Crooked Drivers Too

Tempest · Apr 18, 2009

I have been reading the "Crooked Owners" thread for some time now and I have had enough!! I just spent a week in seville trying to fix damage done to a truck by a driver. After he and his co-driver were fired for drinking while under a pro (several times) he cut all the wires for the lights, loosened all the belts and hoses, left the vent open to flood the sleeper, reversed the wiring for the lift gate (and stole the keys for it). Then he calls safety and says I wouldnt maintain the truck. Although they had over $6000 in reciepts, safety did what they should have and shut the truck down pending a DOT. (the last one was done the day before valintines day). This was a lease purchase unit and the guy I was leasing it from held the settlement putting me into a bigger bind. Any one of my drivers will tell you I look out for them and my trucks even if it means I go broke for the week and this one I loaned money to on several occassions with the intent of collecting it when things pick up again. So I ask you other owners out there, any DRIVER horror stories to share?? Kinda balance things out a bit??

Oh and Chris, Sorry about last weekend. I blocked all no contact list calls to stop the above mentioned pri... err driver from calling me every 5 minutes and in dealing with the problems just plain forgot about you. Phone is unblocked now. Please call me.

Yesteryear · Apr 18, 2009

Tis awful Tempest! Have heard stories of things like that happening. I am sure there are just as many bad drivers as there are bad truck owners.
Your the one that should be considering sueing! I can't imagine a driver acting in such a manner. This driver must have done things like this previously or how would he know to do these things, or even how to do these things.
Did he say why he did what he did? I mean, was he upset with you or the company your leased to? Don't take the question wrong, regardless of if he was upset there is no excuse whatsoever for doing damage to anothers property. Even though we were taken by a previous owner we still returned his truck in the same condition as we received it, except for we returned it cleaner then it was when given to us.

bubblehead · Apr 18, 2009

Sorry to hear about your problem GLAD YOU STARTED THIS THREAD! Did you report them to DAC? Did you use DAC before hiring them. We are not fleet owners per se yet but we plan to become one soon (outside of family members) and a thread like this could prove extremely helpful.

Lawrence · Apr 18, 2009

Tempest,

Without a doubt Fleet Owners are all to often victims too.

Sad story. I hope you can get some recovery from these drivers.

Desperado · Apr 18, 2009

yep seen a lot of drivers that if i owned the truck they would be on side of road ans a tow truck hooked up to my truck putting it in a yard someware
exp talked with driver friday night hey looks like you tire is ready to blow
driver owner don't pay me enough to check my tires
if i owned trucks i would have tires checked at pm and charge driver for air being put in
if truck didn't pass dot i'd say by jack off

miker · Apr 18, 2009

Tempest said:
I have been reading the "Crooked Owners" thread for some time now and I have had enough!! I just spent a week in seville trying to fix damage done to a truck by a driver. After he and his co-driver were fired for drinking while under a pro (several times) he cut all the wires for the lights, loosened all the belts and hoses, left the vent open to flood the sleeper, reversed the wiring for the lift gate (and stole the keys for it). Then he calls safety and says I wouldnt maintain the truck. Although they had over $6000 in reciepts, safety did what they should have and shut the truck down pending a DOT. (the last one was done the day before valintines day). This was a lease purchase unit and the guy I was leasing it from held the settlement putting me into a bigger bind. Any one of my drivers will tell you I look out for them and my trucks even if it means I go broke for the week and this one I loaned money to on several occassions with the intent of collecting it when things pick up again. So I ask you other owners out there, any DRIVER horror stories to share?? Kinda balance things out a bit??

Oh and Chris, Sorry about last weekend. I blocked all no contact list calls to stop the above mentioned pri... err driver from calling me every 5 minutes and in dealing with the problems just plain forgot about you. Phone is unblocked now. Please call me.

that's just wrong! hopefully you held escrow money from them just in case anything was owed to you.

moose · Apr 18, 2009

you are all wrong ,
there are no bad drivers ,that abuse owners trucks, out there .
just take a look here :

YouTube - massive burnout (Semi donuts)

Moose.

Yesteryear · Apr 18, 2009

hmmmm looks like Werner. How da ya know its not the trucks owner in the video? Could be.

Tempest · Apr 18, 2009

Fortunately, They still had some money coming, key word here is "had". Not enough to cover recovery and repair but a good portion of it. They are now threatening to file suit for the money and I welcome the chance to face them in court (and the parking lot afterwards). I have never held an "escrow" from the drivers and have no plans to change that policy. The way they are paid provides for 2 weeks settlement after a driver leaves anyway. I had told them I would pay them after the money loaned them was deducted but after seeing the truck that got filed under "NOT HAPPENING". If this sees the inside of a courtroom, I will be filing a counter claim with the help of the recovery team and my mechanic. At that point loss of revenue will become a factor as well.
There are good and bad in every aspect of this business. I have seen bad owners, drivers, brokers, dispatchers ect. but most are great people and I am not gonna let this one experience change that belief.

davekc · Apr 18, 2009

I relly hate to see that kind of stuff happen. There will always be more drivers complaining about fleet owners just because there is more drivers. There is good and bad to both.
The only other odd thing is how the person you are leasing the truck from can hold a settlement?
Usually if you lease the vehicle the settlement comes to you, and then you pay the person/company you are leasing the vehicle from. Not sure I would agree to a deal the other way around.

Tempest · Apr 18, 2009

Yesteryear said:
hmmmm looks like Werner. How da ya know its not the trucks owner in the video? Could be.

That is a newer truck. Somehow I doubt someone would do that to a truck THEY just paid 120K for, but then I could be wrong lol. It takes all kinds.....

arrbsthw · Apr 18, 2009

I was thinking it looked like Werner to me too.

gjmcclain · Apr 18, 2009

No driver under any case should destroy the property of the owner.
Nor should any owner refuse to pay a driver because the owner has a cash flow problem.
If a driver can not respect the property of the owner - get out of the business.
If an owner does not have the cash flow or access to a cash reserve to pay his drivers timely, despite not getting paid by the carrier - get out of the business.
There are bad owners, there are bad drivers, there are bad carriers.
But respect for each other has to be a common ground and it took me a long time and alot of people on this site beating me over the head to teach me that.
A beating I much needed and am for ever grateful for at this time.
(PS - don't tell anyone I am actually grateful for the learning experience some of these people here have given me.)

Turtle · Apr 18, 2009

Tempest said:
...he and his co-driver were fired for drinking while under a pro (several times)...

Which begs the question, why was it allowed to happen the second time, much less several times? The relationship should have been severed immediately after the first occurrence. An ignored red flag like that is asking for trouble. While drinking on a PRO isn't something that is likely to show up in the interview process, personal character generally does show up. Deliberate damage to the truck is a character issue. Sounds like the interview process needs to be tweaked a little bit.

I would say that the most difficult thing about being a fleet owner is finding and keeping good drivers. I picked up on that my first week out here. The idea of adding additional vans or trucks was quickly dismissed because I could see what kind of a nightmare that it could be. With vans, it's less of an investment, less of a risk, and many van fleet owners are happy with merely a warm body in the van. But with straight trucks, the investment and the risk is serious. There are lots of morons out there, and putting one of them behind the wheel of an expensive truck is a business decision that needs to be looked at carefully.

Tempest · Apr 18, 2009

davekc said:
The only other odd thing is how the person you are leasing the truck from can hold a settlement?
Usually if you lease the vehicle the settlement comes to you, and then you pay the person/company you are leasing the vehicle from. Not sure I would agree to a deal the other way around.

When I first decided to buy my own trucks, I found an ad in the EO Classifieds for a lease purchase. The agreement was that it remain leased to the carrier under his contract. I wanted trucks without alot of money down and it seemed like a good idea. I would not repeat that one again and at this point dont need those trucks. But I made an agreement and will honor it until the trucks are paid for. It has been rocky a few times but for the most part things have gone ok. This time I understand his caution. The truck has no drivers for the last 2 weeks, it is out of service pending a DOT and if drivers went in it tuesday, it would still be 3 more weeks before any monies came in. 5 weeks of insurance and qc plus the next payment (deducted from settlement). The second truck has been without a driver for a few weeks for medical reasons. He had no way of knowing if I ran the trucks into the ground and was gonna walk on the deal leaving him like the drivers left me. I think I have eased that concern. It just left me in a tight spot with frieght being so slow and 11 other trucks to pay for. As you can imagine, in these times a loss of few tousand dollars can pack quite a punch.

Tempest · Apr 18, 2009

Turtle said:
Which begs the question, why was it allowed to happen the second time, much less several times?

The 1st was a suspicion that could not be verified. The second time came with witnesses and I started the process of moving a truck into position to recover the truck. Unfortunately they were told we were coming for it. This is a mistake I wont make again.

davekc · Apr 18, 2009

Tempest said:
When I first decided to buy my own trucks, I found an ad in the EO Classifieds for a lease purchase. The agreement was that it remain leased to the carrier under his contract. I wanted trucks without alot of money down and it seemed like a good idea. I would not repeat that one again and at this point dont need those trucks. But I made an agreement and will honor it until the trucks are paid for. It has been rocky a few times but for the most part things have gone ok. This time I understand his caution. The truck has no drivers for the last 2 weeks, it is out of service pending a DOT and if drivers went in it tuesday, it would still be 3 more weeks before any monies came in. 5 weeks of insurance and qc plus the next payment (deducted from settlement). The second truck has been without a driver for a few weeks for medical reasons. He had no way of knowing if I ran the trucks into the ground and was gonna walk on the deal leaving him like the drivers left me. I think I have eased that concern. It just left me in a tight spot with frieght being so slow and 11 other trucks to pay for. As you can imagine, in these times a loss of few tousand dollars can pack quite a punch.

We have been fortunate and not had that problem. We take a lot of steps prior to hiring someone. Two of those biggies is not hiring two people that aren't in a relationship, and sometimes hard, no drivers without previous experience and references.
In our case, I'll park it until I find the right team.
Totally understand on the lease deal. Kinda of a learning experience.

Yesteryear · Apr 19, 2009

Ya know, hubby and I have made quite a few friends since we have been expediting. When we run into those friends we either have them over to our truck or we go over to their truck and watch movies, chat, basically hang out togeather. We all drive for truck owners and ya know what, not once have I been in a dirty or un-kempt truck. Take trucknlace for instance. Sally is one of the most clean, she even sews little lace curtains for her truck windows. Ya know what we all have in common we are all husband and wife teams, we wives make sure our trucks are clean. Sure we get a little messy when we get to rolling strong but never 'dirty'.

Funny, had some friends over to the truck, was making sure everything was spotless, ya know - no finger prints on the microwave or fridge, no dust, ect. Well I was getting in all the little nooks, corners and crannies right. Hubby picks up the qcom and gets a finger print on it so I take it and start wiping it down again and I tell him "don't get finger prints on the qcom we have company coming." he replies "oh, nobody looks at the qcom anyways" so I says "just don't touch it!" So our friends come over and during the conversation she tells us about another couple they are friends with and says "their real nice but their kind of dirty, not like you guys". She goes on to tell us about how dirty their qcom was. heeheehee after they left hubby ask me how did I know she would be looking at our qcom to see if it was clean, said he never would of thought to look at a qcom. Simple, that is one of the places I would look to judge how clean she was! heeheehee it's a woman thing!