Warning Bad Driver!

[blizzard2014]

I am posting this thread to warn all of the recruiters on EO about a driver who disappeared with my customers freight for 18 hours and then abandoned the freight in front of Motel Six in Amhurst Ohio. This driver is possibly on drugs and he is claiming that I owe him for 3 weeks of pay when he has only been working for us for 8 days. He has a 2003 GMC Savana with Georgia license plates on it. That is about as much information as I am going to give about this wonderful piece of work. He has been scamming smaller companies for fuel advances and then not delivering the loads and trying to use the freight as a bargaining tool to get more money out of people.

I am going to press charges on this person and pursue as many legal channels as I can to get this individual to pay for what he has done. If you want this drivers name, address, drivers license number, license plate number, please send me a privite message and I will gladly give you that information. This guy is bad news and I don't want him to get away with what he has done! Also, MODS, if this in inappropriate I do understand, and I will not make a big stink about it if this thread is moved or deleted.

 

[cheri1122]

Perhaps it would help if you could say why you were fooled by this guy - did he present a good work history, a convincing story, or what?
I hope you'll keep us posted on the progress and outcome, it might be a good lesson for some who think that abandoning the van/truck/freight is no big deal, when they're angry.

 

[davekc]

Not sure how it works on vans, but for CDL drivers most go through DAC. A charge of abandoning freight or a vehicle is likely going to kill some job chances for quite some time.

 

[Lawrence]

I am posting this thread to warn all of the recruiters on EO about a driver who disappeared with my customers freight for 18 hours and then abandoned the freight in front of Motel Six in Amhurst Ohio. This driver is possibly on drugs and he is claiming that I owe him for 3 weeks of pay when he has only been working for us for 8 days. He has a 2003 GMC Savana with Georgia license plates on it. That is about as much information as I am going to give about this wonderful piece of work. He has been scamming smaller companies for fuel advances and then not delivering the loads and trying to use the freight as a bargaining tool to get more money out of people.

I am going to press charges on this person and pursue as many legal channels as I can to get this individual to pay for what he has done. If you want this drivers name, address, drivers license number, license plate number, please send me a privite message and I will gladly give you that information. This guy is bad news and I don't want him to get away with what he has done! Also, MODS, if this in inappropriate I do understand, and I will not make a big stink about it if this thread is moved or deleted.

No, COC issue here. Hopefully, others won't get stung either.

 

[BigCat]

Wow sorry to hear of this blizzard. Was it resolved with the customer? I know you guys have been working hard to grow and I hate to hear you were done this way.


Mayfield Express

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[blizzard2014]

Yes it has ben resolved with the customer but it may have cost us our reputation with the company that brokered the load out to us. I can't control what a driver does from behind my desk. This guy did good on four loads and then all of a sudden out of the blue he snapped and went rogue. How do you prepare for driver?

I guess we are going to have to get tracking units in our trucks which most vanners do not want to have. Or perhaps use Macropoint from now on and if the drivers phone does not work with Macropoint just not give them any loads. It's going to be a very bumpy road moving forward after this. I actually got sick to my stomach over the whole situation because there is no amount of butt kissing that can justify what has happened.

Like I said earlier if any recruiter wants the name and information of this deadbeat driver please send me a provate message. I know for a fact that this guy is broke again and somewhere in the Cleveland/toledo/amhurst area! Please contact me if this driver tries to sign on with your company and I will save you the countless hours of aggravation that I've just had to endure over the past day and a half.

 

[blizzard2014]

Perhaps it would help if you could say why you were fooled by this guy - did he present a good work history, a convincing story, or what?
I hope you'll keep us posted on the progress and outcome, it might be a good lesson for some who think that abandoning the van/truck/freight is no big deal, when they're angry.

If the police would have found him last night he would have went to jail. I'm not sure if any criminal charges can be pressed at this point in time as the carrier that gave us the load has recovered the freight. There are possibly some civil actions that can be taken but we are just a tiny company with limited resources. What can we do? It would be like using a fly swatter to kill a dust mite. It's done, the damage is done, I'm just glad that the consignee has their freight and that the whole ordeal has been corrected. Let this be a lesson to everyone out there - you better do a lot of reference checks before you put anyone on as an O/O or let them drive your fleet truck.

In all of my 1 year of running this company I have never had this happen; not ever! What really ****es me off the most is that all of the loads that were deliveres early and on time will never be brought up. The only thing that this customer will remember is the load that this dirtbag hijacked and then unloaded in front of the Motel Six in Amhurst. This is the last I will speak of this for now. If you guys want to add in a reply from time to time so that this post can be bumped to the top of the list (or if lawrence or any of the Administrators of this site want to make it a sticky for a few weeks) I would really appreciate it.

 

[hazmat]

Blizzard, really am sorry this happened to you... You've worked very hard to get a good reputation for your company and I'm sure Preacher Rich is very upset as well... It's very sad that someone does not have enough self repsect to do this type of mallicious act and really sabotage a couple of great people... I hope your customer will realize that ya'll were not at fault and will understand that bad poop can happen to good people too....

Sent from my MB300 using EO Forums

 

[myvan010]

Wow what a piece of crap,,I know exactly how you are feeling blizzard..After 16 years as being a employer and going through countless number of people..Finally called it quits sold the business and went out on the road and right now I could not be happier...All you can do is your do deligence and try and hire the right people..
I have noticed in the past 3 to 5 years the drug epidemic has gotten worst especially with the herion rearing its ugly head again,and also the pain killers...
Anyways glad everything turn out as well as can be expected now you will have to work 100 times harder to prove yourself to potential customers..
I have also sent you a PM

 

[cheri1122]

The worst part is that it's the 'little guy' that gets slammed - jerks like that driver know that the bigger carriers have the resources to thoroughly check backgrounds & references, and to pursue those who don't live up to their commitments.
But even the littlest guys can network and exchange info on the internet, which may be the best thing you can do: warn each other about the bad apples who target smaller carriers.
Also, if you don't hold back some kind of escrow, it might be something to consider. Even if it's just a temporary holdback [say 90 days] it would help cut the loss somewhat, at least.

 

[blizzard2014]

Yes it appears that this guy is targetting smaller carriers because he is too pathetic to get hired by the larger ones. But just in case I will be calling several of the larger carriers to let their recruiting departments know what this driver did so that he cannot get a job with them. I have also sent out a mass email on Sylectus to inform other carriers about him. I just got back a response that he might be leased on with Now Expedite, or that he has at least moved a load for one of their partner carriers through them. I hope this guy gets blacklisted! Thanks for the responses to this thread. Also, thank you Lawrence and the EO MODS for not bashing me or removing this post. If anyone out there wants to pitch in and help me pursue this individual legally (perhaps someone who has been in my place and is now very successful) please send me a private message! Thanks for your time.

 

[OntarioVanMan]

Yes it has ben resolved with the customer but it may have cost us our reputation with the company that brokered the load out to us. I can't control what a driver does from behind my desk. This guy did good on four loads and then all of a sudden out of the blue he snapped and went rogue. How do you prepare for driver?

I guess we are going to have to get tracking units in our trucks which most vanners do not want to have. Or perhaps use Macropoint from now on and if the drivers phone does not work with Macropoint just not give them any loads. It's going to be a very bumpy road moving forward after this. I actually got sick to my stomach over the whole situation because there is no amount of butt kissing that can justify what has happened.

Like I said earlier if any recruiter wants the name and information of this deadbeat driver please send me a provate message. I know for a fact that this guy is broke again and somewhere in the Cleveland/toledo/amhurst area! Please contact me if this driver tries to sign on with your company and I will save you the countless hours of aggravation that I've just had to endure over the past day and a half.

You are absolutely wrong on this point..IMO...only a small percentage don't want one....I have found with my experience, the ones that don't want one are the free spirited, I don't want anyone watching me types...most of the guys I've met with this attitude I would not want at my carrier...
these guys are so rebellious they go so far as turning off the GPS feature on their phones so Panther can not track them and then scream about check calls every hour....

 

[guido4475]

You are absolutely wrong on this point..IMO...only a small percentage don't want one....I have found with my experience, the ones that don't want one are the free spirited, I don't want anyone watching me types...most of the guys I've met with this attitude I would not want at my carrier...
these guys are so rebellious they go so far as turning off the GPS feature on their phones so Panther can not track them and then scream about check calls every hour....

Gee, anyone we know, Ken??? lol...

 

[OntarioVanMan]

Gee, anyone we know, Ken??? lol...

I think most know of at least 1 like that....

 

[OntarioVanMan]

You may have to trim your driver pool somewhat Blizz....a small tracking device in van or no contract.....be a little more selective....

 

[CharlesD]

I saw your Sylectus email and made a note of the name, even though we're not currently taking vans at the moment.

This kind of bums me out. For small carriers, reputation is everything and a reputation for good service can go a long way toward being awarded loads on a consistent basis. When you drove for us, we established a reputation for good service and you no doubt had a hand in that. I hope you're fortunate to find the same kind of drivers.

There are ways for small carriers to run background checks. Everything costs money these days, but it might be worth looking into.

 

[OntarioVanMan]

I saw your Sylectus email and made a note of the name, even though we're not currently taking vans at the moment.

This kind of bums me out. For small carriers, reputation is everything and a reputation for good service can go a long way toward being awarded loads on a consistent basis. When you drove for us, we established a reputation for good service and you no doubt had a hand in that. I hope you're fortunate to find the same kind of drivers.

There are ways for small carriers to run background checks. Everything costs money these days, but it might be worth looking into.

Yes..IF that customer was a major source to Bliz's load counts....something like this could devastate an upstart company....

 

[PreacherRich]

You may have to trim your driver pool somewhat Blizz....a small tracking device in van or no contract.....be a little more selective....

Our current drivers rock. We had one bad apple, very bad, rotton apple. Yes we will be more selective and become really, really good at background and reference checking and adding GPS tracking. We dont need the largest fleet, just the best one.

I was going to remain mute on this, kinda believe that a public forum is not the place for it. However, the reason I am posting and Blizzard started this thread is to protect other carriers and shippers from this individual. After processing this for a bit, I am convinced that this guy had the intent to come on for a week, pull as much advance money from us as possible (another lessoned learned) and handle whatever crisis or habit he has in his life. I look at how this selfishness affected so many people, the shipper who needed the load delivered, our partner carrier who trusted us with the load, our company, our drivers and their families I was poppin tums through the whole ordeal. I pray that God will work on the heart of this person and that he will be changed from the inside out. Until that happens, carriers beware...

I guess I need to thank him for making our company better. We learned a lot from this guy that will only make us stronger and more efficient.

 

[scottm4211]

It's a tough (and damaging) lesson to learn, but hiring on an OO in a ten year old van would really raise my due diligence level. Even us lowly CV'ers regularly haul some high value freight (ever see the invoice attached to a couple of bins of air bag sensors? $3-400k). Add that to it seems no way of tracking the driver, and that's a potential recipe for disaster that became reality. Sucks.

 

[OntarioVanMan]

Our current drivers rock. We had one bad apple, very bad, rotton apple. Yes we will be more selective and become really, really good at background and reference checking and adding GPS tracking. We dont need the largest fleet, just the best one.

I was going to remain mute on this, kinda believe that a public forum is not the place for it. However, the reason I am posting and Blizzard started this thread is to protect other carriers and shippers from this individual. After processing this for a bit, I am convinced that this guy had the intent to come on for a week, pull as much advance money from us as possible (another lessoned learned) and handle whatever crisis or habit he has in his life. I look at how this selfishness affected so many people, the shipper who needed the load delivered, our partner carrier who trusted us with the load, our company, our drivers and their families I was poppin tums through the whole ordeal. I pray that God will work on the heart of this person and that he will be changed from the inside out. Until that happens, carriers beware...

I guess I need to thank him for making our company better. We learned a lot from this guy that will only make us stronger and more efficient.

Business is business and friends are friends...they should be kept apart.....the 2 don't usually blend well together.....it is like having family work for you...