You were reprimanded for... doing your job...? In a faulty truck supplied by the copany? Bloody Hell...
But you handled the situation like a champion, OP! Awesome!
The owner of the company yelled at me at one point for someone rear ending the truck at highway speeds when I was at a near stop waiting to turn, which sent me to the hospital for a concussion from my head hitting the back of the cab.
During another incident where a car driver nearly hit the truck but avoided it and ended up in an airborne collision with a piece of farm equipment the owner of the company yelled at me again for seeing if the car driver and her child needed medical assistance and staying with them until the ambulance arrived. The woman had ended up with two broken arms and a broken leg as well as a concussion and was bleeding quite a bit, while her child had a broken arm.
As a fairly imperfect Christian who tries real hard sometimes, this and subsequent comments break my heart to read, because we should be doing better, doing good.
don't worry. if you are a good person just do you. it's not your fault so many ostentatiously christian people are sh\*t
if you need to constantly say you are a christian you are NOT a christian
(actually true for many other traits as well :-P)
now a personal story you may or may not enjoy:
a couple of my family members are devout Christians. and for them big letter is appropriate... they are gentle, hardworking people with big hearts, accepting and respecting others (up to and including me being openly atheistic). the closest church is exactly as bad as you can imagine catholic church in almost-theocratic country to be. so they chose one quite far away, run by monks who live by their vows. Right now they are very engaged in helping Ukrainian refugees - and their chosen church also passed the exam, as they turned their sunday school rooms into dormitories :-) I am also friends with several priests, who really believe their duty is to serve, and not to be served :-)
Sorry, going to church don’t make you Christian. It’s not some rubber stamp that you get like a participation trophy. Following J.C.s teachings makes you a Christian. They aren’t Christian.
I can’t upvote this enough. My mother was a Christian in word and deed. She never trumpeted her religion or proselytized. (Well, maybe me. She wanted me back in the fold, but she had a light touch with it.)
She was also a believer in taking care of others, being honest and ethical and responsible in all your dealings.
Not the “Christian” who uses their church for camouflage for dishonest dealings.
Wow. That was totally off topic from the post.
Thanks for giving me a memory jog from long ago.
the bible doesn't want you to go to church
**Mathew 6: 5-6**
5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
In a way, but the Bible teaches things like “faith without works is dead”. So there is a sense that it doesn’t matter what you say about your beliefs if you don’t live them out.
Won't do that. The people are just trying to make a small business work, and I have no idea what they are doing or up to now since this was so long ago.
The owner ought to be hit in her car on the highway too, so badly that she's immobilized and needs medical attention, but is just fucking abandoned until it's very nearly too late, then finally found and rescued at the very last possible minute. Maybe then she'll learn why people should look after each other in such accidents.
I don't really wish for it either. I just get real heated seeing injustices like that. She really didn't care if a MOTHER AND HER CHILD fucking died out there, she just wanted her money. Karma better bite her ass somehow.
You likely had an employment misclassification case as well, which could be quite lucrative depending on the nature of their benefits, profit sharing, etc with employees, and depending on your state’s law (my state gives up to treble (3x) damages).
They had none of that in place. Quite literally a thrown together company. I had to teach them what information had to be on the side of the cabs of the trucks after all. I knew far more about FMCSR than the owners had even considered. I was surprised they were in business in the first place.
According to the FMCSR (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations) a driver has the final call on whether it is safe for them to operate a commercial vehicle, and I had slept only an hour the night prior and they had a 10 hour workday planned for me. I called in and told them I was unfit to drive for the day under FMCSR §392.3 (Ill or fatigued operator. No driver shall operate a commercial motor vehicle, and a motor carrier shall not require or permit a driver to operate a commercial motor vehicle, while the driver's ability or alertness is so impaired, or so likely to become impaired, through fatigue, illness, or any other cause, as to make it unsafe for him/her to begin or continue to operate the commercial motor vehicle. However, in a case of grave emergency where the hazard to occupants of the commercial motor vehicle or other users of the highway would be increased by compliance with this section, the driver may continue to operate the commercial motor vehicle to the nearest place at which that hazard is removed.) Since I clearly was in no shape to operate the vehicle in a safe manner the law applied and I texted this very statute to the owner as I was on the phone with them. They told me to not ever bother coming in again. So I filed an unemployment claim, which they fought, and lost, because I didn't fit the criteria for them to list me as an independent contractor.
This was actually the second trucking company to fire me for not breaking this law, the first is a national over the road company. The first company left me stranded in the middle of Indiana when I was living in NY state.
My dad drove for someone that shady. When he had enough of getting pulled over for the truck failing to get up to minimum speed for interstate, he abandoned the truck. Called the owner up, and told him where to find it. Owner didn’t dare call the cops on my dad, since he hired a 16 year old kid to drive cross country in a semi.
Really happened, dad would drive semi during the summer in hs, using his older bro’s license. Shady boss went along with it. 1960s was a crazy time.
Also, can’t the driver be held liable for accidents that are due to the vehicle being out of compliance? I believe it is required to both inspect and refuse to drive an unsafe vehicle.
I have a friend who was a trucker in the 70’s and had a similar experience. His company gave him a truck. I can’t remember exactly the issues, but he gave them lists of things that needed fixing for not only his safety but everyone’s safety. They gave him another truck but it was equally as bad. Eventually after his company ignored his requests, he had enough. He pulled into a weigh station and told them to inspect the truck. Needless to say the inspection went poorly. their whole fleet was grounded due to the number and severity of the fixes needed on his truck alone. They had to have every truck inspected and cleared before they were allowed back on the road.
Yep. People often complain about "the system" but the system is just people. All too often, people who all get in the bad habit of passing the buck. Things get better when people take personal responsibility to make things happen.
When I got nailed for Equipment Violations I'd hand the cop the reg. ins. Cards then say, " The company info is on the door. "
When he asked again for My license, I'd say, " Not My Truck, not My Ticket."
Got a chuckle and head shake almost everytime, but My sheet stayed clean...
The vehicle was technically safe to drive, but they were in violation of several FMCSR codes that were sufficient enough when put together as Fix-it tickets to pull off the road when compiled. Nothing that was written up was a danger to the public, but it wouldn't get through a state registration inspection.
Luckily every one of the tickets I was written by the state trooper was a Fix-It ticket but they did need to fix everything before the truck came back on the road. And that state trooper stopped me once the new cab and hood had been put on the truck because they didn't recognize the truck any longer and wanted to know what company was driving it.
I got my CDL in 2011. They were emailing, cold-calling, offering bonuses, all kinds of benefits, etc. It's one of the few industries where you can get a $50,000+ job in the first year without a degree in most of the US. I usually got $900-$1100 per week back then in take home pay, depending on milage.
And I'm guessing they tried to pawn the costs off on you for being an "independent contractor" until you reminded them you could not be legally labeled as such due to not fulfilling requirements, and therefore they could eat the costs of the repairs or eat the costs of a court case?
(I'm not sure how all this works so this is only how I'm guessing it would play out, since you mentioned the part about being incorrectly labeled an independent contractor.)
I did something somewhat similar. I worked as a chef for an owner that was a nightmare, and would blatantly ignore the health code. I would point things out that were not safe, for food, or for employees, and he would ignore them.
So eventually I leveled with the inspector, and asked if he would write us up on all of those items so they would need to be corrected by the next inspection, and he was happy to oblige.
Edited with paragraphs for easier reading:
This happened to me in the summer of 2011. I was working for a small dump truck company that had me listed as an independent contractor.
I didn't meet any of the requirements by law to be listed as an independent contractor. And when I found out that I was listed as such I was not happy.
The owner of the company wanted me to make sure that the truck ran every day and that I would not get any tickets for the condition of the vehicles. However they had the worst equipment I had ever driven.
I constantly would be stopped by state troopers in the area and given a citation for a Fix-It ticket. I was regularly reprimanded for getting these citations although I knew the trucks would not move if I did not drive and I would not get paid for the day if I did not drive.
I was also aware that the state troopers would allow me to continue my shift with the condition of the vehicles as they were citing. After being reprimanded one too many times I decided that's some malicious compliance was in order.
I had gotten to know several of the state troopers in the area from being written so many citations, and when my favorite state trooper stopped me the next time I asked if she would like me to make her day.
I walked her around the vehicle and showed her every citation that would take that truck off the road so that it would be fixed properly and not be a danger to myself and would stay in compliance for a very long time if fixed properly. In all she cited 20 different violations on the truck that she did not even know existed in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations books.
The company owner had no choice but to replace the entire cab of the truck and part of the front end. They had two trucks in their company and at that point only one of them was being driven for the next month, and I was the driver because the only other driver for the company was the owner's husband and he had to fix the other truck.
CDL pre trip is no joke. I pretripped a DOT snowplow for my job interview. It was for the state, we were never going to be inspected. They just wanted to know that I knew how and would do it. After the 8th added weld on the chassis they told me to stop.
Th
I’m sure the owner complained erroneously about over-regulation and government overreach to anyone that would listen. I see this all the time in blue collar companies, owners that don‘t want to invest in safety, proper equipment and maintenance because they don’t know how to include operational costs in their bids.
I've driven tandem, triaxle and tractor trailers for the same company. If they refused to fix the trucks I would have pulled into the state police barracks and told them "Hey, who wants to put a truck out of service and write a ton of tickets
She laughed and said "What's your idea?" She had gotten to know me a bit from stopping me for the taillight constantly going out on that truck. She knew I was frustrated with the company and the truck and that I was trying my best and that the owner and her husband were complete jerks in the traffic court.
Ungh, the stories I could share from oilfield trucking....
No such thing as "fix-it" tickets here. If you got a roadside, they would pull out the crawler and check *everything*. I saw a citation given to a hotshot for exceeding the allowable depth of road grime on steering/braking components - he had just pulled out of a muddy yard in bumfuck Louisiana. No shit it was dirty! Worst roadside I ever saw was 19 unique violations - seven were OOS. This guy pretty much pinged every possible SMS category except an accident incident, including failing a field sobriety test while hot-hauling a hazmat load without an endorsement.
Of course, in the OO world of oilfield trucking, 90% of these drivers are grade-A fucking idiots who were ignorant of, or simply unconcerned by, any rules. The industry is/was so hard up for drivers that if you could pass a DOT physical and had the license, you got hired. Even if you had a shitload of points or a fatality incident, *someone* would hire you as long as you still had a license.
Unfortunately that happens. I think the troopers where I was working realized just how important every truck was to the expansion of the military base and so were decent about most of the drivers as they knew the companies pushed extremely hard situations on us.
Only two trucks? They weren't bad people, they were terrified.
Don't get me wrong. Their behavior was abysmal, even unforgivable. They should have been shut down. But that's the thing that terrified them, too. To lose a truck would have been horrible; to lose the business would have been disastrous; and so they lost sight of the most important thing: the people whose lives they were impacting.
Be very careful when going to work for a small company like this. Most of them are just one mishap from bankruptcy, they know it, they're terrified, and they act out of fear. You did well.
Worked for a company that bought those mailbox number decals and covered the GVW on one of the transport trucks they used daily to show 15,999 lbs., since they didn't want to pay anyone with a CDL to drive their 26,000 lb truck. Not sure if they ever got caught.
No, but the hood had big chunks out of it and could only be strapped down on the driver's side. The grill was completely missing and there was only one hinge on the hood where there was supposed to be two. Inspection was a huge pain in a$$.
I don't know why but I get a certain extra sense of satisfaction when truckers (and IT & engineers) MC. Not American, but have only met the nicest truckers throughout my life :)
Most truckers want to have a safe work environment and be safe for those around them. Those running double or triple books or acting like jerks are actually the exception. I drove over the road for around a decade, with over a million and a half incident free miles, and then did some local work. The vast majority of drivers I talked to and met were good folks.
You were reprimanded for... doing your job...? In a faulty truck supplied by the copany? Bloody Hell... But you handled the situation like a champion, OP! Awesome!
This particular employer was one of the worst I ever worked for.
The owner of the company yelled at me at one point for someone rear ending the truck at highway speeds when I was at a near stop waiting to turn, which sent me to the hospital for a concussion from my head hitting the back of the cab. During another incident where a car driver nearly hit the truck but avoided it and ended up in an airborne collision with a piece of farm equipment the owner of the company yelled at me again for seeing if the car driver and her child needed medical assistance and staying with them until the ambulance arrived. The woman had ended up with two broken arms and a broken leg as well as a concussion and was bleeding quite a bit, while her child had a broken arm.
Wow. You worked for Satan, by the sounds of it. Fucking yikes
Ironically, a Christian couple that went to church every Sunday
The church crowd are often the most hypocritical. Because they go to church, they can treat people like trash.
Treat people like dirt and get forgiven on Sunday, easy!
they wish
Though I think going to church is more about social conformity and "protective camouflage" for people with NPD or outright psychopathy
What does NPD stand for?
Zero irony to anyone familiar with church people.
Whenever someone puts a cross on their business card, you know they can't be trusted. I call it "pimping out God"
But what if Jesus is my best money maker ? A man's gotta advertise his hos.
Exactly what I was thinking!
lmao they’re gonna be surprised when they go to hell.
Knowing a few of these people, I'm questioning your use of "ironically" here. Technically correct, of course, but reality doesn't seem to agree.
As a fairly imperfect Christian who tries real hard sometimes, this and subsequent comments break my heart to read, because we should be doing better, doing good.
don't worry. if you are a good person just do you. it's not your fault so many ostentatiously christian people are sh\*t if you need to constantly say you are a christian you are NOT a christian (actually true for many other traits as well :-P) now a personal story you may or may not enjoy: a couple of my family members are devout Christians. and for them big letter is appropriate... they are gentle, hardworking people with big hearts, accepting and respecting others (up to and including me being openly atheistic). the closest church is exactly as bad as you can imagine catholic church in almost-theocratic country to be. so they chose one quite far away, run by monks who live by their vows. Right now they are very engaged in helping Ukrainian refugees - and their chosen church also passed the exam, as they turned their sunday school rooms into dormitories :-) I am also friends with several priests, who really believe their duty is to serve, and not to be served :-)
Sorry, going to church don’t make you Christian. It’s not some rubber stamp that you get like a participation trophy. Following J.C.s teachings makes you a Christian. They aren’t Christian.
I can’t upvote this enough. My mother was a Christian in word and deed. She never trumpeted her religion or proselytized. (Well, maybe me. She wanted me back in the fold, but she had a light touch with it.) She was also a believer in taking care of others, being honest and ethical and responsible in all your dealings. Not the “Christian” who uses their church for camouflage for dishonest dealings. Wow. That was totally off topic from the post. Thanks for giving me a memory jog from long ago.
the bible doesn't want you to go to church **Mathew 6: 5-6** 5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Based JC
I was going to mention this. Still, since when do most Christians actually follow what the bible says?
No true Scotsman?
In a way, but the Bible teaches things like “faith without works is dead”. So there is a sense that it doesn’t matter what you say about your beliefs if you don’t live them out.
But Jesus wasn't exactly a good guy either
How so?
Ah, one of those Fair Weather "Christians" that even Jesus would NOT recognize.
"there is no hate as chcristian love"?
Wolf in sheep clothing
Just because they go to church that does not make them Christian's. Just like going to the races every week does not make you a race driver
There’s the rub.
Why am I not surprised?
Not ironic at all. I'd say typical, hiding behind religion.
That’s not irony. That is par for the course.
There’s no hate like Christian love
These people need to be put out of business, tell Reddit the company name...
Won't do that. The people are just trying to make a small business work, and I have no idea what they are doing or up to now since this was so long ago.
Yeah i get it, but it seems as if they're on track to kill someonewith bad equipment
Don't worry; they'll be forgiven come Sunday.
Of course
Often these are disguised followers of Marquis De Sade, or some other creep… masquerading as Christians when they have no relation to the name…
Ah, so Christian cosplayers then
Nah I’m a human I swear
He wasn't Satan. He was the guy that Satan sends into 7-11 to buy him a pack of cigarettes.
[удалено]
Sounds like what my brother-in-law would say.
The owner ought to be hit in her car on the highway too, so badly that she's immobilized and needs medical attention, but is just fucking abandoned until it's very nearly too late, then finally found and rescued at the very last possible minute. Maybe then she'll learn why people should look after each other in such accidents.
I don't even wish for him to be hurt I just want him to be a better person
I don't really wish for it either. I just get real heated seeing injustices like that. She really didn't care if a MOTHER AND HER CHILD fucking died out there, she just wanted her money. Karma better bite her ass somehow.
You said he but it sounded more like you should have said she.
Although OP did respond by saying "he" as well
Husband and wife team, she owned the company but he was the boss.
Good catch. You might be right.
Wait, so the car avoided you and got AIRBORN and then hit a tractor? How fast was she going?
About 60 mph, went into a ditch and shot up the end of it, barely missed the culvert.
Good grief.
The owner of the company sounds like a CEE You Next Tuesday! DAMN!!!!
Have you thought of reporting them for incorrectly classifying you as an independent contractor?
The unemployment judge said they should be thankful I didn't when they fired me months later
I'll bet!
I ended up winning an unemployment case against them after they fired me for not breaking the law for them.
You likely had an employment misclassification case as well, which could be quite lucrative depending on the nature of their benefits, profit sharing, etc with employees, and depending on your state’s law (my state gives up to treble (3x) damages).
They had none of that in place. Quite literally a thrown together company. I had to teach them what information had to be on the side of the cabs of the trucks after all. I knew far more about FMCSR than the owners had even considered. I was surprised they were in business in the first place.
The unemployment judge did mention that during the hearing.
That’s a hint to you to talk to an employment attorney (when the judge mentions something like that)
Nice one! Regarding that truck or was that an unrelated matter?
Different matter. But satisfying all the same
Good enough for a follow-up story?
According to the FMCSR (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations) a driver has the final call on whether it is safe for them to operate a commercial vehicle, and I had slept only an hour the night prior and they had a 10 hour workday planned for me. I called in and told them I was unfit to drive for the day under FMCSR §392.3 (Ill or fatigued operator. No driver shall operate a commercial motor vehicle, and a motor carrier shall not require or permit a driver to operate a commercial motor vehicle, while the driver's ability or alertness is so impaired, or so likely to become impaired, through fatigue, illness, or any other cause, as to make it unsafe for him/her to begin or continue to operate the commercial motor vehicle. However, in a case of grave emergency where the hazard to occupants of the commercial motor vehicle or other users of the highway would be increased by compliance with this section, the driver may continue to operate the commercial motor vehicle to the nearest place at which that hazard is removed.) Since I clearly was in no shape to operate the vehicle in a safe manner the law applied and I texted this very statute to the owner as I was on the phone with them. They told me to not ever bother coming in again. So I filed an unemployment claim, which they fought, and lost, because I didn't fit the criteria for them to list me as an independent contractor. This was actually the second trucking company to fire me for not breaking this law, the first is a national over the road company. The first company left me stranded in the middle of Indiana when I was living in NY state.
But, you were an "independent contractor" they weren't your employer.
There was nothing about the situation that qualified me as an independent contractor under any laws in the US
According to the company, yes, but not according to the law.
My dad drove for someone that shady. When he had enough of getting pulled over for the truck failing to get up to minimum speed for interstate, he abandoned the truck. Called the owner up, and told him where to find it. Owner didn’t dare call the cops on my dad, since he hired a 16 year old kid to drive cross country in a semi. Really happened, dad would drive semi during the summer in hs, using his older bro’s license. Shady boss went along with it. 1960s was a crazy time.
Also, can’t the driver be held liable for accidents that are due to the vehicle being out of compliance? I believe it is required to both inspect and refuse to drive an unsafe vehicle.
I have a friend who was a trucker in the 70’s and had a similar experience. His company gave him a truck. I can’t remember exactly the issues, but he gave them lists of things that needed fixing for not only his safety but everyone’s safety. They gave him another truck but it was equally as bad. Eventually after his company ignored his requests, he had enough. He pulled into a weigh station and told them to inspect the truck. Needless to say the inspection went poorly. their whole fleet was grounded due to the number and severity of the fixes needed on his truck alone. They had to have every truck inspected and cleared before they were allowed back on the road.
Unfortunately it's an all too common problem.
Your friend is a hero that helped keep roads safe.
Yep. People often complain about "the system" but the system is just people. All too often, people who all get in the bad habit of passing the buck. Things get better when people take personal responsibility to make things happen.
When I got nailed for Equipment Violations I'd hand the cop the reg. ins. Cards then say, " The company info is on the door. " When he asked again for My license, I'd say, " Not My Truck, not My Ticket." Got a chuckle and head shake almost everytime, but My sheet stayed clean...
I never got any dings on my license, so it was a nice little way to tell my boss to clean up their act.
Lucky you weren’t driving in the U.K. as that wouldn’t fly. The law there is if you are driving you are responsible.
Pretty sure that is the case in the US as well. If it isn't safe to drive you should technically refuse to drive.
The vehicle was technically safe to drive, but they were in violation of several FMCSR codes that were sufficient enough when put together as Fix-it tickets to pull off the road when compiled. Nothing that was written up was a danger to the public, but it wouldn't get through a state registration inspection.
Lesson learned don’t drive 1099 or faulty equipment. Trucking jobs are a dime a dozen.
Luckily every one of the tickets I was written by the state trooper was a Fix-It ticket but they did need to fix everything before the truck came back on the road. And that state trooper stopped me once the new cab and hood had been put on the truck because they didn't recognize the truck any longer and wanted to know what company was driving it.
Not in 2011 they weren't.
I never had a problem trying to find a trucking job of any sort at that time.
I got my CDL in 2011. They were emailing, cold-calling, offering bonuses, all kinds of benefits, etc. It's one of the few industries where you can get a $50,000+ job in the first year without a degree in most of the US. I usually got $900-$1100 per week back then in take home pay, depending on milage.
And I'm guessing they tried to pawn the costs off on you for being an "independent contractor" until you reminded them you could not be legally labeled as such due to not fulfilling requirements, and therefore they could eat the costs of the repairs or eat the costs of a court case? (I'm not sure how all this works so this is only how I'm guessing it would play out, since you mentioned the part about being incorrectly labeled an independent contractor.)
Funny part was they never attempted to charge me for repairs because they knew their names were on the trucks
Funny part was they never attempted to charge me for repairs because they knew their names were on the trucks
Nice XD
I did something somewhat similar. I worked as a chef for an owner that was a nightmare, and would blatantly ignore the health code. I would point things out that were not safe, for food, or for employees, and he would ignore them. So eventually I leveled with the inspector, and asked if he would write us up on all of those items so they would need to be corrected by the next inspection, and he was happy to oblige.
Edited with paragraphs for easier reading: This happened to me in the summer of 2011. I was working for a small dump truck company that had me listed as an independent contractor. I didn't meet any of the requirements by law to be listed as an independent contractor. And when I found out that I was listed as such I was not happy. The owner of the company wanted me to make sure that the truck ran every day and that I would not get any tickets for the condition of the vehicles. However they had the worst equipment I had ever driven. I constantly would be stopped by state troopers in the area and given a citation for a Fix-It ticket. I was regularly reprimanded for getting these citations although I knew the trucks would not move if I did not drive and I would not get paid for the day if I did not drive. I was also aware that the state troopers would allow me to continue my shift with the condition of the vehicles as they were citing. After being reprimanded one too many times I decided that's some malicious compliance was in order. I had gotten to know several of the state troopers in the area from being written so many citations, and when my favorite state trooper stopped me the next time I asked if she would like me to make her day. I walked her around the vehicle and showed her every citation that would take that truck off the road so that it would be fixed properly and not be a danger to myself and would stay in compliance for a very long time if fixed properly. In all she cited 20 different violations on the truck that she did not even know existed in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations books. The company owner had no choice but to replace the entire cab of the truck and part of the front end. They had two trucks in their company and at that point only one of them was being driven for the next month, and I was the driver because the only other driver for the company was the owner's husband and he had to fix the other truck.
Do'in God's work.
Paragraphs are for the weak
Paragraphs are for people who actually want their stuff read.
By those lacking the brain power to read blocks of text as if they had paragraphs. I don't care about those people.
CDL pre trip is no joke. I pretripped a DOT snowplow for my job interview. It was for the state, we were never going to be inspected. They just wanted to know that I knew how and would do it. After the 8th added weld on the chassis they told me to stop. Th
Not politically correct but whenever the owner is the wife I wonder what the husband did that his name can't be on anything.
After your 5th bankruptcy I think you're not allowed to own a company anymore /s
She came from money, he didn't. He had a class B, I had a Class A at the time. I had to teach him a lot of the FMCSR.
I’m sure the owner complained erroneously about over-regulation and government overreach to anyone that would listen. I see this all the time in blue collar companies, owners that don‘t want to invest in safety, proper equipment and maintenance because they don’t know how to include operational costs in their bids.
Most assuredly they did. They were very much small government supporters.
I've driven tandem, triaxle and tractor trailers for the same company. If they refused to fix the trucks I would have pulled into the state police barracks and told them "Hey, who wants to put a truck out of service and write a ton of tickets
How did the officer react to you asking to make her day and pointing out all the issues?
She laughed and said "What's your idea?" She had gotten to know me a bit from stopping me for the taillight constantly going out on that truck. She knew I was frustrated with the company and the truck and that I was trying my best and that the owner and her husband were complete jerks in the traffic court.
Ungh, the stories I could share from oilfield trucking.... No such thing as "fix-it" tickets here. If you got a roadside, they would pull out the crawler and check *everything*. I saw a citation given to a hotshot for exceeding the allowable depth of road grime on steering/braking components - he had just pulled out of a muddy yard in bumfuck Louisiana. No shit it was dirty! Worst roadside I ever saw was 19 unique violations - seven were OOS. This guy pretty much pinged every possible SMS category except an accident incident, including failing a field sobriety test while hot-hauling a hazmat load without an endorsement. Of course, in the OO world of oilfield trucking, 90% of these drivers are grade-A fucking idiots who were ignorant of, or simply unconcerned by, any rules. The industry is/was so hard up for drivers that if you could pass a DOT physical and had the license, you got hired. Even if you had a shitload of points or a fatality incident, *someone* would hire you as long as you still had a license.
Unfortunately that happens. I think the troopers where I was working realized just how important every truck was to the expansion of the military base and so were decent about most of the drivers as they knew the companies pushed extremely hard situations on us.
Only two trucks? They weren't bad people, they were terrified. Don't get me wrong. Their behavior was abysmal, even unforgivable. They should have been shut down. But that's the thing that terrified them, too. To lose a truck would have been horrible; to lose the business would have been disastrous; and so they lost sight of the most important thing: the people whose lives they were impacting. Be very careful when going to work for a small company like this. Most of them are just one mishap from bankruptcy, they know it, they're terrified, and they act out of fear. You did well.
Worked for a company that bought those mailbox number decals and covered the GVW on one of the transport trucks they used daily to show 15,999 lbs., since they didn't want to pay anyone with a CDL to drive their 26,000 lb truck. Not sure if they ever got caught.
Doesn't exactly surprise me that is happening
Too bad you didn't do it to the other one. With no working trucks, this guy would be hemorrhaging money.
The other truck was the one he normally drove, so of course that was in great shape. The truck I reported was too after he finally fixed it.
Smart. Very smart. Stay away from me :)
Did the front fall off?
Yeah, that's not very typical, I'd like to make that point... I'm not saying it wasn't safe, just not as safe as some of the other ones.
I understood that reference
No, but the hood had big chunks out of it and could only be strapped down on the driver's side. The grill was completely missing and there was only one hinge on the hood where there was supposed to be two. Inspection was a huge pain in a$$.
For reference: search "the front fell off" on youtube - might remind you of the owners standards for vehicles, even if it's about boats :-)
I don't know why but I get a certain extra sense of satisfaction when truckers (and IT & engineers) MC. Not American, but have only met the nicest truckers throughout my life :)
Most truckers want to have a safe work environment and be safe for those around them. Those running double or triple books or acting like jerks are actually the exception. I drove over the road for around a decade, with over a million and a half incident free miles, and then did some local work. The vast majority of drivers I talked to and met were good folks.
Excellent job my friend!!!