E.W. Wylie of West Fargo,ND

If you don't take care of your drivers, they won't take care of you. Sorry to hear about what happened. Seems to be an ongoing trend in our industry.
Our co. took a broker ld. from them. It's cheap and I wasn't happy about it either.

 

The way things are now everything is kind of shakey. Good companies gong bell up. Companies that have never layed off having to let folks go. It's a mess. I hope things get turned around and some kind of normalcy comes our way again.

 

Not on subject but she stated she hardly ever saw her man and they claimed he was taking to much time off, well, a driver I know really well got himself into hot water because he was routinely taking time off at a place not his home claiming he had "family" there, well, one time a very caring dispatcher called his wife claiming she could not get ahold of driver at his "family's" house and was wondering if wife would relay a message to him. Needless to say wife was surprised and full of questions about the relatives she had not heard of. Since driver was not around the dispatcher was more then willing to answer those questions and try to match times and dates with the wife. Was not long after that the driver no longer had a home or wife and lived for several months in the truck, moral of the story- do not p/o the dispatcher

 

I appreciate your story regarding E W Wylie. I as wondering how Wylie got your man hurt. Under North Dakota law your man is covered as long as he does things according to their rules. Their workers comp insurance commission will back you up as long as you're in the right. You might have legal recourse through them. As far as not getting home much is concerned. That's the nature of the beast industry wide. It seems that many of us don't get home as often as we want unfortunately. Good luck.

 

I use to drive for Wylie a long time ago. Long before they moved there terminal from practically downtown Fargo out to West Fargo. I can not credit or discredit your information. All I can do is add my own info.

I was with Wylie for nearly 2 years. At that time they were forced dispatched & expected the drivers to stay out for several weeks at a time. I use to stay out a month & go home for a week. They were good about not doing pre plans. There are many times that I would unload first thing in the morning, call in to get a new dispatch. Only to get told to call back in a hour. Within that hour I would search for a place to park. Then call in just to hear call back in a hour! That call back in a hour crap would continue all day until around 4 or 5 in the afternoon, then wala!!! I get my reload info with a delivery appointment 700 miles away first thing in the morning!

That to me was really the only thing I really didn't care for. They did post on my DAC report that I abandoned their trailer when I desided to take my truck to another carrier. But I rebutteled it with DAC services because I dropped their trailer off at their drop yard in South St. Paul. That is where I picked that trailer up at, so I returned it where I found it. How can that be considered abandoned?

As a experienced flatbedder.... I prefer to use snap binders to secure my loads. Ratchet binders are to bulky & difficult for ME to properly secure the loads. I can secure the loads better & faster using my snap binders!

 

I am curious, was his injury the result of a collision with another vehicle, or some work he was performing other than driving? Is he permanently disabled, or is he able to work now?

You were complaining that they wanted to send him home on the Greyhound bus, presumably at their expence, while dealing with a full leg cast. I guess my question is how should they have gotten him home?

They are loosing all their drivers because they use snap binders instead of ratchet binders? I don't know about anyone else but that's not something I'd quit over.

 

I'm not aware of the OP's fiance's situation but I worked for Wylie in January and February. I had been getting calls from the recruiter on a weekly basis for 4 months before I finally took the bait. They supposedly had several new wind energy contracts and were in bad need of 13 axle drivers. They talked a really REALLY good game so onto the plane and off to Fargo I went.

I went through 3 days of orientation (unpaid), got an almost new 4 axle Freightliner heavyhaul tractor and 4 axle RGN (lowboy) then sat in the truck at -20 degree temps for another week before finally getting my first load. It was moving a front end loader 50 miles and bringing another back. The mileage pay was less than 1/2 of detention pay for a day so I lost money taking the load. My first paycheck (or lack there of) arrived saying I was $300+ in the hole. Now I had not taken a single friggen penny of advance and had only gotten a $250 "sign on bonus" that they had billed to me as an advance. I was also told by the recruiter that I would be re-imbursed the cost of a bus ticket since I chose to fly there rather than ride the bus. You guessed it, they somehow missed that as well. I was promised it would be on the next check. Then the detention pay, again nothing and after yelling I finally get told that all detention is attached to the next load and since my first load was turned in on the day after the pay period ends I would get it next time around.

So there I sit in Fargo for another 11 days before getting my next load. (My truck and trailer were almost 55,000# empty so I couldn't haul "regular" loads) I was supposed to be pulling one of the 13 axle Schnables but in the first 3 weeks the only Schnable pulling I did was pulling one out of the snow bank and into the shop for an annual inspection then back into the snow bank. My next load was a 74'000# 14' wide loader from southern Minnesota to Lake Ozark, MO. I ran overnight to get there to load early the next morning which was a Friday because I wanted to get going ASAP so I wouldn't have to sit in some truckstop for the weekend. I got it loaded and ready to roll by 9:00am, called dispatch with the numbers for my permits then sat for another 6 hours because dispatch forgot to order them. I finally got going by 3:00pm and made it into Iowa for the night. I had a noon curfue in Missouri on Saturday so I pushed the numbers a little to get rolling on Saturday. I made it to my delivery an 1 1/2 after curfue but made it all the same.

I asked my dispatch on Friday if I could just bounce home after unloading and he said he would let me know. Never heard back so I figured the answer was "I forgot again". I sat in Lebanon, MO for the next three days before being dispatched to North Platte, NE for a combine going to Canada. I asked no less than 3 times if they were sure I could cross the border because of the wheelbase of my tractor. I was told they do it all the time. Well a few days later and I'm sitting in North Dakota being told I can't cross the border because they cant get a permit because of the wheelbase of my tractor. I sit there for two days in a town with no place to eat, no cell phone service and no bathroom waiting on a truck to come 800 miles out of Alberta to take my load 40 miles across the border. I finally get trailers swapped with a 3 axle tractor and then dispatch had the balls to tell me I would have to wait there till they found me something. I deadheaded back to Fargo and pretended I never got the sattelite message.

I could keep going but to make a long story short, I didn't get paid for about $1800 worth of detention and never got paid for the bus ticket. They left me sitting in Lansing, MI for a week so I finally asked to return to Fargo and turn in my truck (I had already given my 2 weeks notice). They said I could bounce back without pay whichwas fine by me, I just wanted to be the heck away from them.

I got back to Fargo and the road manager for the wind energy side found out I was quitting and went ballistic. He went to the president of the company and raised a stink. Well they tried to talk me into staying and pulling blades but I had already made up my mind and bought a plane ticket home.

Now comes the best part - When I got my truck it was absolutely filthy. I spent 4 days cleaning and detailing it including shampooing the carpet (in -20 temps). When I left I had one of the shop guys check it inside and out and he even remarked that it was cleaner than new. Now yesterday I get a letter in the mail stating that I owe them $256.00 ($250.00 supposed sign on bonus that they took out of my first check + $6.00 comcheck fee) and another $125.00 for cleaning the truck. I called the terminal manager who as usual never answers his phone so I left him a message and told him to stick the bill right square in his ***. I guess we'll wait and see what happens after my lawyer sends them a certified letter stating the facts about all the detention pay and such that I was never paid let aone the cost of the bus ticket.

To make a long story short, by the time I add up 2 one way airline tickets between Wichita, KS and Fargo, ND plus 3 different nights of motel rooms (of course I didn't have to get them but the cab was getting small) as well as my expenses eating and such I lost about $500 per month while working for them. I might add that my meals were Ramen noodles made using my coffee maker and cereal so I wasn't eating truckstop meals.

Think long and hard before signing on with them, I don't know how well the flatbed side does but the heavy/specialized is a friggen joke. They have brand new equipment but they have no freight and the dispatcher for heavy/specialized has absolutley no experience what-so-ever.

 

I have a friend who is a lease operator with them, he gets layed over so much that he can't even make his truck payments! Every time I see him he's in some truckstop and has been there for four or five days.


He's just waiting for the day he can get the heck out of there!

 

Moral of story don't live a dual life. Be faithful to your wife. Everyone I've known to cheat on a spouse is a worthless backstaber.