I went to this company after being promised a new truck and lots of miles to run. Well the trucks were newer but that's as far as it went.
I drove from Dallas to Springfield, Mo Tuesday with the last of the money I had. I went through orientation on Wed. The 23rd of Sept. I was given my fleet managers number at approx 1:30pm and told to call ad get a load. There was a lie of guys ahead of me so I grabbed a soda and waited outside. I saw quite a few trucks and reefers running so I thought I would be out soon.
NOT! I called my fleet manager Roger and he said I was a little late for the Kingman relay; I wasn't on a relay that's for guys who live within an hour of the terminal! When I finally got him straight he told me to call him back Friday afternoon! I told him I lived in Dallas and spent the LAST of my money getting here. He said give him 10 minutes and call back
An hour and 4 calls later he put me in a truck and told me my trailer would be in at 12am Thursday morning for a 1am Friday morning delivery in Chicago. So I got some sleep. 12am no truck and it didn't show up until 9am. I drove over and hooked up to the trailer drove it to the "road control" line where you get the truck checked out and get bills of lading for the load.
Then I was told the trailer had to be serviced and inspected and needed two new tires. This took all morning ad the first quarter of the afternoon. As they were getting done Roger messaged me ad told me I would have to switch trucks mine had to run out west. I didn't have too much stuff so I went to fid the outer truck and lo and behold it had someone else's property in it!
I wasn't allowed in until the shop people cleaned it out. They foreman told me to go tell his asst. The assistant told me when his boss tells him to do it then he will clean it out. I finally got someone to clean it out around 2pm I got my stuff loaded ad was on the road by 3pm. Now look at my schedule. I slept from 5pm wed until 12am Thursday then I was awake and couldn't go back to sleep. I had been up for 15 hours ad I was expected to run another 11 hours!
Not only is this unsafe it violates federal law! I drove until 930pm 30 miles into Illinois and passed out at a rest area. Now federal law mandates 10 hours off duty or in the sleeper I only took 7 because I was threatened with dismissal. I delivered by 9am drove 20 miles reloaded for Denver Colorado 2 days later delivery. I then got a message to come back to Springfield I asked why I wasn't delivering the load? I got no answer.
One hour later I was messaged to call Rodger ad he told me that he was going to have to team me with another driver because I told him I wouldn't be back to Springfield until noon on Saturday. I told him the reason was because I had logged the time from 9am Thursday until I left as On-duty not driving, and he told me not to log it like that to log it off duty. That is a violation of the federal Hours of Service rules.
They don't care how tired you are or how much you lie on your logs or how many log books you run as long as you are making them money.
Christopher
Kennedale, Texas
U.S.A.
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