I have a few questions.

This poster went thru a recruiter.

This poster went to orientation.

This poster went thru 8 WEEKS with a trainer.

I'm sorry, but I find for the poster. In no way, shape, or fashion, can you make me believe that Warner did not know about the man conviction.

They waited 8 weeks to do a background check? Can you say BS? Smells like :dung: to me.

They knew he was convicted, and decided to use this as an excuse to get rid of him after he didn't want to play their games. The fact that he didn't tell them on the application is moot, due to the background investigation they would have done at orientation.

So hiring him was final, and this can not be used against him because they already knew.

If there was any problems with his DAC, he should fight the entry, and have it stated that Warner knew about his conviction with the background check they did before they put him with a trainer.

However, that's not going to be much help for him. He can argue that they knew.

But it doesn't change the fact that he has the conviction in the first place.

I have to agree, even though this post is from last year, and the players are all gone, the point remains.

Im sure they knew about his record, why not tell the trainee that there MAY INDEED be a problem, and that he is under review? Give him a chance to work it out, or leave, or whatever.....at least decide if the training was worth the gamble to go forward.

If it happened like the poster says it did, they just stole 272.25 hours of work and said......"Next".

Being Hired
 

"When are newbies officially hired? When called to attend orientation, or once we are with the trainer?" I'm not Sheepdancer, but this is my experience. Newbs aren't "hired" until after completing training with a company trainer and have passed all final written and skills tests and are upgraded to "solo", "first seat" or "lead" driver. Having passed drug test and physical exam at front end of orientation is assumed. BOL

Re: Being Hired
 

This is actually a pretty easy question to answer. If a company is paying you to attend orientation or go through training, then you are, by law, considered an employee and must be treated as one.

If a company is simply covering orientation and/or training expenses, but not paying you any actual money, you are not technically an employee.

Could very well be. But then again, it could also be a by-product of their hiring procedure. I'm not sure how Werner works with trainees, but there are a lot of companies out there that will put a driver through orientation, but will then review the completed driver file when they finish training. Most of the time, those guys are hired, but sometimes they are not. Again, not sure how Werner works, but that is standard operating procedure for some training companies.

That's actually incorrect. If he didn't list it on the app, then technically they are within their rights to terminate him for falsification of employment app, even if he told them about it. Yeah, this one sounds pretty low-down, but the labor laws are going to be on Werner's side.

I don't disagree that the original poster got a raw deal, but some of it is on his shoulders. The big one is that if he was just a few hours short of finishing up training, why wouldn't he just shut his mouth and get it over with. My guess is, and I'll lay money that I'm pretty close to the mark, his training manager and/or driver trainers considered him difficult to work with, causing Werner to decide it was in their best interest to get rid of him. From there, it was a simple matter of going after the obvious.

Keep in mind, it's not in Werner's best interest to cut ties with a student driver over a measly $500. They'd get a lot more from a government training stipend to have him graduate and add that driver to the national driver pool.

I'm sure it feels very wrong to be considered a "trainee" who is receiving compensation for their labor time (although less than minimum wage) and not considered an employee.

I think a pretty easy way to determined if you are hired as an employee;

When you complete a W4 tax form for the company, you are on the payroll.

Trucking industry
 

I've said it before. If drivers dont stick together in some way we will continue to get screwed. Nothing will change. The well known truck driver crying and moaning will continue. Perhaps we deserve it. One upset driver is nothing for the industry to worry about. A organized group of 100,000 drivers singing the same tune will get some attention.

I'm certainly not holding my breath waiting for the day when we stick together. I agree the industry as it stands does suck, at least for drivers. I have found myself giving some very serious thought about what else I want to do outside of trucking. It used to be a little bit of fun, but not anymore.

kc0iv said:


BMiller said:
While I agree that we (Truck Drivers) have a hard time agreeing on anything. You here them disagreeing daily, especially on the CB (but generally write that off as garbage). But, the problem isnt that we disagree, because everybody seems to agree that we would have a much improved lifestlye if we had a Union. The key is exactly what BMiller said in the closing of the above quote, and that I believe and stated. "A organized group of 100,000 drivers singing the same tune will get some attention." We need organization, whether we agree or disagree about aspects of Truck Driving, whether its 100,000 drivers or 1 million. We have no organization.
How do we Unionize all the careers drivers? (Mostly a rhetoricale question.)

Sheep just out of curiosity who do you recruit for ?