The National Labor Relations Board has come out with updated guidance to see if you are a 1099 independent contractor or an employee. I think that many of you that lease trucks may find it difficult to pass this new test. There is a link to the article from Overdrive Online HERE. Anyway, the NLRB talks about operational freedom. It is more than clear by the new guidance that if you are driving someone else's truck you are an employee. Some of the things are that you need the ability to decline loads without recourse, you need to be able to work whenever you want including taking off as much time as you want without any problem from your carrier, you need to be able to select the type of equipment you operate (brand of truck, etc), you need to be able to finance the truck however and wherever you want and you need to be able to maintain the truck on your preferred schedule. The carrier cannot demand a particular oil change schedule or any other type of schedule. Also, as always, you need to be able to suffer a loss or make a profit. A $0 check is not a loss. Would the operation you are in be able to pass these tests? If you are driving a truck you do not own I doubt you could.
It is currently -14F at Trucking Answers International Headquarters and Training Center. Please, leave your truck running in this type of weather. It is not fit for man nor beast out there. See you on the road!
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Red Classic Transportation came to town yesterday to recruit for some stuff they have going on in Frankfort, IN and I headed over there to see what they had to offer. It turns out that the deal they have for drivers is pretty good so I asked if they wanted to go live to answer your questions rapid fire style as they come in. Well, not everyone was on board but 2 people did agree to do it and I think it went ok. I want to thank everyone who came on to ask questions since I did not tell people in advance about it. Here is the video: I plan on doing more of these type of things on the channel. This way you can get questions answered directly by the recruiters themselves. Look, I know what we all think of recruiters but they had all of this stuff in handouts there for drivers to take with them. It would be hard later to pay you different than it says in writing. I want to thank everyone that came to town here from Red Classic Recruiting. You can get more information HERE. What did you think?
See you on the road! The snow is flying, the roads are icy and you think it is too unsafe to drive. Your company wants that load delivered yesterday. What can you do? Regulations say that you should not operate a commercial motor vehicle if it is unsafe for you to do so. That could mean you are too tired, the vehicle itself is unsafe or the conditions are unsafe. What can happen if you refuse? Can you be fired? Technically, no but in reality maybe. Keep in mind that any company that would want you to drive if you think it is unsafe is no place I would want to work. To their credit, most places I hear about leave that decision up to the driver. Anytime you are parking because of weather you should document this in writing. If you send a message on your device in the truck take a picture of the message. Keep all records. You know what kind of company you work for. If you are fired or any action is taken against you then you should immediately call HR at your company. Also, file for unemployment and file a complaint with OSHA. This is where all your documentation comes in handy. You will be able to prove what what said at the time. You can also get the historic weather conditions online. Remember, always get everything in writing. Your job may depend on it.
See you on the road! Prime, Inc took a big slap in the face from the Supreme Court this week and now they face the prospect of a class-action suit. I have a video of this on my YouTube page I hope you will check out if you haven't already. The crux of it is that they wanted the driver to go to arbitration as is specified in the contract but in fact workers engaged in interstate commerce are exempt from mandatory arbitration. Prime didn't like that but too bad so sad the Supreme Court ruled against them 8-0. I will keep up with the lawsuit as it progresses.
As you may have seen, a pinhead lawyer contacted me about a Crap Company of the Week that I did. They were all sad about what I said even though what I said is exactly what was posted on their own website. I spoke to a friend of mine who is a Worker's Comp attorney and he suggested you will just get papered to death with motions and things to annoy you. Well, a couple of attorneys have since contacted me to assist in my venture and I think the Crap Company of the Week will be back. It is fair use to review a company like this so after a weekend consultation coming up let's see what the future holds. Looking into rules of professional ethics for attorneys. They can't bully you into silence and they aren't going to bully us into submission. I appreciate the attorneys who contacted me to help. I am using a different video editor as you have noticed I am sure. I can post my videos to Facebook again as well. Also, my latest video will be feature on the homepage of this website. I spoke to the President of Veriha Trucking and that video is coming up as well. See you on the road! I keep getting asked about this so I want to talk about it. I'll probably do a video on it as well. Next April 12 truckers are supposed to stay home or go see their representative rather than working. This will teach the industry a lesson! No, it won't. There is a group, Truckers stand as one, that seems to be promoting this. I won't link to their website because it is not secure. What does that mean? Look at the web address of sites you are on. Does it start with https or http? The "S" means the site is secure. Just like Black Smoke, it matters. You can choose to go look at it if you want.
Even if everyone took the day off, what is that supposed to accomplish? Each driver is having trouble in a different area. Some drivers need more pay, some don't get detention, some feel parking is a problem. Many of these issues are not solvable by the government. You want to get paid for detention? Stop sitting for free. The government doesn't regulate pay in this country. Do you want them to? I doubt it. A better solution is to strike an individual company. For example, Company X may make drivers wait 4 hours and then pay $10/hr for detention. On April 12, every one of their trucks parks and sends a message to call whoever they have decided. Well, as the company sees hundreds of messages with trucks parked all over, I bet they make a call. You do this to a large company. How long before they agree to up their pay? A few hours, likely. "But Mark, they will just fire the drivers!" Um, no way. As soon as they fire you, you are no longer responsible for the unit. Do you really think they are going to leave hundreds of trucks and loads all over the country? Very unlikely. After you do this to only a few companies, the rest will talk without any further walkout. First, though, you need to find a spokesperson and pick a large carrier. Stop looking to the government to solve your problems. They are the one that creates problems. See you on the road! So, as happens a couple times a week, I get some hate messages. Today through the website a TLI driver messages me saying I have no idea what I am talking about and that he NETS $5500/wk after expenses leasing a truck there. Also, he can run circles around me. I have yet to see proof of the $5500 net. That would be incredible money. By the way, this was an individual lease driver contacting me, not the company itself.
If you don't have haters it means you aren't doing anything. You aren't really making a difference, taking chances or being anything. Trust me when I say this, no one doing better than you will ever be your hater. No one likes the light of day to shine on the truth. See you on the road! Last week I was in touch with a corporate communications person who was all eager to answers questions and get information about their company out there. So, I sent over a bunch of questions and received a reply that they wouldn't answer them and have a nice day. I asked them to reconsider and they said NO. I guess asking how much a company pays is not something they want to put out there. Now I ask you to help me find out this information. CFI did not want to tell you their detention policy or layover ($75 after 2 days free) or anything else for that matter. What the heck? Does anyone have a driver handbook from CFI or their pay rate? I think it would be interesting to get these from someone who works there. Email me HERE with whatever you might know. Once I saw they didn't have any paid holidays and the terrible layover plan I knew where this might be headed. Whatever the pay is somewhere, they should be proud to put it out there. Just like Stevens, I wouldn't go anywhere that wouldn't answer a legitimate question about the place. That is something to carefully consider before accepting an offer.
See you on the road! One of my viewers put me in touch with a recruiter at their company. The recruiter is all like "we would love to have you put out info about us. What would you like to know?" So, I sent over a bunch of questions about the place. Typical stuff about pay and bonuses plus detention, layover, cameras in the truck, non-compete, contract length and some other stuff. Questions every person should ask before they start at a company. Anyway, I hear back today that they are not interested in answering my questions and to have a nice day. Now, I am not surprised by this but I have emailed them asking them to reconsider and wondering why they won't answer a question about how much they pay or what their idle policy might be. Anyway, when I hear back from them I will let you know who it is. I don't want to call them out for not answering until I hear from them about reconsideration.
It is amazing to me that these companies complain they can't get drivers then they don't want to answer questions. We will see what they say. If I don't hear back by next blog we have our answer. Oh, they did say "We are going to put your channel on our watch list". Is that a threat or do they love the channel? Who knows. See you on the road! An astute viewer of the YouTube channel sent me an article. It is a little older but I love talking about the log so lets get into it. You can read it HERE. Can you be off duty while you are being loaded or unloaded? The short answer is no. Let us look at 395.2 part 5:
(5) All time loading or unloading a commercial motor vehicle, supervising, or assisting in the loading or unloading, attending a commercial motor vehicle being loaded or unloaded, remaining in readiness to operate the commercial motor vehicle, or in giving or receiving receipts for shipments loaded or unloaded If you are ready to drive away, you are on-duty. Now, you could log sleeper if you are actually resting in the sleeper berth. BUT, if the time is less than 8 hours it does not stop your 14 hour clock. At 8 hours you could do a split sleeper. I get that some drivers do this because they are not compensated for their time at the dock. Continuing to work for free is never going to get you paid. Remember that. Drivers are our own worst enemy here. The people logging off-duty are the reason many drivers don't get paid for this time. Know your worth and get paid for your time. Stop doing all this free work! Every time you log off duty while actually working you are cutting your own throat. Why should a company pay you if you will work for NOTHING? See you on the road! We begin a new year with a new Crap Company of the Week! Suggested by many of you, this company has great trucks but not great pay. Does this matter to drivers? I will tell you this, I get many emails asking about companies and drivers do seem to want a specific truck. They want horsepower or a Pete or whatever. Folks, that does not pay the bills. Yes you should have a nice truck on the road that is relatively new with no issues. Everything should work on it but would you be willing to take a pay cut to get a Pete? Apparently, some would. Would you be willing to be nearly the lowest paid driver on the road? Maybe you would but I wouldn't. I'll take a basic Freightliner with A/C and a larger paycheck. Either way, you can watch it HERE.
Suggestions are always welcome and let me know why your suggestions should be the Crap Company of the Week! See you on the road! |
AuthorHi! Welcome. I'm Mark and I've been a professional truck driver for over 33 years, the last 19 years at the same company. It is time that drivers got paid for every minute that we work and we are treated like the licensed professionals we are. Archives
February 2022
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