After we had made several complaints about saftey issues, the Werner people must have decided we were a liability in reporting their numerous illegal and unsafe practices with the DOT. Werner called us in to a terminal from a dedicated account to split off a load (that never happens!) when we arrived they told both drivers we should report to their saftey office, they proceeded to test both drivers (husband wife team), this is another practice we believe is odd as random drug tests are usually conducted per employee# or social security #, not per truck occupants?
We thought nothing of it as neither of us is a drug or alcohol user, we are owner-operators and have huge debt obligations to survive. We have driven an average of 250,000 miles per year with Werner, we are in our 50's and are smart enough to know what is at stake in this business by breaking a rule regarding drugs or alcohol, we have been pulled into DOT scales where you can be tested any hour, day, week... It's a no brainer that we would be risking our livliehood to abuse drugs or alcohol.
We also had advance warning that we were to report to saftey by 7 hours, had we something to hide we would have never gone to that terminal, as owner operators that IS OUR PEROGATIVE!
3 days after these tests, we we sent a message to have my wife call Werner saftey in Omaha, she did and the person on the other end said she had failed a drug test, she was FIRED, and she had to immediately get off OUR TRUCK! Obviously we were in shock, and still are!
There is no way on god's green earth that my wife did the drugs they say she tested positive for cocaine, I swear on my childrens lives my wife did no drugs!
We IMMEDIATELY took her to have a test done upon this notification, that test came back NEGATIVE!
Werner knew we were unhappy with having to run with unsafe trailers, bad tires, broken tandems, etc.
We were constantly hauling loads that were heavier than the paperwork said on our dedicated account, we threatened to report this to the DOT if they would not stand up to the shipper and get this fixed.
They were also aware that we were contemplating leasing on with another company as they probably saw that we had applied at several other companies.
Werner falsified a drug test!!!
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