Today's Thoughts. By Jeff Head 11/8/14 Starvation
Starvation as many safe and legal truckers have found out is
a very wicked weapon used by some companies.
You see they force such drivers from their ranks simply by letting them
sit without pay rather than to fire them risking legal action for refusing
loads or equipment that are unsafe or illegal
to run. I know from an experience I had
a few years back just how this works and why I decided to move my truck to a
company where I had the options to select which agents I would work for as I
seen fit.
Still today though many company
drivers are locked into working for one company or the other hoping that they
never have to take a chance and just say no.
Because each time they do, they never really know if they will be placed
on the "starve out" list because they are no longer considered team
players.
For me, as the years went by in my trucking career I found
myself moving from company to company then finally becoming an Owner Operator in
the hopes of finally finding a place in the trucking industry where I as a safe
and legal driver could survive without having to risk the lives of the people I
share the highway with. I thought I had
found home with one of the largest companies in America and for several years,
I made a good living supporting both my family and my truck. Always demanding to run safe and always
demanding to run legal.
In fact, so much was I able to do this that in fifteen years
my company never once had a problem with me.
I received my Million Mile Safe Driving Award and my record shows no preventable
accidents. Not one time in all those
years can you even find a load that I was late on and to my knowledge, as
perfect a record as a driver could have.
In the end though, I found myself driving a truck that was lacking in
funds to do even simple repairs and my family wondering if dad was going to be
able to pay the rent this month.
How could this happen you might ask? Simple, while I built my reputation as a safe
and legal driver working for a company that demands safe and legal drivers work
for them, agents, brokers, shippers, and receivers demanded drivers that could
get the job done. Yes, they all claimed
safety as their company motto, but when it came down to it, drivers like me
were set aside while they used drivers that would get the job done.
Even inside the safety net of a major company,
there simply was not enough protection for this safe and legal driver to
survive the unwritten rules of the trucking industry. Move the freight regardless or go sit on the
sidelines and starve.
Perhaps one day this dream of mine for drivers to be able to
run safe and legal without reprisal will come true. As for now though, I do believe we are
heading in the right direction but still have a long way to go. Knowing that a driver will make a safe and
legal decision with a load should not be a reason to starve that driver from
your drivers list. It has to become the
number one reason to put that driver at the top of your list. Until that day comes, our highways will stay littered
with the bodies of those that will pay the ultimate price because way to many
times truckers are forced to choose between starvation or feeding their
families.
If you want safe and legal truckers on the highways, first
you must understand that we do exist.
Then you must support us or just as I have found out myself, we are
simply be starved out of the industry.
God Bless America
#rlbjeffhead
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Books By Jeff Head
Running Legal Blues
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