has been used for decades now to continue to bring in more marginal drivers at lower pay. Historically in the trucking industry most non-union drivers are paid on a per mile basis on a scale that goes up based on length of service. It has been typical of companies to take their lowest paid drivers and give them the most miles and then when they start to move up the scale a little their miles get cut. Once you hit a certain point you find you are getting less and less income per week. It's called "starving you out". They want you to quit so they can assign that truck to a new bottom of the pay scale driver. That is just one example of the crookedness in the trucking industry generally. That is not to say there aren't OK companies. But it's the exception not the rule. Most of the industry has a driver turnover percentage that is staggering.
It is very common in over the road trucking for companies to take the new people they hire and lie to them about the loads, how much they'll get home etc. I've seen so much in my years in the industry. I've seen big major carriers promise people they'll be home every two weeks for a 3 day break and then keep them dispatched and running all over the country for months. When the "rookie" complains or questions why what he was told isn't happening they lie to him and tell him things like "it's just how freight is now", "there aren't any loads going by your house right now", "keep running this load and next week we have a load going right to your house". Of course the promised load was nothing but a lie. So maybe after a few months someone wises up about being screwed around and they quit. Now they might be faced with paying back training program fees etc.
Then there are the companies who always seem to make a "mistake" on your check and you didn't get paid for all of your miles and any other miscellaneous pay items. If you've been busy your itemized "stub" showing your loads, miles, dates, pay etc. can be pages long and laid out in a bizarre fashion. So many guys would just cash the check. Some of us, the company had over 600 drivers, would take the time to check and lo and behold every single pay period dozens and dozens of us were always short about 10% or so. Never a mistake in our favor. Always the "mistake" in the company's favor.
To put it mildly the trucking industry is filled with rampant dishonesty and abuse of drivers. So when they do get drivers they screw them around and lose them and they go on to the next. As I said not all but it is so prevalent that it is common for wise drivers to record their phone calls with the company so that when they later try to tell you a lie or deny they said something you have it on the record. Be aware that pushing back on their garbage in the industry will get you "starved out" and blackballed. I've seen it done many times. You might say I could write a book but a professor at a university in Michigan already did a few years back. It's called "Sweatshops on Wheels" and pretty well sums up much of what goes on.
The one that hit me the most was about 30 years ago when I worked for one large carrier who is now even larger. They had a driver whose young son had a serious chronic medical condition. He and his wife finally got an appointment with the specialist they needed. Of course the driver wanted to be sure to be home to take his wife and son to the appointment. The company reassured him over and over they would have him home all through the weeks leading up to the appointment. Even a few days before the appointment he reminded the dispatcher and they reassured him again. So the day before the appointment he delivered his load in the large metro area that was about 150 miles from the home terminal for the company and where the driver lived. So he called and told the dispatcher he was empty and seeing if they had a load they wanted him to bring back or else he would just come back empty. You already know where this is going. They told him they had a load going to Texas and he had been assigned to it. He began to argue and then the dispatcher switched him to management and they told him that if he refused the load he would be fired. They knew they had him because if he was fired the health insurance would go to COBRA and they knew he would never afford it. They used his sick son against him. There's driver's I've known who needed to get home because kids were acting up really bad, wives were leaving because they couldn't take their husbands being gone etc. A few companies had a heart. Most didn't.
Most people don't know that many of these big distribution centers and things out East won't even let a driver use the bathroom. So many of us go independent just so we get some of the control back and even then being cheated and lied to is an ongoing fight. "Quick run 200 miles because the load is hot and it'll load right away when you get there." Then you get there and the shipper says "No we told them it wouldn't be ready until tomorrow." Every day, lies as long as your arm. Then they wonder why they lose drivers or can't attract people to the industry.
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