Its been a while since Ive had an extended rant, but here goes. It involves a particular segment of the transportation industry and how some of the companies take advantage of those just entering the profession. My favorite football player, looking for steady, long term employment signed on with a particular truck driving school and was sponsored by a carrier based out of Tonitown, AR. In exchange for a year of indentured servant hood, they would sponsor him through school and provide employment once he had completed school, both the initial training and their training. Two weeks with a mentor(trainer) and then an upgrade to a full fledged rookie driver is their modus operandi. They then are placed with another driver (team) and are set out on the unsuspecting public. As his appointed team partner was yet to be upgraded, his first week was solo. It could be described best as a disaster. Not having an in truck GPS receiver and having only that which was in his cellphone did not fare well for him Lost? In a word yes. He was sent up across the Red River to Ada, OK to some black hole of an auto parts supplier. He escaped there only to blow two tires pulling out of the gate because the shipper left sharp metal objects extended out from one of the gate posts of a very narrow gate. The road service explained that he was out there around 8-9 times per week replacing tires. If that wasnt enough, not being familiar with the area, he took a wrong turn and having no place to turn around (theres a lot of that in rural OK) he headed the opposite direction from whence he came. Ok, stuff happens. Then, finally headed south, he arrived in Sherman, Tx (not his destination) and his truck lays down on him. He was stuck in Sherman for two days with a truck with no air conditioner (This was on a Thursday evening). The truck was eased into the local dealership only for him to be told the truck would not be looked at until Monday. So hes close enough that Mom retrieves him for the weekend. The dealer fumbles around and gets the truck running on Monday (Mind you, this is week one). The second week follows a similar path. The truck is running (sorta). However, it winds up in the shop of the local (Irving, TX) terminal facility after delivering a local load. Hmm,this seems familiar. Again, the truck is down for two days and no spare truck to keep him running. One begins to sense a trend here. No miles, no money. After a bit, the favorite newbie, does finally make contact with the local shop. They give him a computer printout (the truck computer) of what is wrong with the truck. Still down but at least they can get to the problem. Finally back on the road, the favorite newbie goes and picks up his team partner and they are on the road again. Horse Cave Kentucky is the destination. It is near where the Bowtie fast cars are manufactured. At the driver switch (yes, they have to change out after a certain amount of time) the in cab communications device known as Qualcomm refuses to function. Oy vey! Their trying to get it to work costs them almost an hour and makes them late. Trying to get it to work? Why should anything this company has or does work? Sense a trend here? Furthermore, those who dispatch seem woefully ignorant on how to troubleshoot the system to bring it back to functionality. So the team goes old school. Communication by phone. Thats okay if their dispatch would respond within a short amount of time. However, it seems the drunk, disabled, deaf, blind, mute,or.... well, one could continue to speculate on but it is quite pointless. Sense a trend here? By the time the team returns to their home base in Irving, the favorite newbies team partner receives a call that his father is in extremely poor health and things arent looking too good for him. By the time they get their next dispatch (one or two days) the new team member decides to clean his goods out of the truck and leave his truck key. I guess enough was enough for him. The tale of woe continues, its at this point its about details. The trend has already been established and the employer is quite consistent in that trend. The trend is-if we want you to work we will tell you when and where. Otherwise, stay put and starve. We wont answer your phone calls, Qualcomm messages, signal fires, signal flares, morse code messages....well, the point is made. As observed, the trend is to give one dispatch and once the trip is completed the driver sits from one to three days before the next dispatch. This trend has had the predictable effect of creating a sour attitude and a lack of respect for those in the management of the company. Its as if the company is run by the Three Stooges and the Keystone Cops (Apologies to those too young to know that particular cast of characters). One final illustration of the above paragraph sums up how this company is run and why it is a very real possibility they may be short another driver (temporarily, of course). My favorite newbie was dispatched to Bloomington, IN or IL (not sure which) to an appliance mfgr warehouse to pick up a load. He arrives and that particular load has already been picked up. (we will assume other driver error for the moment). The shipper has another load going to.......Grand Prairie, Tx! The newbie was looking to go home anyway. (Some fiction about an aunt not doing well and needing to see her was the excuse proffered.) The newbie contacts dispatch and informs them of the situation. No response, none, zero, zilch, nada. So, wanting to be productive and home he takes the load. After he arrives at the destination, delivers the load, and heads to home base, he finally is dispatched to pick up the load. Mind you, this is after a days drive and a mandatory government nap (10 hours). Of course, all this turmoil is also reflected often by their customer base who, at times, seems quite unsatisfied with their service. Funny that. When I was growing up in this industry, it was pounded into my shiny head that the business was all about service and if our company didnt perform to specs, then someone else would happily take our business. It seems incomprehensible that a business can stay afloat when internal communications are that poor, employees and equipment are left sitting for days at a time not producing revenue, and their turn over rate is over 100%. That leads one to conclude that part of the company strategy is to keep the largest segment of the employee group at the lowest wage level possible and keep the revenue generation up by forcing employees to either starve or quit, leaving room for the next victim and the former employees on the hook for the money that the company spent on drivers training. It is safe to say that my lovely bride and I have spent as much or more than our favorite newbies employer in supporting him. Im just glad we werent having to buy fuel for the truck as well. I doubt that my little rant will change much, if anything, about my favorite newbies job circumstances. But if any of my acquaintances or those who might read this little missive have aspirations of either starting a truck driving career or entering the truck load segment of said industry I would strongly encourage them to avoid that truckload company based in Tonitown, AR. (One can google businesses in Tonitown and find out the name of the company.) They are as some would say out west-All Hat, No Cattle.
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 15:26:37 +0000
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