Proper Resolution

I was recruited at $2100 a week from the end of training, so I should be paid $2100 a week from Sept. 30 (the day I went solo) until I start new employment.

Woody seems to be quite a problem, so I think he should be terminated for the company's longterm survival.  

The $700 monitor should come out of Mr. Bonde's pay, as the key policy that created it's loss came through him.  

The new policy should be to create three keys for each truck:  1 key to the regional manager, 1 key to the lead driver and 1 key to the driver.  

An effort to create a mood of ethical continuity should be of central concern going forward.  No sexual harassment.  And rooming grown men together is not good for driver retention.

Oct. 23, 2015 Update:  I believe I was paid in full after my blog post made my points over the heads of managers who were not telling my story from my perspective to the top players.

I have a new job offer with my old boss, who made me tons of money last year hauling sand.

Matt Lemke

On Tuesday, October 6, 2015, I decided to call Niki to explain that I did not think we are a anything other than a slip-seat operation, given that we are now expected to leave a key under the door of the truck we drive.  She had been under the impression that we were not a slip seat operation in Texas, and that made a world of difference in how I was trying to place my equipment in truck-after-truck that I was being told was my truck.

Niki gave me the number for a Matt Lemke, the equipment manager.  He told me that we are a slip-seat operation.  However, Mr. Bonde would later tell me that we were transforming to a slip-seat operation but were not there just yet.

This contradiction was central to how I was placing my equipment.  I wanted my equipment as safe as possible, but the shifting policy sands were leaving my equipment vulnerable.

Did Woody steal my monitor to throw another stumbling block under me, as I rejected his "gay" back scratching episode in the motel room?  Did one of the nearly dozen or so pot head 20 year old kids in the motel walk past the truck door that Woody left wide open on Sunday morning and just take it from interest and the availability created by Woody?  I don't know.

What I do know is that Badlands Tank Lines is led by bafoonery in management that I feel lucky to have escaped.  The incompetence was all theirs.

The lawyers tell me that the liability for the stolen $700 monitor is on managers who should not have allowed a key to be placed in a vulnerable location, much less made it into policy.  I was instructed to file for unemployment on Wednesday, October 7, 2015, as Mr. Bonde told me on the previous day that he would not be dispatching me until the matter of the $700 monitor was resolved.  It seemed odd, a bit punitive, to not give an employee work just over a stolen item that was only stolen due to Mr. Bonde's policy imposed by his manager, Woody.

To date, my paycheck that should have been about $840 by my math was only $434.13, October 9, 2015.  Mr. Bonde told me that the monitor was "a dead issue," meaning that there would be no attempt to take the cost of the stolen monitor out of my paycheck.  I have no way to check my pay, now that I do not have a job or tablet, so I cannot check to see if I am being further robbed by Badlands Tank Line.

The $700 Monitor

During Orientation, I was assigned a $700 air monitor for the Devon contract we were working in Cuero, Texas.  I signed to be responsible for it, and since I've never lost so much as a key or a cell phone in my entire life and have picture in my wallet over 20 years old, I had no concern about signing for it.  In my care, it would be fine.

The problem is that Woody, my trainer/ supervisor, took it out of my care.

On Saturday, October 3, 2015, I parked my truck at the motel we were staying at in Cuero, Texas.  (Had I been in my own truck, as I was promised, this matter would not have been an issue.)  I'd done four loads that day, as I remember.  As I did my post trip check, I took my $700 monitor off and put it in a 5 gallon bucket I kept in the floor board of the passenger side of the truck I was driving, a place I knew would be as safe as could be possible, given that I had a room mate I did not know well, etc.  (When I lock up an item with key in my control, it stays safe.)

Sadly, Woody decided that I needed to start putting my truck key under the driver's side fender area, something I've only seen done on a secure yard in my 20 plus years in trucking.  I complained, "Are you sure about this?"  "I have a lot of high dollar stuff in this truck:  a $700 monitor and a tablet?"  The tablet was valued at $300.

Woody, my trainer/ supervisor responded, "Don't worry about it;  nothing ever happens."  I was stressed, but I wanted to keep the peace with my supervisor.  We were already having some tension over his lack of professionalism (back scratching episode), and I didn't need to cause any more trouble.  I needed my job.

Sunday morning about 8 a. m., I came out of my room to my truck where the monitor and tablet were locked up, key placed by me under the driver's side door, to find that the doors and hood were wide open.  Woody and his room mate were the only people there.  I assumed they were working on my truck.

Woody gave me some cleaning materials for the other truck I'd driven the previous week, belonging to Calvin, who would need his truck cleaned out, as he was returning to work Monday morning.  It took me about an hour to clean Calvin's truck inside.

When I returned the few yards back to my truck, I noted that Woody and his room mate (Mat or Max) were both gone, my truck still wide open.

I locked the doors and placed the key back under the driver's side door, as perviously instructed.  I then went to wash clothes, leaving the hood open in the event that Woody would soon return to work on my truck.

I returned from washing clothes and eating about 2 hours later.  I noted the hood on the truck was still open.  Woody had not returned, I supposed, just abandoning my truck wide open 2 1/2 hours before.  I closed the hood to finalize the process and went on about my day.

Sunday night about 9 p. m., I went and got my tablet out of the truck to look for loads that might come in on it through the night.

At 5:30 a. m., I started my Pre-Trip Check and noticed my $700 monitor missing in the 5 gallon bucket.  I called Woody, but he seemed unaware of any prank, so I concluded I'd been robbed.

I called Cuero's Police Dept. and an officer came out and took a couple of pictures with his report.

I was also in contact with Mr. Bonde, who got me hooked up with a new $600 monitor in the couple of hours afterward.

(I found that the key placement idea was from Mr. Bonde.  Placing the key under the truck fender was a boneheaded idea that should have gotten my two supervisors in trouble, not me.  But the company needed to protect their managers, I suppose.)

Scratching a Back

Early on, Woody seemed to have a fascination with the word, "gay."  At one point, he used the word no less than every third sentence in my motel room, with my room mate, Miki, present.  Woody then asked me to scratch his back in front of Miki.

Did Woody think I was gay?  Was he sexually harassing me?  I was uncomfortable at any rate.

I responded, "I don't think so."  I would not be scratching his back.

Clearly, I was not feeling welcome in the social environment after work, day after day, so I stayed in my room to escape the difficult exchanges that Woody seemed to have on the tip of his tongue.

Smoking in the Truck

The first thing I was asked by Woody, my Badlands Tank Lines trainer, the man supervising the whole Texas operation while both the lead driver (Calvin) and the Texas Regional Manager (Mr. Bonde) were taking time off in Arizona, was, "Do you mind if I smoke?"  While I have never been a smoker, I don't like to be a stick in the mud, and I was unschooled in any real dangers that might be connected to smoking in a truck cab with 199 barrels of oil well condensate on the way to the pipeline, so I said, "Just keep the window down" (to let the smoke from his cigaret out).

Woody smoked at least once per load (in the cab), and we might run as many as four loads in a day.  He threw out his cigaret as we got to the front gate of the delivery location in Cuero.  As I am new to Hazmat driving, I do not know how serious this matter might be, but I think it should be noted.  

My Own Truck

In my recruitment by Niki, I was informed that I would get my own truck in Cuero, Texas with which to run hard and make that $2100 a week paycheck.

However, upon arrival in Cuero, Texas, I was placed into a motel room living situation with another man.  I figured I'd be getting my truck upon completion of my training, which lasted from Monday, September 21, thru the 29th.  I was informed by Woody that I was upgraded a few days early because of my successful training period , relative to other students he had in the past.

Being Recruited by Badlands Tank Lines of Omaha, Nebraska

In August of 2015, just two months ago, I began receiving calls and emails from a Niki, recruiting me to go to work for Badlands Tank Line in Omaha, Nebraska.  Niki was very kind and polite.

Along the way, I read an advertisement on Indeed.com, as I remember, looking for drivers.  It proposed a $300 a day pay to be expected for drivers going to work for the company.  I called Niki to verify that this was $300 a day based on a seven day week, not a six day week.  She assured me that a week is seven days, so I could expect $2100 a week for my work hauling crude for Badlands Tank Lines of Omaha, Nebraska.

Satisfied, I travelled to Omaha for Orientation that began September 14, 2015.

Note:  I would later find that pay was about $82 a load in Cuero, Texas, and we were getting three to four loads some days, and asked not to work other days.  The average at the end of my ordeal was to have seven drivers available for six or seven loads in a day.  Clearly, the company had been overoptimistic in their projections of new work coming on line.