Why Do They Torture Us This Way?!!!

My teammate and I just got back on the road from our downtime on Thursday. On Friday we got routed to our CA terminal for mid trip inspection and full service on our truck, and to do our quarterly safety training. Also, got a message that we need to see safety. We could have seen them today, if it hadn't been for the flat on the preload thay had us pick up to bring to the yard, now we have to spend the whole weekend trying to figure out what naughty thing we did to get called in. I'm assuming it's not a firing offense or they would have sent us to the terminal and told us to take a hike. Why do they put us through this rare form of torture. Just why?!!! (being dramatic for fun....lol).

For the same reason they don't tell you that you have to come in to do a random pee test. Your safety person probably wasn't in there today. The office staff usually is home on the weekends.

I got let go by my company in May because as I found out at the meeting, the office manager saw the covered driver facing camera. They did not tell me that I was getting fired. All they said was freight is slow and they would get me a different trip. Then on Monday I got the call to come in. Some people would trash the trucks or abandon it somewhere, so that's why they don't tell the driver. I wouldn't worry about it too much and enjoy your down time

Laura

I’m confident they want to give you an award for being such a safe driver. But they want it to be a surprise

When I went in on Wednesday morning a supervisor said the operations manager is looking for you. I found him in the office and he says "when you get back see the service center manager (the guy that runs the building)"...I ask why and he says he can't say. Helluva thing to tell me before a 290 mile drive each way. Half way into my trip, I get a text from my dispatcher

A few hours later I get a message on my handheld from the AM dispatcher saying the same thing.

When I pull into the yard the afternoon dispatcher calls me and says "you know you have to see the service center manager before you leave"

I drop my trailers and fuel up. I go to see the boss and apparently I was a witness to something that happened and they wanted a statement.

Longest night ever.

I sincerely doubt they would make you wait to fire you if it were seriously a terminal offense. If they deemed you a safety risk, most likely they would ground you immediately upon making the decision to terminate. But this is coming from my experience as a Tow truck / Forklift operator in previous lives. I don't know if they do it different in trucking. I have only been with one company thus far in the trucking world so I couldn't tell you standard practices.

That said, if you genuinely can't think of a reason as to why they would fire you, I would breathe easy. Most companies don't look for random reasons to fire experienced employees especially after they spent time and trainer hours to get you active on the road.

It is entirely possible they may have questions regarding an incident in which company property was implicated. They most likely have something for you to sign or possibly questions regarding an unrelated incident where someone called and implicated you or your truck. There are a number of reasons why home office would want to chat. The least likely of them being your walking papers. Try to not worry about it if you can.

My teammate and I just got back on the road from our downtime on Thursday. On Friday we got routed to our CA terminal for mid trip inspection and full service on our truck, and to do our quarterly safety training. Also, got a message that we need to see safety. We could have seen them today, if it hadn't been for the flat on the preload thay had us pick up to bring to the yard, now we have to spend the whole weekend trying to figure out what naughty thing we did to get called in. I'm assuming it's not a firing offense or they would have sent us to the terminal and told us to take a hike. Why do they put us through this rare form of torture. Just why?!!! (being dramatic for fun....lol).

Yeah, this is going to be a looooonnnnngggg weekend, lol.

This is most likely just a random drug test. Don't sweat it and we'd love to hear back from you after the ordeal is over. Let us know what went down.

This is most likely just a random drug test. Don't sweat it and we'd love to hear back from you after the ordeal is over. Let us know what went down.

That's my best guess, too. The bright side is a 34 hour reset (I would ask for Layover Pay) and you have all this time to study up!

I never understood the reasoning behind not telling a driver they are having a random drug test done when they return to a terminal. If a driver has used illegal substances, it isn't possible to hide it. Our company always called us to tell us "you have to go get a random drug screen done when you get back." "Okay, will do." Then we go get it done.

I assume it's to cut down on people trying to trick the tests. Either a bag of pee or the super hardcore catheter and shoot clean pee in your bladder

I never understood the reasoning behind not telling a driver they are having a random drug test done when they return to a terminal. If a driver has used illegal substances, it isn't possible to hide it. Our company always called us to tell us "you have to go get a random drug screen done when you get back." "Okay, will do." Then we go get it done.