Here's the link if your an OOIDA member, if not article is right below it. http://www.ooida.com/_forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=23961
BTW This is not my story... one that i thought I'd share so that all new drivers out there would/could learn that it takes more than a phone call to check out a company, or a company to check out a driver. It could be a totally fictitious story also, but it could also be true.
Express Logistics, LLC in Dearborn, Michigan is a small outfit run by two guys . They don't have many trucks and they hire drivers using Craigslist.
Stay far away!
Before agreeing to drive for them, I asked what condition his truck was in, and he told me that it was immaculately maintained and that he had just spent a great deal of money fixing it up. I told him that I HAD to be in Los Angeles by the 27th of September, and he promised me that it would be no problem at all. We agreed on the percentage of each load that I would be paid, and the next day I got in his truck and got to work.
The truck was a rattletrap, a corn-studded lump of excretory matter with wheels. The engine ran, yes, but just about everything inside the cab was either broken or missing. On my third day on the road, bluish-grey smoke started pouring out of the vents into the cab, and Abraham wanted me to drive it another 150 miles and deliver the load before getting it fixed. Naturally, I made him send road service out like any reasonable, sane person would have done without being asked. I got the problem fixed, only to discover a few days later (in Colorado, up in the Rocky Mountains where it was snowing on the last day of summer) that the heater didn't work at all, even after I opened the appropriate valves under the hood. If I hadn't had the foresight to carry an arctic sleeping bag with me, I might not have survived that night with my toes and fingers and nose intact.
A few days later, while getting the information about my next load from the broker that they work with (C.H. Robinson), I casually asked how much the load was paying. The broker told me that my new friends were getting $800 for the load. I called and went over the load information with him, and he told me the load was paying $500. I asked him twice to verify that figure, and caught him red-handed and po-faced, lying to me about the money. After I confronted him about it, he stuttered and stammered and went all verbally kablooey over the phone trying to tell me that it was a silly mistake and that he had simply misspoken... this, after I asked him twice if he was sure about that $500 figure.
The morning after I delivered that load, he dispatched me on another one. I called the broker and asked how much the load would pay, and they told me that they are not allowed to give me that information. I called him back and he told me that I'm "just a driver" and that I "have no right to even ask for that information." I told him to either tell the broker to give me the info, or come and get his truck... and he threatened to do exactly that, get on a plane and come drive it home himself. He was bluffing. I stood my ground, and the next call I got was from the broker, who apologized for the mix-up and told me how much the load was paying.
Having delivered that load, I found myself sitting in a truck stop in Utah. I had not yet been paid for any of the work I'd done in the previous two weeks. It was looking like was going to keep at least ONE promise and get me to L.A. by the 27th, but I spoke to him on the phone and he informed me that the truck I was driving would not meet California's DOT specifications, so if I drove the truck into my home State I would be shut down and the truck would not be allowed to move. He suggested that I take a load going to Texas instead.
Again, he agreed to get me to L.A. by the 27th before I even agreed to drive for him. I reminded him of this, and suggested that I take a bus to Los Angeles, take care of my business, then take the bus back to the truck. At that point, I told him, he could give me a load going back to Michigan and I would give him his truck back.
He didn't like that idea; he said he couldn't have his truck sitting for that many days. Instead, he said he would fly another driver out to Salt Lake City to pick up the truck. He told me the driver would call me from the airport and give me a T-check code so I could get paid, then collect the truck, after which Abraham would buy me a plane ticket to fly home to L.A.
Almost two days later, the driver called me, said he was at the airport, and gave me a T-check code. I told him where and when I would meet up with him, and headed to the truck stop to cash my T-check.
The T-check code did not exist in the system. I called about it, and he started yelling at me something about "WHY ARE YOU PLAYING GAMES WITH ME? THE T-CHECK IS GOOD!" I let him talk to the cashier at the fuel desk, who told him it was a non-existent T-code. He told me to wait and he'd get it straightened out. He also gave me this long story about being at the hospital visiting a driver who had been in a rollover.
Twenty minutes later, he (who was supposedly in Michigan at the hospital) walks into the truck stop with another guy (the new driver)... and two Salt Lake City cops. He told the cops that I stole his truck, and tried to get them to arrest me. Fortunately, the cops were reasonable people who wanted to hear the whole story. After literally hours of talking to and to me separately, they were very sympathetic to me and refused to take me to jail... but of course I had to get all my stuff out of the truck and hand over the keys. I had more stuff than I could carry, so I had to leave some of it behind.
I ended up spending most of the night outside, then caught the Amtrak home to Los Angeles. I made it in time to take care of the business I needed to conduct, but of course Express Logistics, LLC in Dearborn, MI have still not paid me for the loads I delivered for them. They owe me something like $1600, although it's probably a lot more than that, since they were lying to me about how much the broker was paying them. On the load I caught them lying to me about, my 25% had been whittled down to 15.5%.
On the positive side, I'm now absolutely sick of bosses, and I have just secured financing to buy my own (used) tractor and trailer.
BTW This is not my story... one that i thought I'd share so that all new drivers out there would/could learn that it takes more than a phone call to check out a company, or a company to check out a driver. It could be a totally fictitious story also, but it could also be true.
Express Logistics, LLC in Dearborn, Michigan is a small outfit run by two guys . They don't have many trucks and they hire drivers using Craigslist.
Stay far away!
Before agreeing to drive for them, I asked what condition his truck was in, and he told me that it was immaculately maintained and that he had just spent a great deal of money fixing it up. I told him that I HAD to be in Los Angeles by the 27th of September, and he promised me that it would be no problem at all. We agreed on the percentage of each load that I would be paid, and the next day I got in his truck and got to work.
The truck was a rattletrap, a corn-studded lump of excretory matter with wheels. The engine ran, yes, but just about everything inside the cab was either broken or missing. On my third day on the road, bluish-grey smoke started pouring out of the vents into the cab, and Abraham wanted me to drive it another 150 miles and deliver the load before getting it fixed. Naturally, I made him send road service out like any reasonable, sane person would have done without being asked. I got the problem fixed, only to discover a few days later (in Colorado, up in the Rocky Mountains where it was snowing on the last day of summer) that the heater didn't work at all, even after I opened the appropriate valves under the hood. If I hadn't had the foresight to carry an arctic sleeping bag with me, I might not have survived that night with my toes and fingers and nose intact.
A few days later, while getting the information about my next load from the broker that they work with (C.H. Robinson), I casually asked how much the load was paying. The broker told me that my new friends were getting $800 for the load. I called and went over the load information with him, and he told me the load was paying $500. I asked him twice to verify that figure, and caught him red-handed and po-faced, lying to me about the money. After I confronted him about it, he stuttered and stammered and went all verbally kablooey over the phone trying to tell me that it was a silly mistake and that he had simply misspoken... this, after I asked him twice if he was sure about that $500 figure.
The morning after I delivered that load, he dispatched me on another one. I called the broker and asked how much the load would pay, and they told me that they are not allowed to give me that information. I called him back and he told me that I'm "just a driver" and that I "have no right to even ask for that information." I told him to either tell the broker to give me the info, or come and get his truck... and he threatened to do exactly that, get on a plane and come drive it home himself. He was bluffing. I stood my ground, and the next call I got was from the broker, who apologized for the mix-up and told me how much the load was paying.
Having delivered that load, I found myself sitting in a truck stop in Utah. I had not yet been paid for any of the work I'd done in the previous two weeks. It was looking like was going to keep at least ONE promise and get me to L.A. by the 27th, but I spoke to him on the phone and he informed me that the truck I was driving would not meet California's DOT specifications, so if I drove the truck into my home State I would be shut down and the truck would not be allowed to move. He suggested that I take a load going to Texas instead.
Again, he agreed to get me to L.A. by the 27th before I even agreed to drive for him. I reminded him of this, and suggested that I take a bus to Los Angeles, take care of my business, then take the bus back to the truck. At that point, I told him, he could give me a load going back to Michigan and I would give him his truck back.
He didn't like that idea; he said he couldn't have his truck sitting for that many days. Instead, he said he would fly another driver out to Salt Lake City to pick up the truck. He told me the driver would call me from the airport and give me a T-check code so I could get paid, then collect the truck, after which Abraham would buy me a plane ticket to fly home to L.A.
Almost two days later, the driver called me, said he was at the airport, and gave me a T-check code. I told him where and when I would meet up with him, and headed to the truck stop to cash my T-check.
The T-check code did not exist in the system. I called about it, and he started yelling at me something about "WHY ARE YOU PLAYING GAMES WITH ME? THE T-CHECK IS GOOD!" I let him talk to the cashier at the fuel desk, who told him it was a non-existent T-code. He told me to wait and he'd get it straightened out. He also gave me this long story about being at the hospital visiting a driver who had been in a rollover.
Twenty minutes later, he (who was supposedly in Michigan at the hospital) walks into the truck stop with another guy (the new driver)... and two Salt Lake City cops. He told the cops that I stole his truck, and tried to get them to arrest me. Fortunately, the cops were reasonable people who wanted to hear the whole story. After literally hours of talking to and to me separately, they were very sympathetic to me and refused to take me to jail... but of course I had to get all my stuff out of the truck and hand over the keys. I had more stuff than I could carry, so I had to leave some of it behind.
I ended up spending most of the night outside, then caught the Amtrak home to Los Angeles. I made it in time to take care of the business I needed to conduct, but of course Express Logistics, LLC in Dearborn, MI have still not paid me for the loads I delivered for them. They owe me something like $1600, although it's probably a lot more than that, since they were lying to me about how much the broker was paying them. On the load I caught them lying to me about, my 25% had been whittled down to 15.5%.
On the positive side, I'm now absolutely sick of bosses, and I have just secured financing to buy my own (used) tractor and trailer.
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