Hired my brother to cover for me while I have my baby and now I'm having regrets, but being due any day now I don't think I can handle hiring someone else right now.. Ugh.. So let me vent.

First week in the truck he bashes my bumper in and dosen't tell me about it. I ask him what happened, he says the only place he could dump required him to drive into a gravel pile. Umm hello, common sense??!! I said ok, well, in the future if you have to dump and it would cause damage to the truck then DO NOT DO IT. Geeze.

I find out truck got stuck on a job site and had to be pulled out with chains. I still don't know the details about it, since he won't tell me and I had to hear it from my broker. Other drivers tell me he goes into places with my truck and dosen't check to be sure that he can get the truck out of there. Again, common sense owns my brother I guess. I've never took my rig ANYWHERE without being sure it can get back out of there, I just don't get why he can't do the same??

Other drivers tell me he hot rods on the job sites and not to be suprised if he drops my driveline. He drove ok when I was road testing him, but shoot, maybe thats because I was with him. Makes me worry that maybe every employee would be that way once "let out on their own"..

I tell him he has to call in to the dispatcher to get his dispatches. He tells me he won't do it. I'm all "hello, going to be having a baby soon, last thing on my mind when I am in labor will be to get your f-ing dispatch".. :roll:

Won't fill out his time sheets or track gallons of fuel purchased. I told him if he wants paid he better bedoing tat.. See what happens.. Then today tells me his wife has to go out with him on saturdays now. This pisses me off. Its my god damn truck, and I know she will hold him up, but he won't listen to me. So after arguring about it I tell him fine, she can go out but if I hear that truck is held up for ANY reason you and her are both out of it. Now I'm thinking of telling him my insurance will not allow passengers, I really don't want her in my truck. She is the kind of woman who has to "wash herself" after using the rest room, and takes about 20 minutes doing so. I am sure she won't be willing to use the port o pottys on the job sites and they way they bicker, I just see this as a huge red flag..

Oh, yeah, he calls me the other day. Everyone turned right but I went straight, where do I go? HELLO!!! I AM NOT WITH YOU I DON'T KNOW WHERE THE FACK YOU ARE!!! Seriously I wonder how he survived over the road for the past year. We tell him things over and over again and he dosen't get it. Like, keep the freaking CB on so you know where to go.. Yet he always has it off.. UGH.

Last bitch here.. Truck was getting 6mpg, I was able to get my fuel info from him once so far (although he has filled up 6 or so times) and it was down to 5mpg. I can't figure out what the deal is because he won't track the gallons purchased and miles driven as I asked him too..

So I learned that holding your employees hand sucks. Hiring family sucks. Trusting someone else with your beautiful truck sucks.

I wish I could replace him, but like I said, I'm due anytime now and really worry that the "new driver" would treat my truck badly and be all retarded like on me. When I was a company driver I never abused the truck, but from what I have hear its rare to find one who wont abuse your truck, most just don't give a darn.. So its a tough call, do I let it ride and pray my truck makes it through this, do I hire someone else and take the cahnce they could be the sae or worse, or do I cut it short and jip my baby of mommy time and go back to work after 6 weeks..

Mostly I just wanted to vent and figured maybe some of you would get a laugh outta my troubles.. It is funny, just not when your the one living it.. (sigh)

[Kranky]

In my opinion, the major mistake here was that you hired a family member.

Your relationship with your brother may never be the same again after this saga plays out.

There are plenty of good conscientious drivers out there, I had employees working for me for years, but they were not family members, so I was free to keep good employees and let poor ones go based on their performance or lack thereof, not because they were relatives or not.

I wish you well, and remember - the baby is more important.

[Orangetxguy]

Find another driver and fire your Brother. It will be the best thing you can do for you. Otherwise, your gonna lose money big time..and maybe that truck.

At least you have a built in shelve to sit your laptop on while you type at least until you deliver. Look on the bright side

[LilBit]

Mention to him insurance won't cover riders, or the job site won't allow passengers just in case something was to happen on their property, let him know you got the call from the broker about the incident and now you have to be extra careful with the paperwork cause they are monitoring you...whether they really are or not, hoping things straighten out there for ya and make sure to take care of you and not get too stressed out too, baby needs ya

[GMAN]

Floored, sometimes it is best to cut you losses. My insurance company will not cover passengers. Most won't. If he won't give you the fuel information you need, I would cut his fuel card off, if you gave him one. I would also hold his pay until you get ALL of your paperwork. I have been through some of what you are going through with your brother. It is difficult to find a good driver who will take care of your equipment. If you withhold his pay until he gives you everything you need, then he will either start to shape up or find something else to do. In either case, he will need to do his paperwork to get paid. No company will put up with not having all the paperwork. If he is abusing your truck, then it may not be worth it to keep him in the truck. I think that I would have him pay for the bumper if he damaged it. Once he sees that he will have to pay for his abuse, he may change his attitude. Sometimes it is cheaper to let a truck sit than have an abusive driver in it. If you have to spend all of your money repairing a truck because of driver abuse, then why pay someone to tear up your equipment?

Originally Posted by Splitshifter

Your relationship with your brother may never be the same again after this saga plays out.

We have never been close, no worries there.

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What I have been wondering (please tell me what you would do!) is..

How long do you give someone to get their act together before you let them go?

When I followed him "under cover" I didn't notice anything bad, but my my fellow O/O's at the company tell me he is beating my truck up (and I saw my bumper so I know he hasnt been super careful). But do I trust what the others say who are out with him daily, or wait to catch him in the act? Biggest complaints from my broker and other drivers is he goes to fast on the job sites and in the yard, I talked with him about that and he says he has slowed down a lot but I have yet to go spy on him to check it out for myself. I hate having to follow someone around while they are in my truck, but sadly I think I'll have to do that with anyone I hire.

I'm not afraid to fire him or anyone else, but I want to be fair. He's been a OTR driver so this is new to him, but I just don't know how long to give him and if I should go off of someone elses word on his performance issues or wait and catch him in the act myself. I did decide that there is no way his wife can go to work with him, I just know it will cause problems, and I will inform him of this immedately (he may quit on me after that, see what happens, he has a real bad attitude most the time twards me).

Anyone got "tips" that I can use when interviewing the next batch of guys to help me find someone responsible and sane?? lol

[bikerboy]

I would get back to your truck as fast as possible.

I know i could never trust anyone to drive a truck that i owned!

[GMAN]

When I hire a new driver I lay out in black and white what I expect of him and what he can expect from me. I believe in addressing problems straight on. If you have problems or concerns about him, then you need to sit down with him and tell him that his behavior is not acceptable. I believe in giving people the benefit of a doubt, but when several people tell me about problems with a particular driver, then I must assume that the driver has a problem. If your brother is not taking care of your equipment, then I would not keep him in the truck. You are the employer. You set the rules. If he cannot comply with what you want, then he needs to find something else to do. I would rather my truck sit than have someone in it who is tearing it up.

When I hired him I was very clear (or so I thought) on what I expected (take care of the truck, keep it clean, do your paperwork, take your time on the job and driving, work saturdays if needed, no passengers). Every day on the job over the past two weeks, at least one person has told him to slow down on a daily basis (and he is paid by the hour, so why the rush?!).

I had a talk with him yesterday about all of this. He tells me he gets it and its going a lot better, so I guess Ill be following the truck this week and have others keep a close eye on him so I can make my decision. If its still not working by Friday I'll park the truck and find someone else. We are moving into prime money making season right now, I need that thing moving daily, and a major part of doing just that is having someone driving it that treats the truck with care.

I hate to jip my baby out of much needed mom time, and I also do not want to sell the business, so I'm praying this will all work out. If I manage things right (have a good employee during the day and I run at nights this summer), I can get my loan paid off this year and then if need be the truck can sit, although I'd rather its allways running and making me $$$