I am a 61 year old woman who was employed by usx for 3.5 yrs. I was in Charlotte, NC after delivering a load and dropping trailer. On Saturday, Sept. 7 I found out that my housemates had taken all of my belonging out of the house and hid them, including my '98 Mustang in a storage warehouse and would not tell me where they were. I called the police in Baton Rouge, La. And they could do nothing because I was not there to file charges.
Needless to say, I was frantic! They taunted me and told me I would find out where my things were when I got back to Arlington, TX since I no longer lived there.
I was extremely emotional and called safety and asked to put my PTA out until Monday morning so I could get myself calmed down so I could drive safely. Safety said that it was a good thing to shut down and I had done the right thing.
On Monday morning USX Safety called me and told me that I had been suspended for two weeks, (without pay) because I was not mentally capable of driving their equipment and to get my things off the truck immediately and ride a bus home. I could not do that because i have a little dog I love dearly and she could not ride on the bus. I had to rent a car. Cost me over $500 to get back to Arlington.
I spoke to DOT on three different occasions and they told me that what USX had done was illegal and that they had broken a Federal law by putting me off the truck for shutting down for safety reasons. According to DOT if a driver shuts down for safety, under no circumstances can a company come back and punish them. They told me that it was up to driver's discretion if he/she could drive and that David Jones in Safety was not qualified to make a medical decision as to my mental capability. They also said that I should have been sent to a doctor immediately for medical evalation and a doctor should have given USX a medical report before putting me off truck.
By not doing so, they broke the law.
USX has ended my career as a driver because of five so-called accidents. I have never had a moving violation, DOT reportable accident or even been late on a load. Three of these accidents are over three yrs old, but when I apply for a job and USX tells them I had five accidents while I was with them the companies automatically become disinterested in talking to me.
USX is the only company I have ever worked for, with the exception of 10 days with Eagle Motor Line and I had not driven a 10 speed since I got out of truck driving school and I was extreemly uncomfortable driving the truck. I can down-shift.
I can't even find a company who is willing to hire me and let me go out with a trainer for a month or so to get used to driving a standard shift.
I have since given up on driving a truck and am now working for a temp agency for $7.50 per hour. USX has completely distroyed my career as a truck driving, but I didn't help it either by going to work for a company who drove autoshifts. USX also tried to say I abandoned the truck and tried to charge me $500 but that has been straightened out.
They are a very unethical company and deserve anything they get. I tried to find an attorney but, I guess there just was enough money involved for them to want to help me. I was also turned down for unemployment by the state of Tennessee because I quit. Why would I want to stay with a company who would put me off a truck over 1200 miles away from my home. I know who was behind it and I had no choice but to quit because they were just going to make my life a living hell until I quit. This person is a driver liaison in Oklahoma City and now has my exroomate working at terminal and living with him. What does that say? He and I did not get along because he was always getting great runs for my roomate and I reported it to his boss.
He and my ex-roomate where also caught by upper management for his doing things for her such as three-way repowers so she did not loose here good runs.
At same time my miles dropped from 3,000 to 4,000 a week to $300 a day. That can be proved in USX payroll records.
The two of them where on my like white on rice.
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