This is where I draw the line..rant

[One]

First off....fixed those for you.

As far as putting ME in that situation........No it wouldn't. At this point in my life, I understand how to do things in a manner that would circumvent a company being able to do something like that.

IF a young driver like PorkChop (Mike I think his name is) finds him or her "Self" in a POS truck like that, before doing anything, documenting the repair requests as well as the subsequent refusals to make the repairs, is important. Turning the truck over to a DOT officer at a scale does two things. It puts the truck under the control of a law enforcement facility, plus....THAT truck isn't going to be moved again until all repairs that are subject to the 49 CFR regulations, and that are found by the DOT facility, are repaired.

You have never been forced to drive a POS truck One?? I gotta say....You have been lucky. Even major corporations find themselves forcing drivers to drive poorly maintained equipment, when penny pinching managers hide the VIR's and threaten meek drivers with lose of the job if they refuse to drive the equipment.

Sure....leaving the truck at a scales may be Chicken-chit....but then again....refusing to maintain your equipment before putting a driver in it is also Chicken-chit. With CSA, drivers can no longer afford to collect DOT OOS tickets. Before, those tickets only affected the safety score of the Carrier. A carrier that is large enough, can absorb the odd OOS ticket. NOW....not one single driver can afford those tickets....but those drivers are still at the mercy of managers or Owners, that look at repairs as "unnecessary". NOW those tickets affect the reputation of the driver....and bonafide carriers will not give a rats-azz that the driver was forced to drive a POS truck. No driver has to....they can look for work elsewhere....but then again....that puts the driver in the postion of being unemployed. Classic catch22. Damned if you do....damned if you don't.

It is one thing to fly off the handle because of disagreements with a dispatcher, another entirely to be forced to do something you would not otherwise do. Abandoning a truck because of a dispatch disagreement is far different from turning a truck that is in disrepair, and that an owner or manager knows is in disrepair and ignores the drivers repeated requests....that is a whole new ballgame....especially now.


Maybe my stance makes me a "Horse's Azz".......but then again..........after 33+ years of doing this....I really don't care.

first thanks 4 the corrections, sometimes my keyboard messes up and a letter doesn't work right, the i use net lingo and abbreviations, dont bother with hyphons and use '2' foe 'two', 'u' for 'you' and '4' for 'for' and also i use british english spelling a lot. but whateva :P

Yes i have been put in junk trucks, but i am knowledgeable enough to find dot violations on every truck, so if i didnt ignore some stuff i would have to change jobs to DOT officer cuz i would never make a dime driving. My company knows me well enough to get my truck fixed and back to me quick because i 'deadline' spare truck after spare truck until i do, and we have a truck shortage as is... LOL

[Malaki86]

I was talking to a local driver back home one night - he drives coal trucks in WV. He was telling me about his previous employer. The truck they put him in was an absolute POS. I can't remember what year he said it was, but it was an Autocar. How long has it been since you saw one of those on the road? Anyway, the steering was really loose on the truck and he kept complaining to the maintenance & boss about it, but they said keep it rolling. So he did - he pulled into the scalehouse on I-79 in WV. He walked inside to strange looks from the scalemaster. The scalemaster asked if he could help him and the driver simply replied - yes, I'm here for my inspection.

He said he was there for 3 hours while himself and 3 other officers scoured the truck top to bottom. It ended up that the truck had a broken frame at the front suspension mount. I guess it was rusted out so bad, and with so many other major defects in it, the DOT black-flagged the truck, meaning it had to be scrapped out.

As soon as the DOT was finished with the inspection there, they did a major inspection on the companies entire fleet. Over 1/2 were put OOS.

[P0rk Ch0p]

That would have been fine and dandy, but i would have been stranded there with no money to get home, no money to pay a friend/relative gas to come get me, etc etc and I know damn well that company wouldn't have done a thing to help me.

What do you think I could do at this point? Report the company to DOT officials and just hope they catch one of the trucks at the scales or something?

[Orangetxguy]

That would have been fine and dandy, but i would have been stranded there with no money to get home, no money to pay a friend/relative gas to come get me, etc etc and I know damn well that company wouldn't have done a thing to help me.

What do you think I could do at this point? Report the company to DOT officials and just hope they catch one of the trucks at the scales or something?

Actually.....At this point you are simply better off just forgeting about it young lad.

My major point on this thread, aside from giving you suggestions for companies to talk with, is to show you..advise you...on what the solutions are, when you are dealing with a trucking company that refuses to perform repair work that is needed. 99.5% of all DOT officers, will not ticket you personally, even under CSA, if you explain the situation to them, and ask them to perform a detailed inspection of the equipment. There isn't a trucking company in existance, that is going to get around an OOS at an inspection station. You don't have to walk away from the equipment either. You may not get paid for the time you are at the OOS location....but your employer isn't going to fire you there either. They simply won't open themselves up to the liabilty. If you run into a similar situation again...just remember to get that inspection done ASAP after the refusal to do repairs...don't wait until you are almost home.

[GMAN]

I agree with Orangetxguy, P0rkCh0p. At this point, it would be best to just forget about it and move on. Consider it a learning experience.

[P0rk Ch0p]

Yeah.

Well, now it's pay day and they are ducking me..

[Kentla93]

Yeah.

Well, now it's pay day and they are ducking me..

Well if they are ducking you on payday, then you stand a good chance of them trashing your DAC report as well...
Document document document.....
I have a feeling you are going to get more headaches from these guys in the near future...
Thats one of the reasons why I refuse to go over the road, having to be away from family and then on top of it deal with that kind of crap...
Hope it all works out for you..

Timberwolf

[Orangetxguy]

Yeah.

Well, now it's pay day and they are ducking me..

Okay....It is payday. If you don't have your money in hand come monday morning, then get in touch with the state labor board. Did you keep copies of your load information??

[P0rk Ch0p]

I think I have copies in with my logs, etc. Will have to check.

After calling all day Friday, they finally called me back at 5:30, to tell me they hadn't calculated my pay yet because of out of route fuel due to that lying ***** dispatcher, telling me i could come through the house, then telling the owner he never said that..so they are trying to take money out of my pay for coming home.. bunch of idiots.

I won't be having any problems out of these people after they pay me, I've already quit working for them, And I've consulted a lawyer just incase they want to falsely report to DAC, which i doubt they will, these clowns don't know half the DOT truck regulations. They said Monday they'd have my pay figured out..whatever..

[Orangetxguy]

I think I have copies in with my logs, etc. Will have to check.

After calling all day Friday, they finally called me back at 5:30, to tell me they hadn't calculated my pay yet because of out of route fuel due to that lying ***** dispatcher, telling me i could come through the house, then telling the owner he never said that..so they are trying to take money out of my pay for coming home.. bunch of idiots.

I won't be having any problems out of these people after they pay me, I've already quit working for them, And I've consulted a lawyer just incase they want to falsely report to DAC, which i doubt they will, these clowns don't know half the DOT truck regulations. They said Monday they'd have my pay figured out..whatever..

Where was the load delivering to in the first place?? You need to tell them...."NO" on taking fuel charges out of your pay, regardless. Out-of-route fuel is a "cost of doing business poorly".

[One]

Okay....It is payday. If you don't have your money in hand come monday morning, then get in touch with the state labor board. Did you keep copies of your load information??

I hear the Labor Board most often takes the side of the company. i could be wrong.

[P0rk Ch0p]

First, I delivered a load of marble tile flooring to Pompano Beach, FL. From there, I went to Okeechobee,FL and got a load of cabbage, that load was supposed to go to Shortsville,NY. I picked up on a Friday evening, around 5 pm, just before the plant closed down for the weekend. The broker we deal with, he calls me personally and not so much the dispatcher because in so many words, he just plain doesn't like him.

Anyway, the broker tells me, they don't want the load til Monday, so here it is Friday. 11 hours or so from the house. Earlier Friday, the dispatcher said go pick it up and head north..meaning home- the way he said it. so that's what I did. I map-quested it, and going home then to NY. Going strait to NY from FL was 1,381 miles. Going home, then to NY was 1,600.

So, 220 miles. Which isn't even a 1/4 tank of fuel- And where I got fuel it was like 3.83 a gallon, topped it off from a half tank, which was right at 500 bucks give or take. And when I got home, i still had almost 3/4 on the gauge. So, at that rate, I estimate 110 dollars of fuel used.

Okay, now, my mileage. Leaving home, going to pompano,to okeechobee, to home was 1,710 miles @ .33 cpm = 564.30, minus 100 dollars for fuel, 464.30

[P0rk Ch0p]

Well,I knew it'd come to this.

Once again, they ducked me all day, then at 4 PM, the owner sent me a text saying she would email " it". So, several minutes later, I receive an email from the owner.

It's a PDF file, of what appears to be a copied sheet of paper, with some crude handwritten " explanation" stating that I drove 880.1 Miles out of route, and somehow they figure it to be 355 dollars in fuel. It appears they ignored the fact that I drove to Florida in the first place, as they didn't mention pay for going,just coming home.

How they even come up with such a number is ridiculous, seeing as how it wasn't even 880 miles to Pompano Beach, and Okeechobee, where I picked up my new load, is about 120 miles NORTH of Pompano Beach, so it could not have been 880 miles to home from Okeechobee. This just proves to me that they are making stuff up, thinking I will think they are right, and just drop it. Somehow, they even come to figure that I owe them 65 dollars..HA

I emailed the owner back, explaining that it could in no way be 880 miles because it wasn't even that far to Pompano, which was over 100 miles south of the location they are basing their lies off of. Of course, I got no responses. So, I called and they hit the ignore button on me. I left a voicemail telling them that if they didn't call me and let's talk about this and settle it like mature adults, that I would get my lawyer involved,of course, no response.

So, first thing in the morning, my lawyer will be called.

[DaveP]

Holy crap Pork Chop...that's where I live. And I know who you're talking about.

I'd rather hang sheetrock than take a chance with those clowns.

[P0rk Ch0p]

You drove for them? Or just know of them? They are a shady bunch of folks.

[P0rk Ch0p]

For anyone who has been wondering what this companies D.O.T Violations are looking like, you're in luck, because I've done some investigating. They have a pretty bad record I'll admit.

Here it is, just take a look at the Vehicle Maintenance section- 96 Inspections,335 Vehicle Violations, YES, THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIVE VIOLATIONS.

How has the DOT allowed them to stay in business?!?!?

Take a look for yourself-

Carrier Overview

[chris1]

If you're on a 1099 and have no contract good luck in court.

[Orangetxguy]

So what is the Pork Chop guy doing??