Fired For Bad Attitude

Hello everyone,

I was fired in July 2024 after telling a mega carrier's Western van division director that I didn't like him. I was in compete disbelief as it was happening. I used no profanity or disrespectful language, but the company listed it on my DAC as a policy violation. I didn't consider it a policy violation at the time and didn't even really think I was being disrespectful so much as completely honest. There are definitely people still working for the company who have attitudes much worse than mine. I definitely wouldn't have told him that if I thought I would be fired or even disciplined for it.

I've had no safety issues since 2021, but I haven't been driving for just over a year. I applied at a few megacarriers but I haven't managed to get a job yet - they are all saying they want me to get six months of experience with another carrier after they review my DAC.

I see that there are a lot of companies who will hire people with criminal records and safety issues, but I am having a little more difficulty figuring out what to do in my situation. What companies should I apply to?

Thanks!

This is one of those times where I miss Paul Harvey.

Jeff, the only advice I can give is this... If you honestly believe you got fired for having a bad attitude, you will absolutely have a difficult time finding another trucking job.

Your description of everything is screaming... "There is more to the story." If you can't see through your "complete honesty," and realize what was really happening, you'll probably not resolve this.

Paul Harvey always gave us "the rest of the story." If you could figure that part out, and share it with us, we might be able to help.

This is one of those times where I miss Paul Harvey.

Jeff, the only advice I can give is this... If you honestly believe you got fired for having a bad attitude, you will absolutely have a difficult time finding another trucking job.

Your description of everything is screaming... "There is more to the story." If you can't see through your "complete honesty," and realize what was really happening, you'll probably not resolve this.

Paul Harvey always gave us "the rest of the story." If you could figure that part out, and share it with us, we might be able to help.

I really don't know what to tell you. My safety record was excellent. I hadn't been disciplined for anything for years. I didn't get so much as a warning. They listed it on my DAC as company policy violations.

Okay, let's try something...

Tell me why you felt the need to be "completely honest" with this "Western Van Division Director" by telling him you didn't like him.

I'm very open and honest, but I can't even imagine saying that to anyone unless there was already a great deal of friction going on between us.

Okay, let's try something...

Tell me why you felt the need to be "completely honest" with this "Western Van Division Director" by telling him you didn't like him.

I'm very open and honest, but I can't even imagine saying that to anyone unless there was already a great deal of friction going on between us.

Oh... why was I talking to a director? Well, I was complaining about this one minimally competent dispatcher who was always taking my loads and making promises that he couldn't keep to get me loads. I'm sure we have all had difficult dispatchers before, but ordinarily, it's possible to work things out so that you and the dispatcher come to an understanding or you and the dispatcher's manager come to an understanding.

This dispatcher pulled my loads all the time, and he made a lot of mistakes, and he wasn't very good at following through at all, but he was such a nice guy that it was hard to be upset about it. After one especially egregious incident where I had been preassigned my load home and assigned a load at a beer distributor on a trailer with an air leak... I had wanted to just get a different load.

While the repairs were being taken care of (there were many other loads there at the time), the dispatcher at the time said I had to wait for that particular trailer to get repaired to keep my load home. When the repairs were finally made, I started taking the load to Cheyenne, and my preassign home was immediately pulled (and there was plenty of time for me to do delivery).

I called dispatch, and of course, that one nice but incompetent and backstabbing dispatcher was working and said he couldn't do anything about it. When I asked for his supervisor, he clearly didn't like that idea, and I had to wait for several hours, and when I finally spoke to him, his supervisor just screamed at me and hung up the phone.

I sat waiting in Cheyenne for two days for another load. I was not at all happy about this and called driver relations. They left a message for the director. He called me two weeks later and said he was the only reason I still had a job and that I would have been fired several times already if not for him.

I saw this as absolute nonsense - there was practically zero chance he had ever heard of me before that point, and I hadn't been disciplined for anything while working in his division, which had the least competent and agreeable people in the company. He ended by saying that I should thank him that I still have a job and that he had better not hear any more complaints about me and that we should all get back to work.

I told him that I didn't like the dispatcher who was taking my loads, I didn't like the team, and I didn't like him. (Bear in mind that I had said several times in this conversation that I didn't like that dispatcher or the team while explaining my reasons in great detail. This was the first time and only time I said I didn't like him.) He asked me where I wanted to turn in the truck. I told him I wasn't planning on quitting for another six months.

He had me routed to Phoenix. I got called into safety. I remember thinking, "Oh great, I'm probably getting a written warning for insubordination or something." While I didn't think I deserved to be written up, under the circumstances, I could understand why that might happen. Instead, he started the discussion by telling me I was fired.

Let’s start with the obvious sentiment you didn’t along very well with these folks.

It sounds to me like you made assumptions on certain things and didn’t ask the right questions to find a better resolution.

We’ve all had horrible dispatchers or load planners in our career’s. It usually turns out to no one’s personal liking, but most of us handled the situation without getting fired.

Drivers and dispatchers are generally like oil and water. It’s difficult to mix the two. Reason being many times is because neither understand the others job, and when they square off thinking the other is out to screw them it ends up going south for someone. As you found out the hard way.

The reality is freight rates are in the toilet now going back 3 years. At times freight has been slow, coupled with the many companies going out of business flooding the industry with available experienced drivers, companies are being very picky not only on the drivers they hire, but also the ones they retain.

All you can do is apply everywhere and pray someone is willing to give you another chance. While your waiting take a hard look at your interactions and develop a better plan to handle conflict resolution.

This went under the FAFO category. You found out, the hard way.

In terms of learning from this. Keep your trap shut next time. Seriously, unless I was done with the company and even then I wouldn't do it to avoid burning a bridge, I wouldn't bother telling a manager I did not like them. It will have no good possible outcome.

I mean really? Who does that? This is something we learn not to do early in grade school. Maybe its just a Gen X thing, but we were raised to work hard, keep our mouths shut and if its not working out, go elsewhere or find a way to make it work.

If your dispatcher is not working for you, and you're unable to resolve the issues, request a different dispatcher. Use language that is non combative. Like its not working out or we have different approaches to work that are incompatible. If that fails, go to work elsewhere. But leave in such a manner that you could get rehired.

Learn how to be a tad bit diplomatic. This is just basic communication and work stuff, really has nothing to do with trucking so much as it's stuff that used to be taught in school.

People fail in this industry a lot because of really basic reasons, usually poor choices and personality traits thst will haunt them at any and every industry.