I on January 22, 2015 between the hours of 6:00 and 6:30 got involved in a trucking accident. The trailer was just picked up in a 24 hour length earlier so I had trouble moving the tandems and tried for roughly 15 minutes to get the tandems back. The pins in the tandems would not slide back. Walmart requires this to get unloaded. After succeeding, I then tried to pull slightly away from the trailer. I did everything correctly but the kingpin would not release and actually dragged the trailer from the dock trying to escape it. I dragged it back into the dock and the only thing else to do was either raise the trailer up some more or compress the air suspension from the kingpin. I waited until the compressed air fully finished compressing to try and release from the trailer again. The trailer dragged once more so I stepped out the truck to visually see if the suspension dropped but it did not. The fifthwheel was still holding underneath the trailer.
So I pulled the trailer back into the dock released the air brakes and set them again to officially park it and go. The trailer air brake made a loud compressing sound which is normal as I parked it and I assumed that when I pulled it, the truck air brake would follow. Normally when you pull the trailer brake, the truck brake would come out automatically but it did not. I stepped out the vehicle assuming the truck brake was pulled out and it was not. I kept my eye on the kingpin as I headed to the Walmart office to check in for about 2 truck spaces thinking maybe it will drop. I estimate I waited for about 30 to 60 seconds while in the truck before I got out. It is because of this I assumed it was stuck and would not move. As I reached closer to the office, another truck driver yelled, "Is that your truck".
I looked and in that short amount of time the truck released from the trailer and smashed in between 2 Walmart trailers approximately 4 traliler spaces away. I immediately thought it was an air brake failure that I reported twice early in the month but when I checked the truck and trailer knobs to see if it had been pushed out. The trailer was but the tractor was not which could only mean it did not release when I pulled the trailer brake.
The result is two slightly damaged trailers and antifreeze drainage going into their water sewer. Overall damaged to trailers is about $300 and it was unknown at the time if they would even need to clean the drainage. Now for the truck as you see in the first picture is smashed. The radiator alone was a $5,000 fix. I was untold of the cosmetic damage repair. The insurance was covered which left me with a $1000 deductible. The company held me reliable to pay for it and for the hotel however they did not mention I had to pay for the hotel until the weekend pass. Since I have been with this company I have been driving out of hours of service for about more than 80% of the time. They do not ask nor care about log books. My second week there I was advice to make a false book to make the last six days look off and to start fresh after I complained about not having enough hours to drive.
Every run that I have is followed by a text that says "go ahead and to receiver/shipper" or "this cannot be late". I was asked for log books only 2 or 3 times the whole 4 months I been with the company and I believe it was just to have on file. It was never asked after a finish day or finish run. The company held half of my last check to pay for the $1000 deductible. They had failed to pay me from a previous week of work. Their echeck had bounced and they had paid me half of it with the fuel advanced they got from the broker and assure me they would give me the rest after this Walmart load or sometime during the week. The rest was $292 for a $542 check and of course I did not get any compensation for the run to Walmart. It was only a estimated 500 mile run to Walmart so what is owed to me is over $300.
The company advice they would use what they owed me to pay however I was still accountable for the $1000 deductible. Plus I had to pay for the rest of the week of hotel cost while the truck was getting repaired. I did not have the money so I used of what I had from saving from previous weeks to pay for a rental car to my home in Atlanta. In all I spent about $300 dollars that weekend. The company asked if they need to find another driver, I said "yes". The company has held my money on several occasions and this was the last time. When I first started with the company I was paying for fuel and getting reimbursed which would make me lose track of how much my paycheck was. I would hear constantly "I know I owe you money and I will pay you next week or whenever they got funded". They did not have a fuel card to use so they would send money to my paypal account which was an inconvenience to me.
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February 5th 2015, I text the company to give me a pay stub for the last two months and I got no reply just a phone call which I didn't answer. About 2 weeks before the accident I requested they give me a pdf so I could do my taxes and see if I got reimbursed for oil bought. They sent a copy of a 1099 instead. They didn't even acknowledge they sent one in the mail to me. However, even though its what I wanted, I specifically asked for a pay stub.
This is the failed echeck email I got from paypal after a week of trying to get it funded to my account.
