During February I looked real hard at several trucking companies in order to find one most appreciated by drivers. It took the better part of three weeks online and on the phone and I could find very little, if anything, negative about this company. So I applied and was hired. The recruiter told me in our phone conversations, but never in emails, that drivers in my region were averaging 2200 miles per week and I was promised 43 cents per mile.
Well the first week I ran 1500 miles. The second I was dispatched 1000 miles. The third didn't take place because after returning home on Friday afternoon I still hadn't received a trip by Monday evening. So I called my dispatcher and got voice-mail repeatedly. When I did receive a call from her she said there simply were no trips and I'd have to sit at my place until one came available. Long story short: no trip and I quit.
Subsequently I was told that I was required to return the truck to the Atlanta yard and I asked if I would be payed my hire-on rate of 43 cents per mile. The operations director told me he couldn't guarantee that but that he could guarantee a bus ticket home. So on top of defrauding me of my time driving plus motel and food costs during orientation I guess they thought I'd drive their truck for free too. I declined and they had to recover their truck.
When the recovery man came to my door he said, "What's the story with Marten, this is the third truck I've recovered this week?" Par for the course I guess. So Marten naturally held my last insult-paycheck-and put "quipment abandonment" on my DAC. Consequently my lawyer convinced them to chage it to "unauthorized location". This has nervertheless cost me work. Randy Marten actually wrote me a handwritten letter thanking me for the "abandoned truck".
Well he's very welcome! To avoid my fate whenever you apply to any trucking company use a recording device. If this is done for your own personal use it is legal according to the USDOT. Then if the recruiter lies to you you'll have recourse due to provable breach of verbal contract. Good luck!
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