10 hours at the truck stop, you could document everything you would need in as little as 5 minutes a day. Even if you kept a journal. It would be some form of documentation if a jacka$$ company/ broker tried to screw you.

 

Hindsight is always better. However, they required the documents to be mailed immediately at the truckstop. He had no clue this would happen. He had worked there for several months. This happened out of the blue. It was a normal run that he did each week. So, it basically was a surprise. He was paid a week after the run, the check mailed to the house. His wife called and talked to him and he contacted the company. It just was lucky he was within a short distance of the yard and that is where the truck ended up.

 

I was leased to Refrigerated Transport, and there were perhaps six loads that they were not paying. My dad was a lawyer and he wrote a letter with all of the information. At that point, Refrigerated paid for three of my loads, and paid me three of some other owner-operator's loads. I wanted to straighten it out, but Dad asked whether I was even with the board, which I was. He said, "Drop it."

 

Those of us who have been out here long enough to get our ### burned, do exactly that. Keep impeccable and complete records of every trip.

But that is not enough to keep from being screwed by a crooked company. I'm still arguing this fact with my sister, the CPA.

Even if you can prove every detail of a 2000 mile trip. Your log book will crucify you. Minimum wage sucks. And that's what you will get....minimum wage for the hours you worked if you were a company driver.

An O/O who doesn't keep the records.......what can I say?