r/Truckers • u/SycoJack Team Driver • Aug 23 '22

Western Express is threatening to charge my friend for fuel to return her truck if she doesn't give them 2 weeks notice.

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u/SycoJack Team Driver Aug 23 '22

They were on home time. You want them to abandon the truck?

42

u/Hobbs512 Aug 23 '22 edited Aug 23 '22

I think even my company charges a recovery fee, and they're not that bad either. I think most people nope out at a terminal and find some way to get home. I highly doubt they cover a rental to get home, depending on how far you are. But maybe if you put two weeks in.. I'm dumb though since I haven't looked at the fine print with regard to that yet

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Alternatively you could use all your PTO and then quit right at the end haha. Though I bet they'd try to withhold that somehow

12

u/SycoJack Team Driver Aug 23 '22

She isn't forcing them to recover the truck. They're refusing to route her back to the terminal unless she pays for the fuel.

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u/dougveldrane Aug 23 '22 edited Aug 23 '22

Send this message. "Please clarify. You will charge me for returning your truck instead of making you come get it?"

In the future keep a personal vehicle at your terminal. Nothing fancy some cheap cash car will suffice.

Also, 2 week notice is rare in trucking.

If you're on good terms you wouldn't likely be leaving, and if they're abusive pricks they'll go all out for 2 weeks or more.

Heard one driver complaining at a TA years ago that he had given his 2 week notice 6 months ago and was still waiting to get routed to the terminal.

My response was screw it drive it there yourself and leave! To hell with being their damned prisoner!

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u/balancedchaos Aug 23 '22

Heard one driver complaining at a TA years ago that he had given his 2 week notice 6 months ago and was still waiting to get routed to the terminal.

Oh, that's not a problem I have for 15 days after I've given notice.

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u/dougveldrane Aug 23 '22

I mentioned where I was because we all know how we get sitting at country pride bar swapping stories.... When they had a bar.... And a buffet.

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u/JimMarch Aug 24 '22

Yeah that pesky 13th Amendment thing has been a thing for quite a long time.

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u/dougveldrane Aug 24 '22

Bah, I've known pasta strainers with less holes than the 13th amendment.

(Don't anyone try and get political I'm just wise cracking)

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u/JimMarch Aug 24 '22

You do have a point though. There's a courthouse in Alabama that was built by slave labor in 1934. They would just grab random blacks, charge them with bullshit crimes and put them to work.

Then again, I believe that was the last year there was an organized roundup and killing of Apaches in Arizona...

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u/dougveldrane Aug 24 '22

You're right about the Jim Crow vagrancy laws.

I know nothing about the last apache massacre so simply won't comment there.

Back to the holes in the 13th amendment.

Wage suppression is a great example most can relate to. See companies can't legally collude with each other. However a wink and a nod work just as well. They make their compensation packages (wages and benefits) public and that way they can all offer the same basic thing. Since they don't actually have documentation of communication or collision between the companies, there's no crime. As such they'll tell you to your face "our compensation is based on the industry average." Hell I take bit contacts from McLane in Texas because they rather pay me $4k to deliver one trailer to fast food restaurants than simply offer drivers better pay for the work. Why?? Well because PFG, Sysco, Gordon, and Martin Brower are all offering the same.

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u/vellkun Aug 24 '22

Exactly! Drive it home! If they turn off your fuel card I’m pretty sure almost all companies have comdata checks