In a victory for truckers everywhere, a company driver who was wrongfully terminated after refusing to carry a load due to illness, fatigue, and being over hours has been awarded a settlement of $30,000 and had his job reinstated. The driver, who was not named due to Department of Labor whistleblower regulations, drove for the Tennessee based Mark Alvis trucking company until he was fired for not taking an additional delivery. The driver had fallen and injured himself on the previous job and had reported his injury, his fatigue, and his insufficient hours to his dispatcher who then tried to pressure him into turning right around and delivering another load. He made the right call and refused the extra driving, but when he returned to company headquarters, he was terminated (the company claims that he quit voluntarily).
Very few pertinent details were released about the case, such as how long the driver was out of work before he received the $30,000 lump sum payment. For many drivers, the concept of whistle blowing is little more than a pipedream. Far too many drivers live pay-check to pay-check, and even with the assurance of a hefty settlement down the road, being unemployed for months a time is simply not an option. And only in very few cases can you be assured of a payout at the end. Harassment suits of all kinds are usually a crapshoot where the big corporations can afford lawyers that will bully the employees into submission.
It may not always be possible to achieve, but cases like this one, even with a settlement as small as $30,000, can show companies that their days of strong-arming drivers are numbered. Not everyone can afford to make a stand, but when those who can do, you’re not only standing up for yourself, but for all truckers everywhere.
Next Story: Trailer Thief Flees From Tennessee Weigh Station
Source: fleetowner
Eric L. says
I worked for a company that routinely ran us outlaw. I would tell them I was out of hours, and they would tell me how to falsify my logs. Drivers who refused got starved out. I ran for them for three months and quit. I didn’t blow the whistle because of the incredible difficulty in proving it, and the need to pay my rent and eat.
I think dispatchers should be held legally responsible when their drivers run outlaw. This would stop them from pushing the drivers. Currently dispatchers are finacially incentivised to run their drivers outlaw. If the driver gets caught–the dispatcher doesn’t face any repurcutions.
Jason P. says
Call OOida, also get a hold of ROAD LAW, They will help you.
Tired says
That’s the case with so many companies, it’s not funny. And if you blow a whistle, many times the company will falsify the FMCSA forms sent to potential hiring companies so that no one will hire you. Prove it? Next to impossible. So many changes are needed in the trucking industry today. But good for that driver, a true professional, for refusing to jeopardize the lives of others for the greed of dispatchers & company. He should have been awarded far more than that!
George Dorman says
I know it is tough out there for OTR drivers. My advise is try to be more selective in who you go to work for. Whenever I change jobs.(only 3 times in the last 20 years) I always fine someone who drivers for them now and ask questions. When I decided to go to work for my present employer I talked with 6 different drivers and they all gave rave reviews.
I now work for the largest fuel distributor in the southwest and I am happier than a pig in you know what.
Good luck and by all means keep your record clean.
Mlindy1563 says
Collecting evidence against a trucking company is tough and tricky, winning is even trickier. Be smart about it, be patient, take notes, and get statements from other drivers before you do anything. If you lose your cool about it, you could lose your job fast and not have the opportunity to collect the needed evidence. Collecting evidence takes time. Start before there is a problem. Every time something questionable is going on, write it down: names, dates, times, who said what, where, what were the circumstances, etc… This process could go on for years. But remember, in the end, this could be a court battle. Take photos of Qualcomm or like messages. Record conversations if legal to do so. (Check to see if your state only requires one person in the conversation (you) to know about the recording.) Read the regulations and read what the whistle blower law says. The actual law is the Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA), and it falls under the Department of Labor. (See http://www.whistleblowers.gov/acts/staa.html) It can be a tough battle. But it is your driver’s license, not the companies. You earned it, you are responsible for it, you need to protect it. Because in the end, it is you who will be held responsible if something goes wrong; the company will cut you free in a heartbeat.
Marathon Man says
Here we go again. When i first started for Interstate distributor Company in 2003, my dispatcher went on vacation. There was a nights/wknds dispatch who forced me to run illegal or be fired, in her words. It was a family emergency for the pickup driver, i was told.
When i arrived at the swap point, I asked the other driver what the family emergency was, she said it was a niece was graduating. i threw the paperwork for the load at her, and without a word i went to bed after having run from Tacoma to Council Bluffs straight through with only 4 hours of sleep in Mountain home, Idaho. I had never run illegal before that and never did again, and it took an awful lot out of me.
I sent a message over the Qualcomm when i awoke, “Since an agent of IDC forced me to run illegally or be fired, how do you want me to log it?” The answer was “Log it as you ran it.” So i did, and i was written up for running illegally. When i called and spoke to the higher ups in the office, they actually congratulated me for the great miles I ran when i brought this to their attention. (I have that conversation on tape.) The dispatcher who threatened me was reprimanded and suspended from dispatching for 2 weeks. Once she was back at her job, she was back to her new tricks- trying constantly to make me run illegal or finding some way to harass me. But each time i would tell her “I don’t have the hours.” The last time she pulled this, i reported her and she was promptly fired.
Only problem was, she was the girlfriend of the youngest owner of IDC, i found out after the company fired me 5 years later in 2007/2008. This was told me by many people in the company. She was able to reach out to hurt me even after she was fired. One day i met the youngest brother/owner of the company, and he said to me, “I see why they say you are crazy.” I wondered what he meant but didn’t realize it was his girlfriend who caused the problem. A false file was started on me because of her. My 400 pound former-trucker dispatcher told me about this false file- and cried- and apologized for taking part in the misinformation that was being compiled on me. I was told about the existence of the false file being compiled so they could fire me one day by more than a half-dozen people.
In December 2004, after a vacation, they sent me to Florida to pick up a truck that had 5 exhaust leaks in it. I found out much later that the truck had been abandoned where i picked it up in Titusville Florida by a team because of the exhaust leaks. I was weakened down very, very quickly and was refused medical attention and they refused anyone to look at the truck to find/fix the exhaust leaks until February 2005 when i said “I am sleeping my 34 hour resets straight through. Every time i pass an offramp i want to pull over and sleep, as I’ve been telling you. My liver is expanding, i am gaining weight and not eating a thing. My mind is foggy and i feel like you are not listening to me. There is a massive problem with the exhaust leaks. I am going to get it looked at right now, i don’t care what you say.” Then I called the company shop’s roadcall and made arrangements for them to find the closest place to Rogers, MN to do the diagnostic, which, they found 3 leaks in the 2004 Volvo. They fixed them, and soon after, I was on my way home, being prevented from going home at all since my return from vacation on December 6th by my new dispatcher Denise Long. She became a part of the following harassment to try to get me to quit, and this was a part of it. She denied me home time every time i asked. I demanded it, and got it, because i had to go over her head. So, a little more than 2 months out in a truck that had a history of severe exhaust leaks, with a dispatch crew that was filing falsities in my file, keeping me from going home… I was ready to quit.
They let me go home, and i stayed with a nephew for my 10 accrued days off for 10 weeks work, sleeping the entire 10 days. I felt no better when i hit the road, which meant that there was more exhaust leaks.
Every place they sent me, they already had a prepared answer to any question i had or statement i made that was given to them by the company. That was the same with the doctors, who all were strangely turned against me as though i was the enemy when all it was that i was sick from the exhaust. When i got an umbilical hernia on the job (the beginning of the end for me) they sent me to a Dr. Habib in Findlay Ohio near our terminal there to get to the bottom of the problems. I had been in great shape before my departure for my vacation, feeling fit and doing 300 situps, 300 dips, 300 pushups and 300 pullups every day for 5 months before i left. i ran and walked every day. I was in great shape. I was in great shape the day i arrived home, and felt sick from the moment i turned the key on the new truck in Florida. I was so weakened down physically that lifting a box of food at a KMart in Washington state caused me to get a hernia. i reported the injury when it happened, and there was a witness to the injury. That injury should not have happened. But becauswe it did, and i reported it, the company sent me to see Dr. Habib who told me “You know, you’re 40 years old. Everyone falls apart when they turn 40 years old. You have the hernia because you are 40 years old.”
Then I was pushed out the side door without any copies of the paperwork they forced me to fill out, so i came back in the front door where they were all smiling/laughing at me, and i asked them to give me the copies of what I had given them. Well, they only gave me every other page. But, I didn’t know it because my mind was foggy from the still-present exhaust leaks.
I wanted to get blood-gas levels done several times over the months but was told that I would be fired if i went in on my own, that i had to see their doctors or be fired. (Quoting Lila Reynolds.)
I was forced to continue working with the hernia, and with my mind foggy from the exhaust leaks i couldn’t think to get my plan of action in order, and let it all roll over me like a steam roller.
In April 2007 my mother died. I was told by family that if i wanted to see her before she did die i would have to get there as quickly as possible. I had a new dispatcher named Chris Nanney in Lebanon, TN who harassed me in accordance with the false file’s orders, and when the planners had the loads all set for me to get close to home so I could rent a car and see Mom just before she died, all of a sudden the load orders changed to the west coast instead of to where my Mom was. Not only that, but my best friend at the company, a guy that I had known for years and got him his job there, came to me to say “Hey man, you better look at your qualcomm. The load they just gave you was just given to me.” I looked, and Chris Nanney had switched the loads to get me in the wrong direction, just to harass me and cause me problems. I called Chris who said when I asked, “No, I didn’t switch the loads on you. Planning must have done that. Something about hours available.” I talked to my friend, and both of us were fresh on our hours. I called the planners, which Chris didn’t think i was smart enough to do, and they told me “No, man, we didn’t switch the loads on you. It says right here that your dispatcher Chris Nanney switched the loads for some reason. We didn’t do it.”
I tried to get the office to change it back since precious time was going away quickly if i wanted to see my mom before she died. They refused to help me. They said “You can always refuse the load and just go home.” I said, “Yes, but you are a forced dispatch company and you will fire me the moment I do.” I was told (Lila Reynolds again…) “Yes, you are right. Good luck.” CLICK. She was gone and i was left to figure out how to get from the eventual stop of Portland Oregon back to the eastern US before mom died.
I didn’t need to figure it out, it just happened. When i arrived in the Henderson, CO yard 2 days later, I received a call from my family “If you want to see Mom before she passes you better get here by tomorrow.”
I called the company and told them i was putting the load down on the Henderson yard, and flying home. And since they were responsible for my having to fly home that they should pay for my flight. They said “Nope, nothing doing. We will not pay for it. Remember, it was you who accepted the load you are on.” And I replied, “Yes, and it was under the threat of being fired if i didn’t take the load as you so calmly told me before when we discussed this.” She replied, “Yes, I know. Good luck.” CLICK. She was gone.
I did get an emergency flight that my normal airline let me get for $400, but it didn’t get reimbursed to me, no surprise to me.
I arrived in time to see my mom slipping away, she may not have even known i was there. She died in the morning after i arrived.
When i returned to work, Chris Nanney met me and laughed at me and said “hahaha, did your MOMMY die?” because he didn’t believe that i was going home for a death. Denise Long, my former dispatcher, had told him that i always try to get home and use my mom’s health as an excuse, which was horrifically untrue. I looked at Chris, and said, “Yes. Yes she did die. And no thanks to you, she didn’t really know i was there.” And i turned away and went back to work.
I continued working with them, asking for no unloads, or only pull-offs, so as not to aggravate the hernia, and they gave me the miles, so i was making money. An unfortunate event happened meanwhile.
I was attacked by an irate SMX flatbed trucker in late 2007 who thought i was getting unloaded before him at a stop when it was different companies unloading us both. He threatened me to beat my ass… then tried to fight with me, i received several punches from him to my head, and i never hit him at all. i was just trying to keep him from hitting me and never struck him. He got me in a headlock that was very tight, and my neck, back and shoulder were injured. The guy was bigger, stronger and younger than me, and the hernia “protruded” from my belly button, giving me pain, and green, bloody poop. A doctor in Austin I saw who was going to do next-day emergency surgery on me (after showing/giving me a card that showed what my “incarcerated” hernia looked like inside and out on my first visit to him) promptly changed his mind about doing the surgery moments after I called my company and told them that this doctor was going to do he surgery.
This became the norm, every time i would tell the company of doctors’ advice to me, the doctors would have sudden amnesia as to what they told me, even though they were very, very specific in their orders to me. Another EXAMPLE WAS THE DOCTOR AT MY HOME AFTER THIS INCIDENT who told me to get the hernia operated on first, then come see him for the neck, back and shoulder therapy. I told the company this, then the next time i spoke to that doctor he sounded like he wanted to get off the phone as quickly as possible, right after telling me that he didn’t remember telling me that and it was not his words. I was dumbfounded time after time how mechanics went back on their diagnostic information and doctors were never there to help me but to prohibit my progress so i could get back to work.
Well, i had to go to the emergency room once again when i had more green poop and pain. The doctor there said the hernia was not incarcerated anymore and i told him it is because i learned how to push it back in with my finger. So instead of putting me in emergency surgery, we scheduled it for the first week of December. I told Lila Reynolds at IDC in the HR dept. of this, and that i would continue as per my W/C doctor’s (IDC’s doctor’s) first advice, to get the hernia surgery and then get the neck/back/shoulder therapy. It was agreed that this was a good plan. So, I had the surgery.
On the way back to my room in the hospital after the surgery, Lila Reynolds at IDC HR called me on my cell phone to tell me that i was fired for some breach of company procedure. I was under heavy anesthesia and didn’t understand what was taking place. It wasn’t until 3 or 4 days later that i was understanding what had really taken place, and the company’s interference in every single aspect of dealing with the exhaust leak and the SMX driver attack on me and the surgery and I realized… I’D BEEN RAILROADED.
I also got a call from the workman comp girl at Zurich Insurance who was in charge of my case, calling me to say that my benefits, after having only received 4 weeks of them, were being cut off. She accused me of being a liar, and I told her outright that she WAS a liar. Long story, but every place that IDC’s hand could reach out to hurt me, it did. From my Aetna Insurance to my post-employment health insurance (COBRA) to my dental insurance, to their intentions to hold my last check and not pay it- until Dennis Murphy, the Lebanon IDC terminal manager, stepped in and got me paid- and he got fired for helping me.
I got a call from my best friend who worked at IDC that he and his non-IDC employee wife had gone into Nettie Reed’s office to discuss my firing. Nettie had shown them everything in my file from her computer, and they discussed the circumstances surrounding my leaving the company, up to and including the vengeful acts against me by the girlfriend of the younger brother/owner of IDC. I feel this was a highly gross indecency (and quite illegal) regarding my personal information, but it was once again confirmed to me that the reason i was fired was because of the youngest brother/owner of IDC’s girlfriend calling for that false file about me. It was built on by each of my dispatchers and the best job i can find now is with a weird European bisexual who runs around the truck almost naked while i try to drive. I am being raped financially, and i, uh… sleep with one eye open. I have lost over $250,000 in wages since being fired and I still see doctors about my neck, back and shoulder. IDC, you are shameful. No wonder you had to sell your business- it’s because shit rolls downhill, and whatever is at the top… well, it rolls downhill.
I never recovered from this financially. I have lost so much that suicide became an option. Anybody here ever been homeless for 5 years straight? No place to lay your head? Try sleeping in a car when it’s 10 degrees below zero and you don’t have enough money for gas to keep the car warm. I don’t recommend it. Then, lose the car to a thief. And everything of yours that is in it.
The job searching has not changed. Each and every company where i tried to get a job (Big G, Schneider, JB Hunt, Swift, Conway, CFI, others) were eager to hire me until they got my social security number and then all of a sudden i was not hirable. I still have not been able to figure out what they saw because my DAC was clean. My FMCSA file? Do I even have one? Most recently, I contacted Quality Drivers by phone and was told i was eligible for a refresher to immediately put me on the road, and I put in an online application. They blocked me from even being able to talk to them, and my emails are all being rejected. They simply saw something after I gave them my social security number that told them to avoid me like the plague, just as every other company did over the last 5 years as I tried to re-enter the industry. Are you happy now, IDC? That you’ve effectively f***ed my life beyond hope? Did the Last $100,000,000* make you forget about your conscience?
I was a good employee. I was never late except for breakdowns. I never had a ticket or an accident in a truck, nor an incident for that matter. I have safety awards that i felt pained them to give me but they had to. I was always being recognized for lowest idle time in the company. I took EVERY load, no matter where it went. I was a “Rescue driver” for them, occasionally moving bobtails to other yards for them just for a switch-up to the normal routine. I would never complain about being asked to count all the empty trailers at a yard or a customer site- which they always seemed to ask me to do. I even took their relentless abuse over the almost 5 years at that company without retaliation. Except that one time at the beginning of my time with them that cost me all my peace of mind for the entire time with them.
The injuries were insult added-to-injury for me. I was so seared mentally from the exhaust leaks for more than a year, maybe two, that i could not think what to do, who to go to, and they took full advantage of this. They KNEW that 2004 Volvo truck had a serious exhaust leak problem but they intentionally wanted me to suffer just like the team who abandoned the truck in Florida. The resulting physical weakening and the hernia were punishment that they wanted me to have for getting one of the people who needed to get fired removed from hurting anyone else. I wonder how many accidents she caused? How many near misses? How many health problems she caused in the company drivers?
I hired an attorney on the ongoing workman comp case who promptly stole $500 from me and never returned my calls and he lost his license for a year and I lost my case because of him. He repaid me, but only after he was threatened by the state that he would never get his license back. That lawyer’s girlfriend has harassed me since 2006 openly, to now, behind the scenes, as one of the people responsible for the death threats i have been receiving.
I became homeless immediately after the surgery, having lies told on me in my hometown so that i was getting death threats from law enforcement and gangs. I had to leave to hide, telling people i was in Mexico so they would stop looking for me. I did go to Mexico now and then but not for the entire time. My pickup truck was stolen. $5,000 of my belongings in the truck was also stolen by a so-called friend who is in cahoots with the people who want to kill me…
A year ago, in fall 2011, a federal investigator by the name of Helbis Varangot in the Denver, CO EEOC office sent me a letter that she was investigating Interstate Distributor Co for wrongfully firing a number of people after they were injured. I received a questionnaire. I filled it out, and i never heard from her again by phone, email, or by letter to let me know the status of her investigation and if I was going to be added to the list of people being represented. She will not answer me at all. NO RESPONSE. (Bought and paid for?)
I gave up all hope after that and decided to just get the word out on blogs about what happened to me. I will not get any relief out of it but at least people will realize that the world is full of trucking companies. And that is just what they are.
This is by far the most revealing blog post I have ever made about my demise in the trucking industry. May you read it and believe that i have told the truth here, may you understand it, may this post somehow be used to change the course of the trucking industry. That is my purpose and objective.
Marathon Man says
Oh, the 3 times I contacted OOIDA they gave me a song and a dance and refused to talk to me about this. They are no help. Bought and Paid for? I think they all are!
Mortifis says
This is why e-logs are going to be mandatory … it would be equally helpful to make dispatchers and brokers, shippers and recievers accountable to our HOS. I am hoping that Jason’s Law will address these issues and that the FMCSA will look at the accountability of individual disp[atchers and load planners. All too often we are disptached on load schedules that a desk jockey thinks is legal simply because it falls into their 52 mile per hour x 11 hours a day + 10 hour rest bull crap .. they never think of the fact that we had to get to the customers from somewhere and have to leave the customer when we are done. FMCSA has to stop blaming drivers for everything and start looking at where the real problem lies. Also, Federal Labor Laws need to start looking at properly compensating drivers for our actual work and not just cpm!