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XPO | Drivers rights : Refusal to drive in severe weather.

These managers want you dispatched and off their computer screen. You could go in the ditch 1 mile down the road and they could care less. They're not on the hook for anything you are. These Aholes aren't going to stick their neck out 1 inch for you, don't do it for them. Your Cdl is worth a lot more than a job at Conway/XPO is.
 
pilgrim said:
New coercion rule passed Jan 2016
along with the surface transportation assistance act (STAA)

www.fmcsa.dot.gov/safety/coercion

http://www.whistleblowers.gov/acts/staa.html


Driver at my sic refused dispatch during the last big storm we got in the north east , He was given a letter of instruction by TM . the driver contacted DOT they informed him about the coercion rule that just passed and instructed him to print it out and give it to the TM and demand his LOI be removed from his file and destroyed , DOT told driver if his TM refused, To call them back and they would send someone to his sic to investigate under the coercion rule .
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Even if the TM caves in to this DOT pressure... the driver will be a target of retaliation for sure .
 
upnorth said:
You have to attempt the run. Unless the road is physically closed and shows that on the state website. That said, company policy is we don't send guys into storms. Decisions like this are local now, not linehaul's call.
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Upnorth is right it is local decision now, not Linehaul. It is your TM'S call, and if your TM calls it off you don't run, don't even make attempt. But that is rare, you usually have to make attempt.
 
pilgrim said:
well if your ever killed in a CMV accident maybe that's what they tell your family "Well we had a job to do" and you know he didn't have the backbone to refuse or perhaps intelligence ,so we forced him to go SORRY
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That's a little dramatic, isn't it? Can we give grown-ups just a little credit for making grown-up decisions? If someone takes a load into weather and you refuse it, that doesn't necessarily make you smarter or more courageous than that person just because you stood up to the man.
 
This is a non issue and has been for a long time. You have to leave the gate if the roads are open. Once you get out its up to you to decide whether to procede or not. If you don't feel that its safe then stop. Personally, if the roads are open and I can see I will continue my trip, slowing down as much as I feel is necessary to be safe. If I have to drive so slow that I am a hazard to others on the road I will stop somewhere where I can get food,water, and shelter and wait it out.
 
pilgrim said:
Yeah well you take risks every time you get out of bed but that doesn't mean you surround your bed with bear traps before you go to bed to increase your skill of walking to the bathroom
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Man, that is a terrible metaphor.

pilgrim said:
Just like you don't drive in a freaking blizzard or in a ice storm when the state issues a state of emergency and tells you to stay off the roads just to learn how to drive in the snow . It's called common sense
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First of all, you didn't say anything about a state of emergency or being ordered off the roads in your original post- you just said "the last big storm".

So where's the line? States can issue SOEs long before dangerous conditions arrive- ditto for blanket advisories to "stay off the roads". What I'm saying is that there's a lot of grey there- and you can't just say anyone who drives in those conditions is an idiot that is afraid of their manager.
 
pilgrim said:
Serene Gene , you sound like a dispatcher for one
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Nope, DSR. Maybe I sound like a dispatcher because they're people too?

pilgrim said:
for two you are clearly not understanding the rule, the rule is to keep them from punishing you for refusing to run in inclement weather nobody said anything about illegality of driving in inclement weather it is however the drivers legal duty to protect himself and the public
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No, the rule is to keep them from punishing you for refusing to violate the FMCSRs. Telling to you to run without placards or drive past your 70, making you falsify pre-trips or run defective equipment. I don't see anything in the rule about weather.

At what point does it stop being a manager telling you to do your job, and start being a manager ordering you to drive off into certain death? Serious question. What are the exact weather conditions for every driver where dispatchers turn into murderers? How could you possibly make a rule about that?

pilgrim said:
I have the common sense to know when I'm putting myself in danger by being on the roads with people who may not know how to drive in inclement weather .
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Yeah, me too- it's called every single day of my driving career. It's a job perk, they tell me- keeps things fun.

pilgrim said:
How long have you been driving that you don't know that DOT does enforce motor carrier compliance. who do you think audits the company and investigates them when there is a fatality ? checks your weight , logs, the company vehicle the address is literally www.fmcsa.dot.gov.
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I know one is part of the other- the reason I asked that is because a random employee at the DOT may not understand the rule like a random employee at the FMCSA. If I call your terminal and ask anyone in the office if the tread on my tires is legal, is that the same as asking the shop? It's the same terminal, right?
 
Serene Gene said:
That's a little dramatic, isn't it? Can we give grown-ups just a little credit for making grown-up decisions? If someone takes a load into weather and you refuse it, that doesn't necessarily make you smarter or more courageous than that person just because you stood up to the man.
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There is nothing melodramatic about your life or the lives of anyone else on the road. If I don't feel safe to go, I don't go. Period. I don't care about being smarter than anyone else or having bigger stones. I have nothing to prove. My concern is for my family and myself. If a company is going to coerce me to put my life at risk for their freight, I don't need to work there. Like a dispatcher over here at OD told me, "there's nothing on that trailer worth your life. Besides, that freight doesn't do anyone any good strewn out all over the ditch."
 
Rastus said:
These Aholes aren't going to stick their neck out 1 inch for you,
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just for the record,i know one t.m who was told to fire a dsr, but that t.m "stuck his neck out" and convinced h.r not to fire that dsr!!!! instead that dsr got a final l.o.i in the specific area that got dsr in hot water, and for those of you who know who i am please don't ask me who it was,i will not tell you o.k!!!!!
 
catchTHErabbit said:
just for the record,i know one t.m who was told to fire a dsr, but that t.m "stuck his neck out" and convinced h.r not to fire that dsr!!!! instead that dsr got a final l.o.i in the specific area that got dsr in hot water, and for those of you who know who i am please don't ask me who it was,i will not tell you o.k!!!!!
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Can you tell us who it is and what term you work out of?

Lmao
 
There isn't a company around that has freight that is more important than my life. So, I'll always be the one to make that decision whether to pull out of the gate or not. I'd rather get fired than no longer be around to support my family. And oh what fun I'd have in front of the TV cameras and newspapers telling everyone what the company did to me.....and why.

:6799:
 
pilgrim said:
From what I read you hae to wait until you are dispatched and there must be warnings issued on radio or tv about hazardous driving conditions before you can refuse , you can't call in several hours before your dispatched and say your not running . This linehaul rule that you have to show up and attempt to run before you can refuse is not the law and was called absurd by a judge when a carrier tried to use this in a case against a driver who was fired for refusing to drive in inclement weather .
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I do believe there was a case just like that.A Roadway driver called in to his dispatch office notifying the company he couldn't come in because of the bad weather.Such in such dispatcher told the driver he should come in because another driver has made it to work.Subsequently that caller was fired but it was later reversed because of that STAA.
I remember the same situation when I worked at Conway at LDA and they had a lady Tulsa driver refuse to drive any further in the in climate weather.She supposedly received a letter.Of which i didn't agree with.Just because another driver made it to LDA doesn't mean the other people feel safe to drive in it.
 
bigtruk_us said:
I do believe there was a case just like that.A Roadway driver called in to his dispatch office notifying the company he couldn't come in because of the bad weather.Such in such dispatcher told the driver he should come in because another driver has made it to work.Subsequently that caller was fired but it was later reversed because of that STAA.
I remember the same situation when I worked at Conway at LDA and they had a lady Tulsa driver refuse to drive any further in the in climate weather.She supposedly received a letter.Of which i didn't agree with.Just because another driver made it to LDA doesn't mean the other people feel safe to drive in it.
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One truck might have better tires. One might have more weight or a better weight distribution. One driver might have taken a huge risk and got lucky. Might have been slipping and sliding around on empty roads and then by time you got there conditions and traffic levels had made it unsafe to continue. That guy behind the desk is not the guy behind the wheel.
 
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