Hello everyone. I would first like to say that I am astounded of how many consumer complaints there already are on this website about the company that I am employed through. Regardless of such a fact, I feel I may have one of the worst stories yet. I will start from the beginning.
I began my career for Covenant Transport in July. I was promised great pay by my recruiter, and they were the first company to accept me based on a reckless driving on my driving record many years ago. Anyway, I went to orientation and their Hotel was a joke. The food they feed you, distributed by a company by the name of "5 star food service" is a joke. They give you very small portions of very questionable food. The hotel is infested with bugs and very ratty. The TV's have 3 channels and no remote control. Anyway I blew all that off saying to myself, I'm not here to stay in a nice Hotel, I'm here to make some money. I finally went out with my trainer about about 9 days. He seemed like a clean cut guy, truck was pretty nice and well taken care of. After a few days though, I found out that he wanted me to cut corners on the log, and I was hardly getting enough sleep to function. I felt like he was doing me a favor by stopping the truck to let me pee. His favorite catch phrase when he felt I was not working hard enough was "HAMMER DOWN" as if it were the army or something. I felt I was working pretty hard myself. He was very super critical of my driving and always talked about "ending up in a ditch" if I'm not careful. I also found out the pay was much less than the recruiter had promised me.
Anyway, I was 4 days away from finishing my training period, and sleeping in the bottom bunk of the sleeper berth, 30 minutes before it was time for me to wake up and take over the driving. I wake up to a loud slamming feeling in a state of shock. I look around and realize there is glass shards and twisted metal all around me. I was somehow on top of the header board that lines the top of the ceiling, and I was sitting in the center of the cab on my back. Something about my leg didn't feel right but I put it off for a few more seconds to analyze what had happened. I looked over to see my trainer and asked what happened, who was driving. (I was still in shock) He said it was him, he was huddled over the steering wheel with broken glass all around him. I think he fell asleep at the wheel but he claims there was a hill and he was unable to see a traffic jam up ahead. He slammed into the back of another Semi at full speed. I then looked over to my leg and it was dark. I felt it with my hand and felt something hard on my knee. I thought, ok, a piece of plastic is stuck in my knee. I looked closer, it was my broken femur bone sticking through my skin. My hand was bloody and sticky and I yelled out in agony and disbelieve.
After all this I thought, ok, I go to the hospital, get healed up, and go home for a few weeks to heal I'm sure. This was in New Mexico. Boy was I wrong! They flew me to Chattanooga where they put me up in their Roach Motel again! I couldn't even sit up straight much less walk. I begged and begged Jackie Goullett, the lady in charge of workers compensation to let me go home for a few weeks to rest. She said, the insurance company wont allow it, you have to see our doctors and our therapists in our city, and you have to live here in TN while you heal. They wouldnt even let my visiting G/F stay in the Hotel room with me, and kept sending their driver to enforce it! The whole time I was in the Hotel I was not even allowed to eat the crappy food they serve there. I had to use my 66 and 1/3 average weekly TRAINING pay to eat fast food every day. I cried and begged and called the insurance adjuster and it took me over a week to get ahold of the right lawyer who finally called their bluff. I was finally able to go home after the most traumatic experience of my life. They were breaking 2 to 3 LAWS by not letting me go home.
Bottom line, this company does not give a crap about its employees and will do anything and everything, including ruin your life, to save a buck. Do not ever work for them.in fact, if there are any law makers or enforcers reading this, look into this company, they pressure you to fraudulently forge your logs to make more money and do not follow workers compensation laws. I doubt I will ever want to drive trucks again, much less team drive after this horrible, horrible, life experience. Thanks for reading.
0 comments