Lies, Damned Lies, and Schneider National

I've been playing e-mail tag with my former company for most of the last two weeks. Suffice to say that almost everything I was told before I resigned more-or-less involuntarily from my position has since turned out to be false. Allow me to summarize the highlights:

• I was told I was eligible for rehire. I found out that I'm not up to their standards. They won't tell me what those standards are nor answer my questions about work I could have done.
• I was told I could appeal the decision that led to me leading the company. I found out that any opportunity I had to file a grievance was immediately squelched the moment my resignation took effect.
• I've received two separate recruiting advertisements asking me to come back to the company, with one saying "we're committed to you." I found out that it may as well read "we're committed to you" never driving for anyone ever again.

That final point isn't hyperbole, either. I made a follow up call today to another trucking company to find out what the status of my application was. They told me that my driving report showed three preventable accidents: a minor right turn incident in January 2010 that I didn't write a blog post about and two preventable accidents on November 11, 2008. The second one that involved me hitting a building isn't in dispute; I still remember doing that and I still can't begin to excuse that. The problem is the other incident.

As I documented in that blog post, the first incident involved a narrow overpass on a non-truck route and oncoming traffic that didn't give me any room. I moved right and smacked the passenger side mirror against the side of the tractor. It's hard to claim that such an incident was preventable: the road was not wide enough for both me and the oncoming vehicle and I had little choice but to nudge to the right as he came into my lane. When I went to the shop later to have it looked at, the mechanics could find no damage to the truck whatsoever; they said they've seen bird strikes do substantially more damage. Seems like a pretty cut-and-dried example of a non-preventable accident, right?

Well, something like that is pretty straightforward unless your company writes it up as striking a moving vehicle. Yep, that's right: Schneider reported a non-preventable incident in which I was run off the road as a collision with a moving vehicle. I never knew this until I talked to another prospective employer today and found out what was on my driving history. So I called Schneider back and, after another brief round of phone tag, I talked to the guy who replaced my former boss. He said he'd look into it.

An hour later, I get a call from Schneider. This was noteworthy on its own, as it was the first time anyone from the company has returned a call in more than a month. I talked to the same guy again and heard this gem: Neither the insurance or loss prevention departments could find anything in their records that involved me hitting a moving vehicle. There was no explanation, at all, for how something like that could have possibly ended up on my driving record. The people who can correct it had already left the office by that time, but supposedly they'll work on getting that corrected tomorrow.

So you'd think that once they change "hit another car" to "run off the road by a car" on my record, it wouldn't count against me, right? I certainly thought so. But no, they're still not going to make it that easy. Because it was initially ruled preventable - even though that determination was based on false information - and I didn't appeal it within thirty days it's going to remain on my record as a preventable incident. That means I'd still have three preventables in the last three years, which is an automatic no-hire for pretty much any trucking company out there. I was floored. I remember receiving a letter regarding incidents that day saying something had been ruled preventable, but had I known they were counting both incidents I obviously would have appealed that decision. In light all this, I was advised that the only thing I could do is contact the insurance and/or loss prevention departments tomorrow during regular business hours, when people who have the authority to do something about it are in the office.

Against my better judgement, I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt, give them the morning to fix it themselves, call around noon to see if they've corrected the records. If they've amended my driver report to show what actually happened that day and have marked it as non-preventable then I can start calling other employers again. The company that informed me of the problem on my records all but said that if I can get that fixed I'll have a job. However, if they don't fix my report, they're committing libel and I'll have to find an attorney to get things settled. And yes, this is a very obvious case of libel: it's a false statement, it's harming me (by preventing me from getting a job), and they should know better because their own records don't back up their claim.

At this point I see nothing wrong with posting this much information about what happened. Schneider has made it very, very clear they do not want me to work for them again and equally clear that they've little desire to even try make things right until forced them to do so. Absolutely everything I've posted above is true; I don't have to even make stuff up to show how screwed up this situation is. I'd rather just get things straightened out so I can start working for a company that treats employees with some dignity. Schneider has shown a rather shocking amount of dishonesty and deceitfulness at almost every step of this entire process.

In closing, for anyone considering following in my footsteps with the company, take this as a warning: don't work for Schneider National unless you absolutely have to.

End of this line

While I'll likely write a much longer post on this later today or tomorrow, the short version is this: Thanks to a complaint from one store that falls somewhere between exaggeration and fabrication, I no longer am welcome at that store and, therefore, no longer eligible to run the account I've been on for the last six months. I intend on sending a complaint of my own to corporate to try set the record straight and appealing it to the two people within my own company who are capable of overturning that decision, but it's extremely unlikely that it's going to go anywhere. Unless something miraculous happens, effective Friday I'm off the account.

I've been "offered" a chance to transfer to regional or over-the-road, but neither of those is a very appealing option. Under regional services I'd likely take a pay cut and be home only weekly, plus would give up any certainty at all to my schedule and might not even be home on weekends consistently; my days off could fall mid-week when there's nothing to do and nobody to do it with. Over-the-road would be even more depressing: home no more than every other weekend. And of course, both of those options would leave me dealing with random people on the phone and all the problems that come up when dealing with an ever-changing mix of contacts within and without the company.

Given that this is all coming about because of a complaint that isn't even truthful, I'm seriously reconsidering dealing with the company at all. If someone can just make something up and create this much drama, I have little reason to believe that it wouldn't happen again even if I somehow dodge this bullet.

Hard Brakes

No, that isn't a typo. It's what might get me fired, though.

According to our company policy, decelerating at least 9 mph in one second counts as a hard braking incident. Three within thirty days is termination. I've had one of those weeks where I racked up three of those incidents just since Tuesday. Allow me to recap:

1. Tuesday afternoon, while on US 31 just south of Kokomo, the semi in front of me stomped on his brakes hard enough that they immediately started smoking. I had little choice but to do the same, despite maintaining an adequate following distance. The reason for the braking? Far as I could tell, a cop pulled someone over into the median and said person pulled into traffic without looking, nearly causing a six-vehicle pile up. There was a guy towing a small recreational trailer at a 60 degree angle to the road everyone came to a full stop. Of course, the cop didn't do anything about it.
2. Friday morning, on US 31 in Carmel. The road conditions were improving as I went south and I know that 31 is a top priority through that area. I was accelerating from 45 to 55 as the speed limit increased. There's a stop light at the end of a wide, sweeping curve in the road. The light changed to yellow; I hit the brakes and started sliding on the only patch of ice they missed. I had to get off the brakes, correct my trajectory, then decelerate. Somewhere during that I triggered the fault. I stopped right on the line, though.
3. Today, about 4 PM, on I-70/65 in downtown Indianapolis. I was in the middle lane trying to pass two people doing 25. One of those people - without signalling - moved into my lane. I pressed the brakes and started to skid. The speedometer dropped sharply from 40 to 25; the hard braking alert went off once again. I am almost certain that my actual speed went from 40 to 30 over several seconds, not near-instantaneously. But, as far as the computer is concerned, I somehow screwed up again.

Except for perhaps the second incident - in which I might have been travelling slightly too fast - I don't see anything but quick reactions in defensive driving situations. Had I not done what I did, I would have blown through a light, rear ended someone else, or worse. Trying to keep other people safe by reacting quickly and decisively, apparently, is very likely to get me fired when the account manager sees all this data Monday morning.

I'm worried sick about this right now. It doesn't help that the trailer I'm trying to pick up has frozen brakes - hence why I had time to write out this blog post - which gives them yet another reason to fire me: for being unable to deliver a load on time. When I called the manager to explain the problem, he seemed angry that I'd even considered trying to get Monday's load early to ensure we wouldn't be screwed on time for Tuesday's run. I've been waiting over an hour for a wrecker service to come out here and try get me out of this quagmire, but they still haven't contacted me or the breakdown department. There's now no way at all I can do anything about this and yet, if I don't somehow do at all myself, I'm done.

We'll see, I suppose. Eventually.

A few notes on "attitude"

While I lack the time to write a full blog post on the matter, suffice to say that I had a confrontation with the account manager again today. Among other unprofessional comments he made, he said he didn't like my attitude yet could only point to one incident in which my attitude was remotely a factor. Also, because I didn't magically figure out what the facility's policies were, heading to the guard shack "cast a really guilty light on [my] behavior" because I didn't know that the loss prevention people wanted to look at my truck in the back of the warehouse and not on the way out. That last comment is - in my opinion - an inexcusable and baseless accusation.

While I'm not going to pretend that I have a cheerful disposition, I don't give any guff to our customers and I get my job done. I'll complain about extra work from time to time and try to reason my way into trading off extra stuff now for a break later, but I'll get the job done even as I'm complaining about it. If he wants to complain about my attitude again I'm going to simply tell him to put his complaints in writing while I do the same, then we'll both submit our grievances to the higher ups in the company. While I'm sure they'll kiss his ass before they even read anything I write solely because he's been there for 20 years and I've only had three years experience, I do want it documented that this guy cares more about his ego and goes on power trips on a regular basis. His attitude is no better than mine. And if I somehow end up losing my spot on the account or with the company over my "attitude" when he can't back up his complaints, I hope that they have the sense to see he needs to lose his position as well.

Second thoughts about dedicated

I wish I could say things were going well with the new account, but they're generally not. The times I've not gotten standby have generally become intolerable. Last week I had to cover a load for someone who ran out of hours, thus forcing me to cancel plans for the evening. On Tuesday I was given a run that was so long I couldn't get back in time, forcing me to sleep in the truck in 95° heat; I didn't get home until almost 6 AM this morning and was so tired I had to go straight back to bed. I was trying to make plans for the evening and my plans for yesterday had been canceled due to work, only to get a call saying that I was being forced to cover yet another run, this time on top of the route I'd already been assigned for the night. They expected me to get on the road no later than 10 PM (not counting time to drive there, which means I'd be leaving home before 9), even after I told them I had made plans for the evening that would have me out until at least 10:30 and that I'd expected time to - you know - sleep before starting another nine-hour shift.

At this point it's seriously tempting to go back to running system, in which I'm going everywhere all the time and only get home every other week. At least there they didn't pretend to care.

First two days on the new account

After two days on the new account, I can come to a couple of conclusions: it's going to be an improvement over working system by a very wide margin and that I'm likely to be quite tired after a long day's work. I've learned how to handle the new equipment fairly quickly; I'm still fairly slow getting things done but at least I can do them. I also had a first glimpse at the new routes that I might be on starting the second week of June. The new routes have tentatively been moved back to a Monday through Friday schedule (though the "Friday" routes all return early Saturday morning), though they're still awaiting final approval from higher ups. Each route has three trips per week, two of which are guaranteed to take me two days to complete, so I'll be out at least two nights a week. Since the places I'm delivering are only open 8 AM to 5 PM, I'll be able to get plenty of rest on the nights I have to sleep in the truck. Ironically, I might get more sleep during a run than between trips.

So far, aside from the rather hectic sleep schedule I've been on due to erratic routing and trying to cover holiday deliveries, I haven't found any real downside to this account compared to running as a system driver. The trip on Thursday was definitely illegal - we started at 5 AM and didn't get back until 4 AM - but the driver who is showing me what to do let me sleep most of the day so I didn't doze off on the drive home. Unloading the trailer at each stop has taken anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes, as the amount of freight varies from just three items to about eight, plus one to six things that need to go onto the truck and returned to the shipper. The routes between customers vary rather considerably, but it seems a majority of them will require me to stick to back roads for the trip. The distance between stops is usually under 100 miles, but the trip to the first stop and return trip at the end of the route are both considerably longer. It's nothing I can't handle, though I may need a couple weeks to get the schedule hammered out.

I have Monday off due to Memorial Day, so my next day of work is Tuesday. The driver wants to start around 6 AM and estimates that we'll be back relatively early, around 4:30 PM. Thursday's run is the long one as it's the only one on this route that normally requires a layover. If we team-drive as we did this past week, we should be back before midnight, leaving Friday as an additional day off. Thus, on Friday, we might be able to take the guy's truck in for air-conditioning repairs and do a training course for the new in-truck computers that I'll likely have to deal with in the near future. That's all ff in the future, now; for the moment I just want to enjoy a three-day weekend.

Day two of dedicated

Today was a somewhat more strenuous day than yesterday. While I had almost two hours less of driving, the unload took almost two hours longer given the way that it was set up. My arms are still sore from all that extra work. I'm also rather tired from having to get up around midnight for a second day in a row; I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever truly get used to it. Being home before noon was a nice perk though.

I also got some news regarding the account that I'll be working on most of the time: I start training for that account tomorrow. At 5 AM I'm supposed to meet another driver at that facility; I'll be working with him for about a week and a half to learn the new equipment and other quirks and perks of the account. I'm not entirely sure what to expect, but I hope the guy I'll be working with is a decent person. I'm not exactly looking forward to being cooped up in a truck with someone I don't know, even if it only for a few hours a day. But I'll have more information on that after it happens I suppose.

Further details on the dedicated account

I had a meeting with the account manager today. It went quite well, so I'm hugely relieved in that regard. The discussion today answered all the questions I could think of, plus I finally checked out the truck that I'll be using for now. Some of the news was great, some of it was less-than-thrilling, but overall I'm still going to be in a much more stable work environment and making considerably more than I was pulling in over the road. I also received my first work assignment for the account, one that will require me to drive about 160 miles before 6 AM tomorrow.

Now, allow me to address some of the questions that people have asked me since I posted the previous entry.

1. What is a dedicated account? It's an account on which I'll be consistently pulling freight for the same customer. I still work for Schneider; I'm just consistently taking loads for one company instead of anyone with a box full of stuff. Usually dedicated accounts come with higher pay, better mileage, more consistent routes, and/or additional home time.
2. Who am I pulling things for? I can't answer that publicly. If you know me personally, though, shoot me a message and I'll discuss it.
3. What sort of work schedule will I have? This week is somewhat uncertain, as I'm still technically in training for the account. After that, however, I'll actually have a fixed route each week. I'll be making the same trips to the same places week in and week out. I won't be home every night, as I originally thought, but I will be home two nights a week and have a consistent two-and-a-half day weekend. That weekend may or may not be Saturday and Sunday though; I might end up with Tuesday and Wednesday or some other combination.

If anyone else can think of a relevant question, just poke me about it and I'll update this entry.

Dedicated Account Acquired

As I was trying to resume work, I also put my name in for a couple of dedicated accounts. Apparently I've accrued some good karma somewhere, because last Thursday morning I got a call about one of those applications. Fast forward to this week, and on Thursday I was able to talk with everyone that needed to sign off on the transfer... which actually went through pretty quickly. Friday, I actually talked with the account manager and found out some more of the specifics about the run. I'll actually be earning a fixed salary on this run, making as much as I did while over the road, and get home every day and have weekends off. There are a couple of downsides: I'd have a roughly 30-minute commute each way, my shifts would likely start between 1 and 5 AM, and I have to use a pallet jack to unload the trailer myself. Still, this will allow me to enjoy most of the social functions in the area, while still maintaining a job as a driver and getting to see the country. This is really about as good as it could have gotten for me.

I start training for the new position tomorrow and it's supposed to last a week. I'll likely have further updates tomorrow.

Return to work this Wednesday?

After an almost embarrassingly long leave of absence, I finally have a return to work form filled out by a new doctor. I have a driving test scheduled for late Wednesday morning and, if that goes well, I could conceivably resume work Wednesday afternoon or early Thursday morning. I haven't gotten any new information or leads on any local, regional, or dedicated work, nor have I anything new to write about with regards to a possible office job. Perhaps next Monday I will find something new out.