Absolutely the Best Trucking Jobs and Home Time in the Trucking Industry!

Recent Truck Driver Job Stories!

> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Help Please!!!!!!!!

Oh Boy where do I start! My husband and I decided to change careers
and we chose truck driving. We were not making any money in Florida. We
told the kids it will be for a year and then we can move into a new
home up north. We attended Road Master Truck driving school in
Orlando,FL for three weeks. During the last week of school the teachers walked
out, I was able to get my road test but my husband wasn't, no one to
give test.

I got my cdl and decided to wait to get job til he got his.
School told us would be the next week til thy could find another person to
test. Well, 2 weeks went by no test yet. So we contacted other
schools. CR England said they would test him and give him cdl without taking
coarse again.So we packed up and went to Salt Lake City,UT. After long
bus ride we were then told he had to go through whole coarse again. I
was so upset so I decided to get a job right away. I went with Gainey
Transportation in Dallas ,TX. I had FL CDL but I had to wait two weeks
> for a trainer.

Now with no money coming in still, kids used up all
our savings. I did my training on the truck in 2 1/2 weeks. I got my our
truck and started driving in Nov 18,2006. My husband then finished his
training with CR England and came to Gainey Transportation and
completed his training over the road. We joined together in December 2007.
Every time we asked for home time we never got approved. We were told we
were making $.42.and had per Diem too. We found out later that the
recruiter put his address on our checks. Some PO box in Dallas, TX. So he
would get credit for us. After 6 months with no home time. When we got
home I finally got copy of our paycheck. For past 6 months they only paid
us $.38cpm. I called company and they agreed it was mistake and would
fix it but would not give us back pay they owed us!!

After feeling so
cheated and such a corrupt company we decided to go with US Express.We
went to their orientation in NC.We worked for them for $.38cpm and
> took per Diem. Later we found out that company paid less for per
Diem and kept the difference. No one could give us straight answer. so we
kept working anyways because we could afford to change jobs again.We
stayed out for 6 weeks at a time. Well except for the total of 40 days in
break down from April til November. I figure we lost $20,000. We
managed to save a little money but not as much as we need to comfortably buy
a home and move.

Now, here we are, I went home to see kids and move
into home we are in middle of trying to buy in TN. While my husband is
staying on road with USxpress. He wants to change jobs. He is now making
$.30 to $.37 on sliding scale depending on length of run but they re
powered him on 2000 mile run 2 x's but kept him at $.30 cpm rate just not
right but what do we do???? Also we were told we would get money for
finding abandon trailer and if we recruited any one. We did both and
never got money for either.

T. Vasi

Another Truck Driver Story

I been truckin since 1988 and I love truckin, have been all over the
 US and some of Canada,I don't regret ever truckin just the crap I took
 early on when I started, they run a bunch of lies on you cause you
 don't know, I tell you its been an experience,all the things you said is so
 true and I hope if I win I won't have to deal with this any more, my
 ex wife raised 8 children cause I had to be out on the road, missed
 sports, events parent meetings, graduations, football games, cause of the
 lies I were told, now there grown with kids of there own, I have 20
 grand kids and still missing a lot of there functions,again I love truckin
 and don't really want to do anything else, I love being the master of
 this monster of a machine,I've had my share of close calls too but due
 to the things I've learned out here that's what pulled me through, many
 of long nights and days, weeks away from home, it takes a strong woman
 to put up with that kind of stuff and as you can see the one I had
  wasn't strong enough, we're still good friends but you know as well
 as I do what this type of work can do to a marriage, though I'm getting
 ready to try it again I hope you can grace me with the knowledge of
 your book to make the last of my years of truckin the best so thanks for
 giving me the opportunity. 
 
V. Hill

Horror Story

left a job that was paying approx .32 cents a mile before all the
 endless deductions of crap! my brother is also a truck driver, he ran
 into
 this guy were he parks his rig who was looking for a driver to take a
 dedicated run, I had a couple conversations with this guy, he sounded
 realistic and legitimate, he did not blow pide in the sky at me, so I
 left my pathetic .32 cpm job to make the promised $1100. weekly on the
 dedicated run. And the same old nightmare began:............
>    
>   There was not a dedicated run, first of all, he lost that months
 prior,so the first run he sent me out on was ok - of course it did not
 pay as promised, but I am flexible so since it was the first run , I
 decided to see where it goes. 
>    
>   The second run, a nightmare. Sent to Colorado with a load, no
 problem, then sat for 4 days and drove back empty (680 miles)  for no
 pay,
 because the truck owner lied, about being a broker and brokering his
 own
 loads, and he could NOT FIND A LOAD! 
>    
>   Third run, sent to texas, load goes with no promblem, the
 backhaul
 however, he sends me to Laredo Texas, loads my trailer with
 43Thoulsand
 poinds of toilet paper to be delivered to las vegas and only charges
 $1500 dollars, of which I make less than $300 dollars!!
>   again as promised is way far off from what is reality with this
 flakey guy. Not to mention, the trailer that I was pulling had bald
 tires,
 I lost 2 of them on the way back, and while comeing into New Mexico
 scales got pulled in for a paper check and he did not have credentials
 to
 run through nNew Mexico - sat there for 3 hours while his wife tried
 to figure out how to get the money to the scales to buy the proper
 trip
 permit. Between fixing the tires and permits down time and repairing
 the mud flap after the tires blew it cost me 15 hours of my time,
 again
 not paid for. 
>    
>   Once I arrived in Las Vegas unload the T.P. and call the truck
 owner, he wants me to sit in vegas untill he can find a load - which
 of
 course I refused to do at this point. This was on a Friday, pay day, 4
 days before christmas. Back at his yard I call his wife to hunt down
 my
 paycheck, she says I have no pay check coming this week according to
 the
 truck owner, her husband. I finally get a hold of him after he was
 missing for 4 days with a load of US mail, and he said I would have to
 go
 to the labor board becoause he was not going to pay me a dime, since
 the
 tires blew and the mud flaps were in disrepair, he would keep my check
 to repair his triler/truck!!!!!!!
>    
>   2 weeks after christmas, he decided to cut me a check, although
 he
 paid only 1/3 of what I was owed, and included on paper an "asshole"
 charge of $100 beacuse I was upset when he did not pay me on pay day
 as
 promised, and questioned the only other driver he had about weather or
 not this was normal behavior, he found out that I spoke to that driver
 and charged me and asshole charge!!!!
>    
>   This is the DARK side of trucking. SO here I am, tons of
 experience
 (25 yrs) afraid to get into another truck and be treated worse than I
 would treat an rabbid animal  and paid the same way.......... out of
 work, family of 5 totally disgusted. 
>    
>   Sincerley, 
>    
>   An out of work truck driver 
>   R. Jones

Another Wonderful Trucking Story

In 2003, I joined my now husband in the truck.  He was an
 owner-operator driving for a good company.  We drove together as owner operators
 for 1.5 years before giving it up because of high fuel costs.  We
 looked on-line and decided to work for an private owner.  We worked with
 this private owner for 22 months. 

 He took all the deductions that he
 received from his settlement on to us and also we pay for the fuel.  We
 through all this time have lived in the truck.  We took some time off
 maybe about 6 to 8 weeks per year, if not less.  We put up with the truck
 stop showers.  We cooked all our meals inside the truck and went
 through many microwaves. 

 We then decided that we should try out being
 company drivers, so we quit the private owner.  We wrote him a letter and
 gave him ample notice.  We delivered his truck full of fuel and washed.
  He said that he would reimburse us on our last pay for the truck wash,
 which he never did. 

 We also had some problems with this owner
>  wanting to get repairs done on the truck.  He would flare up every
 time we mentioned that we needed a battery or new tires, or whatever
 that we may have needed.  We did not like to inform him of any repairs
 needed because of this, so most times if we went through D.O.T.
 inspections and they shut us down, then he would have no choice but to make the
 repairs. 

 Prior to quitting with him, the truck was shimming so bad,
 that people driving by us would point to our tires.  We couldn't go on
 like this for our own safety, so we decided on quitting with this owner.
  He ended up cheating us out of almost $3000.00 that was owed to us for
 the last 3 loads that we ran.

 I wanted to take him to small claims
 court, but my husband said not to bother because we would have to take
 home time from our present job and it would end up costing us.  Since he
 is the boss, I didn't argue, although from this day, I still resent this
 decision.
>    
>   Now comes the company job.  We started out with a really good
 company.  We really enjoyed this company, things were going great, then
 boom!  the company bought a bigger company out and things went from good to
 really bad!  With the company as it was, we were getting terminal to
 terminal drop and hook routes and the miles were awesome!  We also got
 layover pay, holiday pay, home time, great health benefits, great pay
 rate, paid $60.00/night on motels when laid over waiting on a load and
 performance bonus. 

 Now with the merger, the big company took over the
 company that bought them and turned them into their company.  They
 lowered our pay rate, lower our holiday pay, took away the layover and
 motels.  We also have to pay 2.5 times more on our medical benefits and the
 prescription coverage is not as good as the other insurance was that we
 paid less on!  They also did away with the per deim.  They also changed
 their pay scale from years of experience, to miles driven with
>  their company??? 

 The pay is so low, that so many drivers are
 complaining.  Out of the 250 teams that came over with this transition, there
 are only a handful of us left and we are seriously wanting to get out
 of this situation.  We recently got a new house finally!  But with our
 pay dropping from $800 to $1200/week, now to just $300 to $600/week.
  Its like we can't afford it!  We have been lied to and have been written
 up because of dispatch communication. 

 We have been sent on bogus
 runs, only to find out that they were not runs at all.  My husband had a
 serious medical procedure that he needed to get done and we tried giving
 notice to make sure that we would get there on-time.  They promised us
 that we would get there on time.  Well, we got the bogus run, that was
 doubled booked after sitting in Dallas for a day and a half.  We had to
 get to South Carolina by Wednesday morning.  Well, we sat there from
 early Monday morning to Tuesday afternoon waiting on this bogus run.
>   

After we notified them that the load was double booked, they said
 that they would get us another one right away!!  Well my husband knowing
 their ways, said that we will not take it that we will rent a car and
 drive there as we could not wait to take another load as there was not
 enough time!  We had to drive all night to make it on time in a car!
  We are finding out every week more and more things that we are disliking
 about the company.  We looked up and down on Internet for dedicated
 runs so that we may be home on a weekly basis, with no success. 
>    
>   Please Help Us!

> A. Frierson