Starvation

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

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Books By Jeff Head

Running Legal Blues

Drive Safe