What happened was that my dispatcher sent me information about a Pre-Plan, whereby I would end up likely getting very low miles for the day. Even though I would have been ready to roll mid-morning with 10 full hours HOS driving available, Instead of getting a good miles trip, I was to pick up a load much later in the day, go to a truckstop with it, and wait for another driver to pick it up and get the good miles for that load.
So I called the separate phone number for the dispatcher that specialized in auto parts loads, to ask him how long I'd have to wait (since my regular dispatcher was unable to tell me), and instead of simply telling the the wait time, he was peeved that I called for other than load acceptance, and hung up the phone on me. I immediately called my regular dispatcher, told him what happened, and asked if I should call the guy back. While I was doing this, the guy called my regular dispatcher's office, and apparently said I refused the load. My regular dispatcher heard this and said that he' didn't want to talk to me anymore, so I was taken off the load.
So a few days later, while I was at my terminal, the dispatcher supervisor called me in the office to tell me I was being let go because of that incident. Later that day, I called a driver's advocate type person at the company's main office to talk about the situation, at which time I was told that the company had "forced dispatch".
Well, never during orientation, nor during the 2 years I was with the company, was I EVER told that there was forced dispatch, especially for owner-operators.
The good news is, that my new company has NO FORCED DISPATCH, and it is in writing!!!
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