Another One Bites the Dust
April 6, 2014
Another company has gone down after an investigation found serious and widespread safety violations. The investigation took place after a driver for DND International crashed into a police cruiser and highway maintenance vehicle, killing a tollway worker and sending the state trooper into intensive care. According to the prosecution, the driver had been working for 36 hours with a break of just 3.5 hours before the accident. The company was found to be an imminent hazard to public safety, with a long record of drivers falsifying their logbooks.
DND International joins a growing list of companies who have become a danger to society. Employers are pressuring their drivers to work over hours and falsify their logbooks, resulting in fatigue-related crashes, criminal investigations and more regulations from the FMCSA. In this particular case, the company had sent out a message to drivers that essentially said “don’t get caught”.
As a truck driver, never tolerate employers that expect you to break the law to get their work done. There is an incredible shortage of drivers in this industry, and your service is more valuable than you may realize. If they fire you for not breaking the law and falsifying your logbook, fine. They will lose in the case of a lawsuit, and you will get hired by another company in the blink of an eye.
Trucker Fired After Refusing to Break the Law
April 4, 2014
Truck drivers are required to keep accurate logbooks to prove they are following the law when it comes to Hours of Service (HOS). So, what happens when a company tries to force its employees to work over hours and falsify their logbooks? If the employees are smart, they will refuse to work a schedule that makes them break the law. And, if the employer is a real scumbag, they will fire them for that.
So goes the story of Donald Fannin, who chose to deal with the situation by filing a lawsuit against Meyer Distributing Inc. and its general manager Brian Farley. According to the West Virginia Record, Fannin claimed that company management requested he violate DOT rules on multiple occasions, including working long driving shifts and falsifying DOT logbooks. After Fannin voiced his concerns, he was fired.
Truckers have to bear a lot of the burden when it comes to federal regulations. They are the ones who have to keep accurate logbooks, and they are the ones who get in trouble when they don’t. So, any time an employer tries to take advantage of this situation, it’s important for truckers to know their rights and to realize that they have some recourse for such abuses.