Company Has Me Over A Barrel

Hello, I am a CDL-A holder with one year of OTR team driving experience. I was hired by the company i work for right after graduating CDL school from a technicsl college. As a 50+ year old single mother with a 15 year old son trucking seemed to be the quickest way to a paycheck. I had no idea how hard just the CDL school it would be. I went from kindergarten to college, I.e. school straight to the west coast. Company put me with a male trainer which I had no problem with as long as it was understood that it was all about the job and not playing grab-as#%. Starting pay was pretty low with a percent going to my codriver for training. He had never trained anyone before I was told I would get a raise at 2, 6 and 12 months, depending on performance. Starting out was difficult because I was homesick and missed my child so bad and was worried about leaving him with his Dad. Fast forward to present. I have my year in now minus a couple of weeks and I have had 6 or 7 codrivrrs in this year. The last one was the only one I had a complaint about, and it was because of poor hygiene. Since then, about six weeks they have put me on hold saying they cannot find me a partner to team with. I believe this to be BS. I tried another company, a mega carrier, but found out that they would not accept my health card because of my medication for adult ADD , although prescribed under a doctors supervision. I believe they are retaliating because I made a complaint. I work hard, pull my weight, have a clean MVR and no CSA points. I really don’t want to work for a mega carrier anyway. I would like to find a small company or an owner operator. Home time is more important than pay. Right now I am really depressed because I have busted my butt for a year for these people and they are blacklisting me, i believe. They have given me some side work on weekends, not enough to keep us fed, and I am at a loss. I live near the Chattanooga area. .

Your distain for mega carriers is unwarranted as is your statement on the other thread that a company mainly hires men. Thats because theres only 8% of women in trucking so every company will have more men.

i work for a mega carrier that has one of the highest % of women, like 17% now... we even have a spa in the terminal for massages and facials and manis and pedis. Not all.megas are the same and they offer greater oppotunities for dedicated and regional.

You said one mega carrier rejected you for your meds which is their right to do so. Try another company or ask about switching to a preferred meds. You chose a teaming company but i make as much solo as i would teaming, so why not go solo at a company? Any smaller company will have issues placing drivers. Swapping that many codruvers in a year must be exhausting.

If its CRST we have a guy on the general discussion board complaining about the same thing. So it isnt sexism or retribution.

Talk to you dispatcher , operations manager or terminal.manager and get rolling. you don t seem to dislike the company, just not driving.

good luck

Cynthia,

Have you taken a good hard look in the mirror, the problem maybe you and not the company. If so that's good because the solution is within your control. In my experience as both a boss and the bossed I have found that most folks will tolerate being told almost anything as long as you are polite, sincere and empathetic. Being willing to give a little bit doesn't hurt either.

As for your co-driver that didn't shower on a regular basis, I won't argue that is should be tolerated, it shouldn't. Maybe you should have talked to the employee one on one instead of making a complaint. Most companies say that they want to hear your concerns, they don't. They want you to try and resolve any issues with coworkers yourself. If you have given that an honest try and it hasn't worked maybe you should have talked to HR or your supervisor about how to resolve the issue informally. A complaint like you made just tends to get everyone's back up.

I also noticed in another post that you take a hour most times to shower on a half hour break. This maybe this is the issue. When you take an hour for a half hour break you put you and your co-driver a half hour behind schedule. If this has caused you to be late for deliveries that maybe the issue. You didn't say if it did, but at the very least it puts timely delivery in jeprody.

Another issue may be the way you presented your complaint. If you went in saying "That SOB stinks and I don't want to drive with him any more!" you probably didn't make any friends. If you talked to someone like I suggested in the above paragraph, even seeking their advice, it might have gone better. I don't know how you handled the situation, but I'm thinking you do.

At this point maybe your best bet is to go to HR and tell them that you realize there is an issue and ask if there is anything you can do to solve it. If you take this route just remember that inspite of what HR may tell you they are not there to protect your interests, they are there to protect the company. Having said that, at this point the company has a fair amount invested in you so it is probably in your mutual best interests to resolve the situation amicably.