A few years ago I worked for a trucking company for one week and now I realize that it wasn’t just a hard job, but abusive if not downright illegal both from a corporate and employee perspective. Some colorful memories of my week there
-we had these tablets to record our drive time which we put into “inspection mode” whenever we were pulled over so that the police couldn’t look at our driving log but only certain information. I’ve always wondered if that was illegal because if were legitimate then why would we need to conceal information from the cops. Thankfully I was never pulled over in my week there.
-the dispatch guy they wanted me to be with would stay in Chicago five days a week and dispatch guys out without respecting personal time. I was told that he would dispatch me past 11:00 pm even if I stated at like 7:00 AM. This is in violation of driving regulations that limit how long you are allowed to drive. And he would be quite rude, abusive, or downright threatening your employment if you didn’t keep driving I was told. Basically your day would end when he felt like sleeping.
-my trainer was one reason I quit as well though not my main reason it was mainly the schedule. Nevertheless he was an abrasive man who made a number of racist statements and frequently too. He insulted my personal faith violently screaming and swearing at me and refused to train me after that.
-the trainer kept a bunch of tools in his truck to repair the truck and trailers and said it was better to just do the work himself instead of frustrating the company’s plans by pulling into a garage to get work done
-the trailers were not up to date with their inspections
-my trainer said he was offered a free t shirt if he left a good review of the company online
-one of the managers would disregard trailer weight and tell guys to take overweight loads and tell them not to worry about weigh stations.
-three new drivers had gotten into accidents after finishing their two week training which is too short in my opinion
-and to top it off my trainer pointed to guy in Chicago one day who was with our company and said that he killed a lady when she pulled in front of his truck and braked suddenly and of course because he was hauling thousands of pounds there was no way he could stop in time and the lady unfortunately died. My trainer said that this driver was all messed up emotionally from that experience but he should be fine because “insurance paid for it”
This subreddit has helped me to identify toxic work behaviors and looking back I think this company fits the bill regarding that