I Quit Swift Transportation Voluntarily But They Wrote I Was Involuntarily Fired On My DAC For Safety Policy

My current truck almost never trips the camera. Well, that's OK.

Ahhh, I'm sure the folks at Oreo Cookies are glad to hear that. I'm sure that their sales have increased now! I'm just saying...

Not to worry, I've been eating enough Oreo's for both of us. LOL!

JJ

Being on that Walmart dedicated run for 10 days or so didn't help much. LOL

Being on that Walmart dedicated run for 10 days or so didn't help much. LOL

Were you in Pottsville, 7030?

I started not to reply to this because I am not yet a driver, but I have somewhat of a unique perspective as while I was at university I interned at a place that was basically a career counseling center for people who had employment problems in their past such as a spotty work history, history of being fired, criminal records, etc. They took classes from us and learned soft skills, what employers were looking for in entry level employment, and we had a network of employers we worked with that were willing to give people a second chance. I realize the OP has bailed, but maybe someone else will see this and learn something from it.

#1. You committed the unforgivable sin of quitting without notice. There are very, very few things that this is ever an excuse for. You have no idea what type of a lurch this puts an employer in. People had to pick up what you left behind without notice and you screwed up a lot of planing and this likely cost Swift a nice chunk of change and in a smaller outfit it could have even cost them a client. There was no excuse for this. This is going to haunt you for a long time no matter what career field you go into.

#2. You left, and without notice at that, less than a year after you were hired. I know all the OP is interested in now is how much he's going to have to pay back for his schooling, but every employer's door you go knocking on from this point forward is going to not open very easily for you. People do not realize it but it costs a ton of money for a company to hire you and then even more when you become eligible for benefits. Companies run on thin margins and it takes a good long time before they recoup their costs they outlaid to put you on the books. Police department? With just this and quitting without notice your chances of getting a job like that are slim to none unless you had years and years of a stable and stellar work history and judging by your profile pictures you're not old enough for that. You will be lucky if you can flip burgers for a year and reestablish your work history before you get a decent job again. Sorry, but you screwed the pooch and now you're going to need to be at one job for one year no matter what and you're not going to get a good one until you pay off this bad karma debt.

#3. You tried to beat the system when clearly they wanted you out. I don't care if you're even in a union shop, and I would know because I was raised by my grandparents and Grandpa was a organizer for the Teamsters, when a company wants you gone you are going to be gone. When they started keeping a paper trail on you with your mentor or what you alluded to was "other times" with management, you needed to have moved on then. Yes, it is quitting before a year's employment was up and that still is a black mark against you, but at least you could have found another job and gave notice and you wouldn't be in this situation. I really don't know who you thought you were going to fight off with audio recordings which may have even proved you in the right technically, but when they decide you're going to go you are going to go. Most states that are not heavily unionized are employment at will states meaning both you and your employer can terminate your relationship unilaterally at any time and for any reason except for protected reasons which are: age, sex, race, creed, national origin, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and some states add a couple of other classes. That's the cold, hard truth. Your boss can fire you because he just thinks you're ugly or he wants to give your job to his nephew. You have no recourse in most states unless you're in a collective bargaining contract, and like I said even then if they really want to jump threw hoops they will find a way.

#4. As far as a libel suit or a wrongful termination suit, forget about it. You were a truck driver and that doesn't provide a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow even if your not in a employment at will state. No lawyer is going to take that case. There just isn't the money in that that would make it pay. Could you file in small claims court? Yes you could, but small claims is not a court of what is called original jurisdiction. What this means is you will file, Swift won't even bother to show up, you'll win the judgement, but all Swift has to do is appeal one level up where you will have to have a whole new trial and you have to have a lawyer and it is as if your small claims case never existed, because this level is the court of original jurisdiction. Swift will send a lawyer this time even if somehow you're able to get the case filed with the proper legal jargon and without an expensive attorney you're not going to win. Off the top of my head I can think of only two wrongful termination cases since the 70's dealing with working class people that succeeded and both involved flight attendants. One was where flight attendants had to quit or be fired once they reached a certain age, and the other was one who was slightly overweight and she was fired for this. In both cases what made them special was that there were political forces that paid for the attorneys because it fit those forces' agenda. I know of no lobby that would be interested in a PITA out of work trucker. Just keeping it real there dude.

Being on that Walmart dedicated run for 10 days or so didn't help much. LOL

Were you in Pottsville, 7030?

Yes, back and forth between Philadelphia and or all parts New Jersey every day. I basically volunteered for one load after delivering a load of water heaters from Nashville and they Shanghai'd me for about 10 days. LOL!

All of a sudden my mac 10 was disabled so I couldn't contact the planners directly. I asked my DM what was going on and she tells me I'm now Walmart dedicated. I'm like ok since when? She says since whoever you been talking to up there asked you if you wanted on and you agreed. I'm like but I haven't talked to anybody I know idea what's going on

I then asked her to put me back on Western 11 or straight OTR. She says she can't, the only one who can take me off the Walmart account is the person that put me on it. I'm like " WTF, but I have no idea who that is or even how I got here". LOL!

JJ

Being on that Walmart dedicated run for 10 days or so didn't help much. LOL

Were you in Pottsville, 7030?

Yes, back and forth between Philadelphia and or all parts New Jersey every day. I basically volunteered for one load after delivering a load of water heaters from Nashville and they Shanghai'd me for about 10 days. LOL!

All of a sudden my mac 10 was disabled so I couldn't contact the planners directly. I asked my DM what was going on and she tells me I'm now Walmart dedicated. I'm like ok since when? She says since whoever you been talking to up there asked you if you wanted on and you agreed. I'm like but I haven't talked to anybody I know idea what's going on

I then asked her to put me back on Western 11 or straight OTR. She says she can't, the only one who can take me off the Walmart account is the person that put me on it. I'm like " WTF, but I have no idea who that is or even how I got here". LOL!

JJ

Send me an email mssg at TT.gtown@spamgourmet.com

Being on that Walmart dedicated run for 10 days or so didn't help much. LOL

Were you in Pottsville, 7030?

Yes, back and forth between Philadelphia and or all parts New Jersey every day. I basically volunteered for one load after delivering a load of water heaters from Nashville and they Shanghai'd me for about 10 days. LOL!

All of a sudden my mac 10 was disabled so I couldn't contact the planners directly. I asked my DM what was going on and she tells me I'm now Walmart dedicated. I'm like ok since when? She says since whoever you been talking to up there asked you if you wanted on and you agreed. I'm like but I haven't talked to anybody I know idea what's going on

I then asked her to put me back on Western 11 or straight OTR. She says she can't, the only one who can take me off the Walmart account is the person that put me on it. I'm like " WTF, but I have no idea who that is or even how I got here". LOL!

JJ

Send me an email mssg at TT.gtown@spamgourmet.com

Email sent, JJ

Team Venture, you got quite a mess and I don't know where to begin. For starters, if I were you, I'd write the moderator and ask to delete the names of the people you made reference to for legal reasons; then I'd step back, take a deep breath and consult an attorney. In the meantime, try using Swift's chain of command (i.e. corporate) but do go in blind. Do the research. If you aren't articulate and/or are easily rattled, find someone more mature to assist you. Good luck.

Well, Team Venture what is it you want from us?

Were you just wanting to see if we would jump right in there with you and bash on Swift?

You seem to be really big on recording folks, so maybe, just maybe you should sit back and listen to yourself once in a while.

Here, let me give you some recordings of what you just said to us...

before we proceed with the conversation he wanted to make sure I was not recording him. I have a habit of recording people I speak to for legal reasons

my mentor said I was uncooperative

I was able to prove my mentor was being unprofessional and openly racist they had no choice but to keep me on .

I was terminated for a major safety violation and I am highly un-recommended for employment.

I always had a very negative relationship with the management at Swift Transportation.

Ken at the Denver swift terminal made it very clear that he went out of his way to make me unhireable anywhere else for being a pain in his ass.

Well Sir, I'm trying to be polite when I say that you sound like the kind of driver companies would be falling all over themselves to hire you, don't you agree after looking at all the things you told us?

This is the part of your tale of woe that really got to me.

When I tried to plead with him and work something out he told me to get off his property and that if I contact him or stepped foot on another Swift Terminal I would be arrested.

Do you really expect us to believe that they would respond to you like that if you were such a wonderful employee? We have a lot of very successful Swift drivers in this forum who have never had any kind of an experience anything close to the way you make them out to be.

Here's where you really failed Swift. You decided you wanted to "plead with them and work something out" after you had already burned your bridges. The time to be working things out is from day one, and the only way you can do that is to be a productive professional who is more concerned with his own performance than he is with worrying about what you can get on a recording to back yourself up. My friend, I have never needed to record anybody in this business who is in authority over me. In fact I have garnered their respect by my performance. You have started out very poorly, and it is not a reflection upon Swift. I'm sorry to appear as being hard on you, but somebody needs to show you the way to success, because you have totally messed in your nest. It's time to get real and face some facts - you are extremely hard to work with. Your comments make it all too clear.