J&J Trucking

I know most of you who read this probably will never even so much as wink at this named company, J&J Trucking. But I will put this out there just because I want to let everybody know on this board about this company, and to avoid them like the plague. It is a small flatbed company. I was told they had 5 or 6 trucks but according to their "safestat" they only have 3 trucks and 3 drivers.

Now, for some, the following will be a great thing:
Does not check DAC reports
Does not check MVR
Does not check anything really
Does not verify any past employment
Does not even send you for a drug test
Only asks you for your drivers license, social security card, and twic card.
Sounds like an excellent job, right? Easy to qualify, easy to get behind the wheel.

Now here's the bad about this company.
The owner, will not fix anything. You will ask and ask and ask and only get "ye" back on a text or hear him say it if you talk to him on the phone. Note, not yes, or yeah, but "ye". Spoken like a true thug.

I drove around for 2 months with space in my fifth wheel. Now, it wasn't a whole whole lot of space but it was enough to make things dangerous. When empty you could stand beside the tandems on the truck and grab the rub rail and rock the hell out of the trailer. The trailer would also shake violently when you walked on it. And when loaded....LOL....the thing would rock side to side while you were tightening up your straps! Of course when empty driving down the road looking in your mirror you could see the front of the trailer bouncing as well. No biggie, happends with most any truck even without space in the 5th wheel. But, this thing would look like it was going to pop right up out of the 5th wheel. When loaded, you best take them curves you see everybody else driving the speed limit (65, 70, whatever it might be) at a speed no more than say 45 mph, 50 mph if you really got big cajones. That sucker will lean, and hard. Will surely make your butt pucker up and make you wish you had slowed down before you went into it. As nailing the brakes to slow down, or really even tapping them in that truck would be a hazard. Probably stand a better chance of coming out of it without rolling letting go of the wheel. I asked for 1 month every single week, 2-3 times a week for the man to even look at it and try to get it fixed. "Ye" that's all I ever got in response. Not a #### thing was ever done about it.

At one point another driver broke down in Louisiana, blew the turbo in his truck. I had to go sit with him and hold my bossmans hand making phone calls for him because he was too busy "in school" to take care of anything. Of course I did make the calls and sat there waiting and waiting for it all to be taken care of. Under the assumption I was being paid. Which I wasn't paid anything for the half day spent taking care of that for him while he was busy playing schoolboy/business owner. But that's a different story, keep following and we will get to mickey mouse paper later on. Anyway, he wanted me to drop my loaded trailer at a truck stop. Take the other drivers empty trailer and go get it loaded. No problem right? We go up to the truck stop (prior to tow truck getting there to pick his truck up) to drop my trailer only to find that it is unlatched. Dollies down, but the dang trailer wont come off. It was then that the other driver got under the trailer and saw it unlatched, but for some reason it wasn't coming off the truck. He then slid his finger across as much as he could of the 5th wheel plate and found that there wasn't a single smudge of grease on it. It was all rust. At that time while he was under there he also noticed cracks in welds around the neck of the trailer. All of which we told the man about, and he never did a single thing about it. Like always...."ye" is all he said. Of course he was angry you know, acting like we were just stupid and didn't know what we were doing. Asking if we dropped the air bags. Well, couldn't exactly do that because when the emergency line valve under the truck went bad instead of having it fixed right, he had the shop I was at bypass it. Just connecting the lines together, where there is no valve at all. So dropping airbags wasn't an option. I wasn't going to crawl under that truck and do all that crap.

Then theres the usual medley of blow outs that all of us have to deal with from time to time. But, special place, like this you know it happends more often than it should. YOU the driver will make all the phone calls for maintenance on the truck. He likes to use his fuelmans roadside assistance rather than spend a few minutes calling around himself. So he has you call them. There was one time he pulled that crap. I had driven to a tire shop, closest one I could find. Got a price on a tire, and call him up. Tell him what I got. He says "oh no, thats too high 'mane' call fuelman. I call them, by this time I had given up and driven to my loading point. Which was only 8 miles from the tire shop. They sent the same company I had just left out with the SAME tire. Now though, instead of paying $250 for the tire, he ended up forking over $746. Or so he claimed. I acted angry when he told me about it, but really was laughing inside at what a fool he was. Now the only reason he likes fuelman is because they pay initially and they bill him later for it. Why in the world would ANYBODY want to pay that kinda money for something that they could have gotten much cheaper? Because they...didnt...have....the...money....to...start...with. That's just plum stupid. Instead of paying with his trusty visa card, he paid almost $500 more for fuelman to cover it. You know they're going to collect their fair share. One week after I first started I blew out 4 tires. One of which took out some wood on the trailer, the flooring. I am not sure whether or not it hit anybodys vehicle in Alabama or not. I didn't even know about it until I got to a tire shop there. The one and only time he paid with his own credit card. Which by the way, he never did replace those boards. Even though most of them by this time were loose. And I would tell him everytime I got bad tires that I needed replaced. What would he say....you guessed it "ye". He would claim he would do it over the weekend but come Monday morning when I would leave out, nata.

You can expect tickets for stupid obvious stuff you would think a trucking company would know to have. Such as IFTA stickers on the truck. Sure, you got the papers inside the truck for it, but you will get a ticket in Oklahoma for sure if you do not have the decals on the truck. He learned that the hardway after paying a $125 for it. But continued to run the truck without the stickers. He did put one sticker on the driver side. Which was up on the vent window. Air bubbles in it and all, looked like it was ficticious, like he had just taken it off of someone elses truck. Why not put the dang things where they go and save some time and money? And my favorite, not having his d/b/a name listed on his DOT regristration or anything. Basically nobody knows who J&J Trucking is. That's the great state of Oklahoma again that got him for that.

I am not one against someone bettering themselves personally. But being a trucking company owner, and the only person dispatching your trucks you really can't afford to spend time sitting in a class room, or taking exams while your drivers are trying to get you to get them loads. Or needing to contact you about an issue on the road. You could expect a 45-1 hour wait MINIMUM for any text or phone call you make to him. He's more concerned with that college work, and college girls than he is business. Mind you he's only 29 years old. And if something happends after say 5p.m. you can almost bet money you wont hear back from him until the following morning around 7a.m when it is convenient for him.

What else is there you should all know.......oh yes. This is a flatbedders most favoritest thing! Holy torn to hell tarps! I was sent on two loads where the shipper saw the holes in the trailer (from the boards missing, one of which being almost 8ft in length) and holy tarps and turning to me with an angry look telling me they aren't going to load me. Now both times including drive time and waiting to get loaded, was 4-6 hours. 4 hours on the first one, and 6 hours on the second. Now, he is the one who told me when I had started driving for him that the former driver of the truck tore the tarps up and never said anything. He said this smiling like an idiot. Mind you it's been 3 months now. He still hadn't done anything about it. I am not one who enjoys giving up free time to anybody (especially a trucking company) that is not family. He even went as far to say the second time that I told someone there about the holes in the tarps. Which was false. Now, when the man that was to load me saw the holes in the tarps and asked if there were more, I was honest and said yes. The tarps were riddled with holes. They wouldn't load me. It was raining that day and they waited on the rain to stop before even thinking about loading me. Because the load COULD NOT under any circumstances get wet because it would turn to concrete and be useless. It was some kind of environmental liner. Looked similar to carpet but when it got wet it turned to concrete. I then told him that the man saw the holes WITH THE TARPS ROLLED UP, there were several right there in plain sight. Even sent him pictures of the tarps with the loader man putting fingers (2-4 fingers depending on which hole) in the holes. And told him, how am I supposed to hide this crap? By this time I was boiling. 2nd time this had happened, he kept getting these tarp loads knowing dang good and well there were holes in them. Resulting in lots of unpaid wait time. Layover, which he does not pay anything for any layovers ever. So I told him to either fix the tarps, get new tarps, either way stop sending me tarp loads. I don't have free time for you. I expect to be paid for my work, including waiting for crap like this. I told him when I got there and saw the load that I did not think we would get it, and he treated me like I knew nothing. And what happened? Didn't get the load. Then he tried getting an attitude with me like it's my fault? He had the nerve to send me a text saying, ####...a whole day wasted. I told him in return, you know these tarps are messed up. You blame the other driver, but that was 3 months ago and it's still not fixed. Time for blaming him is up.

Now to the really aggravating part. I get in that Friday, sending texts about my check because usually he meets me where we park the trucks at and gives me my check. This week though no answers or nothing. I finally get on my phone and check by account balance. He had put my check in the bank. Direct deposit as you know it is also non-existant. His idea of direct deposit is driving to your bank and depositing your check in your account for you. Where they will place a hold on it for 2-5 business days, sometimes. Sometimes they did put a hold on it, and sometimes they didn't. In any case, he only deposited $526 out of a $750 check. Right then, I thought...thats almost 30%!!!! I started texting and calling again trying to let him know about it wanting to know why 30% of my check was gone. I know uncle sam gets his fair share, but it was just like I knew it would be at 17% for all the taxes. He never did answer me. So Saturday morning I sent another text, he then replied that he took care of it already. That he owed me $104 and I was blowing him up over some "pennies" as he put it. Told me to stop texting and this and that. And to turn the keys and fuel card in. All over him wasting time, and trying to short my pay. Now I will say this, the man cannot stand anybody that speaks up about b.s like this. The other driver he has I truly believe is only there because he is worried his past (he has some criminal stuff) hinders his going anywhere else. And he pretty much lets most everything just roll right off his back. I can't do that. Especially not when it comes to my time, and my money. Time being spent in the truck working for free, isn't going to cut it, and neither is my money not being right. Period. So now, I sit technically unemployed. But I do have a few companies looking at me.

Best part is he claims I quit, says I cannot file unemployment and so forth. He is one of these that was keeping all his drivers on a 1099 until just before I started working for him. All idiots like him think its a loophole for them to avoid taxes if they claim you are a contractor. But make no mistake. If you are paid to operate that truck, and you pay absolutely nothing in the operations of the truck you are an employee, NOT a contractor. He seems to think he will not have to pay any back taxes to unemployment and so forth but I beg to differ. Which they wont require that one me per se but if they poke around in the right spot. See he has been operating for 5 years or whatever and he only just started withholding and paying taxes it could very well cost him a truckload of money. Or as I would say if it did happen to him "it's just pennies man, ain't no thang". One company I worked for had to pay $2,000 on me alone in back taxes when I was laid off and filed for unemployment. Then they started withholding taxes. Lease purchase is a totally different story. But driving a company vehicle like I always have you are an employee, period. I guess we will see who gets the last laugh out of this one. I now have the luxury of wondering if he is going to pay what is owed to me. Hope for his sake he has already made right with the uncle sam of Texas. A birdy mentioned something to me thought about the ability to put a lien on a truck. I am not sure if that is true or not but will try checking into it. Anything to get my last "pennies" from this living breathing piss ant.

Anyway, thats the run down on J&J Trucking. If you go to work there, have a living will ready. Be ready to have extremely high blood pressure at times. Learn to talk like a thug if you can. "ye", "aight", and all that other ebonic stuff might take you a long way there. I am a white guy that sounds country, no way in hell I am saying that crap. Not racist or anything more power to those who say stuff like that but this white boy isn't gonna do it.

 

Fresno, TX. is where you can find them. That is of course if you aren't passing them on the shoulder, with blown out tires. Or don't find yourself dodging the flooring off of one of their trailers.

Just tonight as a matter of fact the man even went as far as threatening the law on me tonight for his truck keys and fuel card. Wanting me to bring him my logs at 11p.m. but not to get my check. I did the polite, and courteous thing to do in that situation, though. Kindly provided the phone number and told him to tell Sgt. Cowan I said hi.

I think he wants the logs so bad now so he can see how much caca he's leaning towards getting into. I could easily screw him over royally just by bringing D.O.T or somebody of statute with me and explaining that I was wrongfully terminated for refusing to operate his unsafe equipment. And asking about why he took $104 out of my check.

He tried feeding me some b.s story about the companies that have called him for employment verification ask for his D.O.T number and it doesn't show that I ran all the states I had. I kindly informed him that I KNOW they don't do more than either call and get a verbal or fax a form over. That my logs have absoultely nothing to do with employment verification. One place verified 4 employers just by seeing it on my DAC report.

Stay away from J&J Trucking. Even if it's the last company left for you to possibly work at. Start your own trucking with a bicycle and a red wagon. "Ching ching".