How do they get away with penalizing you 15 points for a 5 point violation?

 

http://csa.fmcsa.dot.gov/Documents/SMSMethodology.pdf

 

Yeah, it's a shame you can't give someone the world and not be able to expect the same back. I guess I want to be slightly above fair, lol. Don't want anyone taking advantage of us from the jump! We actually got our truck just yesterday afternoon. It was supposed to be this past Saturday, but they had some delay in getting us the truck. It was supposed to be a 2012 Freightliner Cascadia, ended up being a 2012 Volvo. Not complaining by any means, lol.

 

Well we had our audit in January. Everything was going well until she asked for the fuel reports. All down hill from there. I had actually left the office and when I got back I realized they gave them the timed reports from the fuel card. Again everything went down hill from there. Long story short we were given a conditional rating. Now this is where this becomes interesting.

Before the officer left, I found out that our log auditing company can up load our fuel transactions once a week to cross check for falsification. The officer told us this was fixable, send in the Corrective Action Plan and nobody would know. She said send in 30 days of clean logs of the drivers she chose and all would be good. Well when we got the letter it was dated like a week after the audit and it was impossible to send in 30 days and on top of that a full Corrective Action Plan.

But I rushed and got it in 6 days late (they want it 15 days from the date of the letter which we got a good 12 days after the letter was dated. Unfortunately a few wouldn't listen to us and kept falsifying their logs and we had to terminate them. The officer was nice but was incorrect about her statement that nobody would know if we fixed the problem. The Conditional hit exactly when they said it would. I made a big fuss and got the program manager on the phone for the Florida FMCSA division. She said that it was going to hit regardless on the specified date but final determination wouldn't be until the 8th of this month. This makes no sense. If it's not final why put it on the website. We lost a few customers (not direct shippers). Anyway today we received notice that the Corrective Action Plan was approved (though they have consultants that write these I wanted to do it myself. I sent in a huge package with examples of the changes we were making and have made). So that was that. Also we got a $5600 fine. Not bad considering how many violations we were found to have.

I see now that shippers don't care more the brokers. Carroll Fulmer was placed on conditional before us and still have it. We spoke to them and they said it doesn't really affect them as they have mostly direct shippers accounts. All I know this was a lesson learned and we don't want to go through that again.

Next up is we have had it with Ryder. Their service is absolutely atrocious. They don't care. Tomorrow we are meeting with the District Manager of Penske. From what we hear they have better service but everyone seems to have their own opinion. It can't be worse than Ryder though. That's for sure.

 

Merrick you wouldn't happen to be Vero Logistics would you??

 

I know you've been around awhile but some choose to expose themselves more than others here. I have met people from this board in person and on the phone or through email. They know who I am. I like to think of this board as a place where I can come and share somewhat anonymously though it's not hard to figure out. The only thing I have let be known is I'm from New England, I drink Ice coffee daily and I live in Florida.

I have always been like that and to be honest sometimes I regret it. In my teens I did steroids and was very big (and still am not a twig) but I refused to let anyone take pictures of me and even now when I bulk up I cover up as I do it for me not to show. But it would be nice to have pictures of what I looked like.

I do know why you're asking though as I am constantly reading and am aware of that battle and I support any type of battle like that. I'm only in my early 40's and there are people here a lot older than me and this country has changed. That's for sure. All local flavors are on their way out. We are a country of a big string of Walmarts and Applebee's. It's a shame really. I don't know if I still qualify as an owner/Operator as I don't drive or even interact with a lot of things and do mostly managerial things now. But for the true owner/operator to survive his or her biggest asset is customer service. Now it's either Walmart or Target, Home Depot or Lowes, Direct TV or Comcast (depending on your region). Do you think they care if they lose a customer? Where else are you going to go?

Well I don't have Direct TV nor Cable (I use Roku) but if I fight with AT&T there goes the internet and then I'm done. We are at the mercy of these corporations. I have actually had a Bank of America Rep who is related by marriage (and beyond that I highly respect him and consider him as a good man and as a great parent), well he always confides in me. He straight out told me that the Bank doesn't care if it loses a customer (and he bends over backwards for people) but if they threaten to go, then go because something about the government regulates just how big you can be.

And if they don't care about the little people, you'd be surprised how much they don't care about the bigger ones either. My wife's former employer had her company's relationship with J.P. Morgan Clearing firm severed (I don't even know what that is, something about execution of stocks) because they got in some trouble and wanted to decrease exposure to companies dealing with South America so even though it generated many millions in profit for them they cut it. But when you are J.P. Morgan what do they care? Then you put up a fight and nobody ever supports you anymore. Well it reminds me of that statement from some German guy but now has many variations:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

 

Great speech Merrick! We are becoming generation of IGNORANCE! Until people will realize,, that one who talks, make more noise, than 1000, who is silent, nothing is going to change. At least for the better. Back in Russia, we have an old saying, i'll try to translate the meanings, not the words "Small drops of water, could bring down the mountain, if it will be many enough!" Don't let anybody treat you with disrespect, wether that's your BIG bank, or anybody, who thinks he could ignore the "small drops". And these day, like never before, we have an opportunity to speak, and be heard! Doesn't matter if just by few, it's all will grow, like a snowball, and nobody will be able to ignore you anymore. No matter how BIG he is! Sorry! I guess i've got carried away a bit, but it hits a nerve!

 

Thank you Solo. I don't know what year you came here but I'm sure living under communism wasn't a picnic. Change can happen and a lot of times, well most of the time it's too slow. Before our time they had that Russian guy banging his shoe on the table saying communism forever and decades later there's Borris Yeltsin on a tank and then a few years ago I read there were more billionaires in Moscow then New York. Things change but it's frustrating the pace.

You are absolutely right. We are becoming a generation of ignorance. Last Thanksgiving I took a picture of the line outside of BestBuy and showed it to my little girl. She wanted to know if there was food in there. I explained these are foolish people living for material things. She asked in her childhood innocence "but I thought Thanksgiving was about food and family?".

Good luck trying to get people to stick together nowadays. You have better luck getting them together telling them that there's a big sale at BestBuy (or any other store). But I will make noise and the 1000 who remain silent or even criticize me can stay silent and suffer until they wake up. My name nor my morals can't be bought. They can take the shirt off my back but they can't take my dignity.

Again thank you for input; it's refreshing to see someone else (and there are probably more than we realize) that knows we are becoming a generation of dumbed down materialist.

 

Only reason i asked is cuz. Vero on facebook is bashing ryder. So when you said you are getting away from ryder and you live in FL. It just kinda clicked. So i went and looked up vero DOT# has around 40 drivers and did get a audit in January. Sounds like you. Thats all. I know you never wanted to say your company name on here. Anyway if it is you. and its ture whats on facebook about ryder i would leave them too. maybe buy some power units and use penske trucks too.

 

1st year, 5*3= 15
2nd year, 5*2= 10
3rd year, 5*1= 5

not bad...