Thanks for reading and the input.
To Chae Transport: It is a shame how much a sue happy country this country has become. But companies who lie and set drivers up to quit or be terminated only adds to the problems. I was a new driver only wanting to do a job safely and leaglly - I just did not know a year ago how bad the decision was to get into trucking at this time - how bad my timing was - and the nonsense and games the companies who take students on are playing. Swift did not give me a truck, then gave me a task to do that was impossible before getting a truck (my very long thread is here on that story in the Swift section) - they knew what they were doing. Then Werner setting me up for late loads, not doing repairs which messed up my performance, then telling me I was idling when I was not. Werner does not want drivers to go to a terminal. But when I di for repairs and such, EVERY SINGLE TIME I went to a terminal, I would see a bunch of guys with their bags packed and going home because they were fired over late loads, idling - all the things I was being told I was doing (the idling was not true, and the late loads was because they ran my time so tight, it was impossible to deliver ontime - even without stopping to eat during a 11 hour drive day). So they set me up to quit or be fired too (and my long thread about that story is here too under Werner). I know I am not the only one who has been given a problem. Trouble is these companies set themselves up to be sued with the games they play. They hire drivers to get the subsidy money, and get rid of drivers who have been with the company a while, and the newbies who don't even have 6 months in yet. Then you get a bad report on your DAC, so when things get better, you're still screwed. No wonder this is a sue happy nation.
To Southernpride: I don't know what kind of stand I can really take. In the end, it's all the "he says this or that against the big company, and the company says this is what happened". In the end, it's usually the little guy who loses. I get the crap from Swift and Werner. Then PAM tells me "Yes, submit an application". They review it, do all background checks as if they are interested in hiring me. All background checks come back positive (I have copies of them all), and I am told I submitted a good application with a clean CDL - etc.. The recruiter does not call me back. I call her to find out what is going on, and I am told all background checks come back positive (I have copies of them all), and I am told I submitted a good application with a clean CDL - etc.. I am also told they are short of trainers and the trainers are only picking up contracted students. Then several trainers I know with PAM and Decker tell me they are not shor of trainers, and a couple of these guys have been waiting for a student for over a month. I have been rubbed RAW as it is by Swift and Werner, and what seems to be a lie from P.A.M. does not help. I am tired of being played around with just because the economy is bad. So I e-mailed back to tell of my findings. At least if I am never hired in a million years (as 2xR said in a reply to me), they will at least know some of us are tired of being lied to, raked over the coals, and we check into what we are told. Maybe Lavonna McClanahan will not be so fast to lie to the next person. Besides Werner pretty much screwed me anyway with a termination before I even had 6 months as a First Seat Driver. And more and more companies now require 6 months and more experience. The door is closing to newbies more and more.
This is to all readers: Definately there are more people being hired than there are trucks or loads. Werner, Swift and who knows who else, are hiring and firing in a frenzy. This is because they get a Government Bailout Subsidy money (like $5,000.00 - $10,000.00 for EACH student) for taking student drivers. They get the money, and find a way to get rid of the new driver before they have to pay anything significant back to the school the driver had a contract with. But like all the other misuse of subsidy money others do in this country, it will take the Government FOREVER to put a stop to it. Meanwhile, too many of us get a bad record on our DAC we should not have recieved. Too many new drivers are entering a trucking school who is in cahoots with companies like Swift and Werner. The person going to school is told that there are always trucking jobs, and that all they have to do is work for one of these companies for a year for tuition reimbursement. Then the student at the school gets dropped from the carrier he was supposed to work for and talked into a company like Swift (this happened to me when I went to C1 Indianapolis). Then/and/or the student goes with Swift, Werner, ..... and gets played around with and made to quit or get fired. Then the school is not getting paid, your account goes to collection, and they badger you every week for $7,000.00 you don't have. At the same time, veterin drivers get screwed, and these carriers who get this subsidy money keep cycling drivers through like cattle. With more and more companies not taking drivers with less than 6 months to a year experience, or not taking a driver who was terminated, more and more CDLs are not worth the plastic they are printed on. If the nonsense does not stop soon, I will just go to my license branch and get rid of the CDL because they are a nuisance to have unless you are driving a big truck. And I fully believe these schools who SELL you on these jobs, or the jobs (companies) selling you on the schools, know full well what is going on. But keep taking people anyway to keep their accounts lined with money. As these companies are a BUSINESS, so is the school - they're in it for the MONEY, not YOU. But then people need to look into this industry more closely before thinking they will be doing okay when they really most likely will not. People need to look after their number 1 business - themself. So I definately will not pay the school for the way I was set up to fail. And I hope they try to sue me, because I will take my full story to the media before i get hauled into court. Actually I should just see what media entity may want to hear what is going on anyway.
In short: I entered the trucking industry expecting to have to work 70 hours a week for $600.00 or $700.00 (you are told you can make $35,000.00 - $40,000.00 your first year, but they do not tell you that you'll drive over 100,000 miles that year to do it, and work 70 hour weeks just about every week that year - but I already knew it); I knew full well of the 3+ weeks away before you go home, and the only 1 day off per week; I knew of most of the time not really getting home when you ask; I knew you really don't have a life exept the road; I knew when you really look at it, an new CDL-A driver is no where near paid what he is worth (come on, I know about "paying your dues", but let's get real here); and I knew the D.O.T. in a lot of areas just itches to slap a $2,000.00 fine on a driver. I knew all these things and more before deciding to go to CDL training. I have been on the road a lot, and I knew I could handle being out there, and I was willing to accept the things I mentioned above for the little bit of time I was going to put into O.T.R. company driving (2 years at the most is all I was going to do). But it all got to be too much when I saw all the ways drivers are taken advantage of, made to bend the rules, and made to work more than 70 hours a week because most really don't know they are being used, and buy into all the "loopholes" in logging as being okay (yeah right, YOU he driver is responsible, and when you get caught doing something wrong, the D.O.T. will not listen to you when you tell them "my dispatcher told me to do this, or it was okay to do that". see how much they care and how much they back you up when you get caught and lose your CDL). So the forced dispatch all the time, and the attempts to get me to work more hours than i should have to got to be too much. And it has nothing to do with being lazy, it has to do with knowing full well when I am being used and abused. It's all in the regulations about logging and when you are legal to be on line 1, line 4, or whatever. I'm not stupid enough to be awake and doing something company related 90 hours a week for $600.00 just to save on my 70 hour clock.
By the time Greenhorns learn what is legal and what is not, or learn all the ropes and when a dispatcher is screwing you over - it's too late and you are gone with a bad work record to try to fix or explain later.
I should have just driven a Taxi Cab. I'd have done better.