Help On What To Do

It sounds to me like your company is trying to fix the problems you're having, are they not? You didn't like your co-driver so they got you away from him and they put you in a different truck. Now you have bed bugs so they're sending you to the terminal to either switch trucks or clean up the one you have. I'm not sure what else you'd like them to do.

What I would do is stick it out. Let them either clean up the truck you have or put you in a different one.

Robert, if you examined the day to day lives of any trucker out there they are all filled with hardships and challenges. People are missing their spouses and children, getting ill, getting stuck waiting on freight, dealing with bed bugs, dealing with racist drivers, waiting on repairs to get done, sitting out snowstorms, and a million other things.

Your story is no different than anyone else's. You've had some challenges. Welcome to trucking. That's how it goes. Quitting your job isn't going to change that. Every company you work for will have its issues. Trucking in general always has its issues and challenges. There's no escaping it.

I would stay where you're at, get your truck fixed up, and keep moving. Complete your contract and earn a great reputation as a top tier driver. That's when you'll start getting new equipment, top miles, and top pay.

You also have to understand that you're not making much money because you're not focusing on turning miles. You hated your last co-driver so you made the company get you away from him. Now you have a different truck but it has bed bugs and you're having them send you to the terminal. You're not going to turn big miles until you can focus on turning big miles.

So get the truck fixed up, learn your trade, develop a great reputation, and you'll reap the rewards. Quitting your job isn't going to fix anything.

Thanks Brett and G-town. I understand as a driver there's tough times. Hopefully they will fix this and I can finish the next 9 months without anymore crap than needed lol

Well there's always going to be a lot of crap to deal with. Some people learn not to let many things bother them and soldier through it. Others decide trucking is just more than they can handle.

The next few months are going to be the toughest of your career. Keep that in mind. It will never get easy, but it will get easier. You'll learn your trade better, you'll get newer equipment, you'll get better miles with bigger paychecks, and you'll have a lot of fun along the way.

Trucking is tough. It just is. Don't wait around for it to get easy because it never will. Embrace the challenges and meet them head on. The Top Tier Drivers learn how to turn 3,000+ miles per week and they do it for months and years at a time. See if you can get to that level. Take it as a personal challenge to see how good you can become at this and overcome the endless challenges you'll face.

While I agree with the main points by Brett and others, I think there would have to be a quicker fix than driving the truck for a week with bedbugs in it. Even if they are putting you up at night in a hotel. If the truck has them they’re not just in the mattress....

While I agree with the main points by Brett and others, I think there would have to be a quicker fix than driving the truck for a week with bedbugs in it. Even if they are putting you up at night in a hotel. If the truck has them they’re not just in the mattress....

So what are you saying he should do?

And what should the company have done?

You have to realize this is a business they're running, not a charity. And yet they've spent how much money on this driver already and he's still ready to quit?

At what point does the company actually get to stop spending money on this driver and actually start getting some of that money back, you know what I'm saying? They do actually have to make money at some point.

They spent money to bring him in and train him. They're spending more money to get him away from the partner that he didn't like and put him in his own truck. Now they're spending even more money on hotels while trying to get him back to the yard to get this truck cleaned out or to get him in another truck.

Are you saying they should spend even more money to get him back to the yard ASAP and not worry about hauling freight or burning fuel or neglecting customers?

Good grief, man. When do you finally stop throwing money at a person's every whim and actually ask them to do something in return?

Remember, all of this is happening in only in the first month. What happens next week when he gets sick and needs a few days off? And what about the week after that when he misses his family and wants some time at home for that, too?

It's easy as an employee to keep saying, "The company should do more. The company should do more." At what point does the company get to stop losing money catering to everyone's needs and actually expect a driver to get some work done, ya know what I'm saying?

This company seems to be doing everything they can to cater to this driver, a driver who just got out of training and has yet to prove himself or make any money for the company. They're putting their money and their faith in him that he's going to pan out, and yet he's here asking us how to break the contract.

By no means am I saying he should break his contract and I realize the company has invested a lot of money in training him and hopefully training him for success. Agree that he’s made a lot of requests that have been met by the company also. Did he have legitimate complaints, is he just overly sensitive, if he just trying to find a reason to break it or if he’s a future million miler and company driver of the year? I don’t know the answers to those questions but if you truly have a truck infested with bedbugs it is of my opinion that the company either finds an exterminator at your location to treat it or route you directly to the terminal to have it taken care of. Just staying in a hotel at night doesn’t necessarily do anything but prevent you from sleeping with them. That’s not the only place they’ll be nor are they exclusively nocturnal. The bites can create different problems for different people plus any luggage etc you take on the truck can carry them to the hotel room with you. Bites and itching can be as simple as that or lead to insomnia, rashes and in some cases allergic reactions as serious as anaphylaxis.

if you truly have a truck infested with bedbugs it is of my opinion that the company either finds an exterminator at your location to treat it or route you directly to the terminal to have it taken care of. Just staying in a hotel at night doesn’t necessarily do anything but prevent you from sleeping with them. That’s not the only place they’ll be nor are they exclusively nocturnal. The bites can create different problems for different people plus any luggage etc you take on the truck can carry them to the hotel room with you. Bites and itching can be as simple as that or lead to insomnia, rashes and in some cases allergic reactions as serious as anaphylaxis.

Understood. But you have to think about the big picture. We all have hardships we face on the road. We're lonely and we miss our families, we're feeling under the weather, the heat or air conditioning quits on you, or you get bed bugs. Sometimes you simply have to soldier through some tough times for a little while. You can't always ask the company to stop what they're doing and spend a pile of money to keep you in perfect comfort all the time.

Would hiring a local exterminator be a good idea? That sounds reasonable. But even one day with that truck sitting costs the company a ton of money. Now imagine you're running a company with 2,000 trucks. How many drivers do you think have something going on that they feel warrants immediate attention every single day? Probably hundreds of them. They can't just dump the obligation to their customers and shut down their extremely expensive trucks or pay for fuel to run people hundreds of miles every time something little comes up. And even though they're annoying, in the grand scheme of things bed bugs are something little.

Picture yourself as an owner operator. You have a truck payment of $2,000/month. You have insurance payments, accounting services, a lawyer, health insurance, and a million other bills that just keep coming. Are you going to spend hundreds of dollars out of your pocket every time something little happens out there? Heck no! You'll be bankrupt in no time.

Personally I feel the company took appropriate action. They gave this driver a different truck when he said he didn't like his partner. They gave him a hotel every night and routed him to the terminal when he said he had bed bugs. They're obviously making one heck of an effort to appease this driver, who is brand new remember and the company is still in debt because of the costs of training him. Now they're going deeper in debt getting him moved into other trucks and paying for hotels.

In return for all of this I think it's reasonable that the driver does what he can to keep the truck moving. He's not being asked to sleep in that bed.

There are also a hundred things you can buy yourself to limit the bed bugs considerably. So he can help himself out with some home remedy stuff and staying in a hotel while they work him back toward the terminal.