I started driving for this company in July of 08 and from the get go it seemed like it was a bad idea to work for this company but I needed a job so badly I put up with this company for almost half a year until I couldnt take it anymore. Everything was going good till I said enough is enough and wanted to run legal. Its a small company with only 10 trucks, I got the oldest one out the fleet. From the time I started, my truck was always in repair shops and breaking down. A few repair shops the companys business is no longer wanted there because of the unprofessionalism of my boss. Majority of my loads were late because of repair issues. Then I was yelled at, hung up on, cursed at, and even threatened.
I would get loads with impossible deadlines to get to legally. Alot of times the company would give me loads knowing I could not make it to my destination legally. Sometimes I would drive my legal hours and get yelled and cursed at because I shut down. Some nights only getting two to three hours of sleep. He was trying to squeeze every load he could out of me so HE can make money. I was only offered. 30 cpm with nearly 5 years experience but like I said before, I needed work. I would get called into weigh stations all the time and get inspections done on the truck and would recieve violations. I would even write up these repairs when I got back to the yard. I would recieve a couple of days off and when it was time to go back out agian, it wasnt fixed.
Some of the problems were the right/left blinker and 4ways didnt work, winshield wipers, and there were so many leaks that I constantly had to fill it up with oil and power steering fluid. The one that topped it all off was the heat.in the summer the air wasnt working. I had been asking for so long to get the blower motor fixed or whatever the problem was it became a heat issue. With no heat in the truck it was very uncomfortable to drive. My windows was frost up and I would have to crack the window to keep it from doing this. Sometimes it would even ice up and I had to scrape ice off the inside of the window.
Now keep in mind, this is where I also live for two to three weeks at a time. The heated mirrors did not work so those would ice up as well. ALot of it could be because the company had a 19 year old boy going to college for desiel mechanics so maybe thats why alot of the stuff wasnt getting fixed. I was not getting paid for all my trips as I noticed that the checks were getting smaller and smaller and some trips were not even on there. The last straw was when I was picking up a load in Idaho of apples and I had a dry box and was instructed to buy a space heater for the trailer. First, I wasnt comfortable doing this because I had a drybox pulling parishables, Second, thats a big fire hazard as well as no ventilation in the back of the trailer.
I did what was asked of me and still got yelled and cussed at. So I decided I had had enough and told my boss that I was bringing the truck back to the yard. I drove back and parked the truck in the yard. I was charged 250.00 for quitting and 123.00 for my drug test and physical. Is that legal? Alot of my paychecks came up shorter then what they were suppose to be. The company did not offer direct deposit so the checks were sent in the mail but would take anywhere from 3 to 5 days sometimes to travel 10 miles. All this happened right before the holidays so its kinda sucks because now I dont have a job but I am happy to be away from that comapny. I didnt want to quit because I just got married and me and my wife just got a home but I couldnt take the yelling, cursing, threats, lack of sleep, stress, and driving with no heat, I really felt I had no choice. Happy Holidays and a Happy New Years to all.
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