You have some good points but........The open door policy is a joke. When you as a driver try to get a problem corrected you are labled a troublemaker or cry baby. Safety is a second concern to profit here now. I,m in the same region as you, I,m a long timer and I run to your house daily. HR doesn't help , MD claims that he will get answers and then you don't hear from him for 6 months. CCM is too busy trying to play the city drivers against the road drivers and vise versa. I heard what the new motto is in the southeast region
S------shut up
H------hook em up
I------ignore the safety violations
T-----truck em up
The criteria for the GPD changes almost daily(sarcastic, but you get the point)
Cram and jam onto one trailer and pull an empty so we keep load average up and let the next terminal deal with the damages. Overall there is no accountability anymore when the job is not done correctly. And before you say it..Yes I can leave but I,m too old to start over at the bottom somewhere else. And yes I would run for shop steward in my barn if the guys I work with ever smarten up and vote the union in. Just my two cents and the e-logs are pretty nice
I'm going to ask a painful question here...can you and do you document these problems? Local management hates me, because I keep a steno pad and a camera handy. I document date, time, equipment number and violation. I email my road advisor every time I deadline and refuse a piece of equipment. Everything gets fixed. I don't get questioned about why I'm delayed...I do have a couple of worthless drivers in my barn who want to kill me because they keep getting crucified for failing to pre trip and post trip.
Had a gear the other night, driver brought it in with a flat. When I pre-tripped it I deadlined it. He hates me because I should have left with it, according to him, to save him being held responsible for failing to post trip. Can you say "FU"? You do your job, I'll do mine. If you fail to do your job, I don't care, unless you expect me to not do mine, or worse, risk my job, my freedom and my financial security by hauling your junk equipment, or bad paperwork, wrong seals etceteras.
I live in California. If you haul a trailer with a bad wheel seal down the highway, and it burns to the ground, you stand a 50/50 chance of losing your commercial drivers license. If the Duals come off and kill someone, you have a 100% chance of being prosecuted for vehicular manslaughter. 4 years and 4 months in state prison per count.
5+ years ago, one of my domicile drivers was involved in a double fatality accident, his only mistake was doing 5 mph over the limit at the time everything went to hell. California Highway Patrol demanded the local DA prosecute him for 2 fatalities, despite the fact the other driver involved was speeding, under the influence of drugs, driving on bald tires and way too fast for conditions in the rain.
He spent the last five years fighting 3 lawsuits from the "victims", who blamed him and FedEx Freight for the completely irresponsible actions of a family member. He nearly lost his house in this debacle.
So remember, I don't care if you don't do your job, right up to the point that your immaturity, irresponsibility and lack of professionalism affect my ability to go to work, do my job and go home safely to my family. Then you can FOAD.
That's the way it is, and I do my best not to hang you out to dry. I will give you quality equipment and correct paperwork/seals every time, because I respect your right to go home to your family.
Do you get it?
ST