10-15 Transit Ottumwa Transit Does not pay you for hours worked, Ottumwa Iowa

Don't work for this place.  As drivers emergencies come up.  When you try to contact Jay Allison the director of this place, he won't answer his phone meaning work phone which is usually on I may add the last time he had tried to have been reached, it said his voicemail was full but the phone was on so it rung so well know he was sitting there listening to it or knew of the call because phones chime and remind you of a missed call and it's on your screen as well.  However when confronted about why he did not answer his phone or his personal phone he states "I never got a call or a message from you" keep in mind people have left messages for him when his voicemail box was actually able to take messages but his other phone however is open for messages but yet he lies and says he never got a call from you or a missed messge.  He expects drivers to answer their phones no matter what the driver may be doing, using the bathroom, eating, or even at home on their own time off the clock you are a slave to Jay Allison.  If you do not answer your work phone he and his dispatchers will constantly and repeatedly call your phone all day till they get an answer no matter what. If that does not work, they will call and hound you on your personal cell phone always whining that they are short drivers and want to know if you want to come in and pick up so and so because either the other driver who was supposed to pick them up either cried that he/she did not want to pick them up, or they are on their lunch break which I may add there are no breaks well for certain drivers so don't bother eating at a restaurant because they will track you on your tablet which they can see where you are at and what time etc and what time you log on and off and what you are doing on that tablet.  They will wait and see when you stop and watch and then call you once they figure out you are busy.  This director also expects drivers to even answer their phones while driving or even putting a wheelchair on the bus heck you may not even hear your phone because the buses are so noisy inside.  He does not provide hands free devices.

 Jay Allison does not pay drivers hourly instead he makes up the pay rules as he goes depending on  how far behind on bp card bills or other bills he is and what pay or hours he needs to cut we will get into this in a minute.  Say I drive from Ottumwa Iowa to Batavia Iowa.  You will get paid what he feels you get paid. Go ahead and estimate the time and distance but when it comes down to it, Jay Allison will alter your time sheet along with his secretary Carrie Hance Frazier highliting which ones they want to scribble out and change without your approval or signature or even telling you. You will not know this till you get paid and look at your stub online and don't bother arguing with them because they will lie and make up some random excuse as to why they did it.  And even if you are right and they see they are caught, they will lie to you and say that they will add it to your next check when in reality it never shows up on your next check.  

So I drive from Ottumwa to Batavia or say I drive from Ottumwa to Chillicothe to pick up a passenger. You get paid for drive time there and driving the passenger back say his appt is in Ottumwa.  But once that passenger is off your bus no more pay. You will have to sit on unpaid downtime until that pasenger is ready or until they find you something else to do.  If you do trips in town Ottumwa to Ottumwa say you only or I should say you are supposed to get 15 minutes drive time to get to the passenger wherever they may be.  However keep in mind Jay Allison does not care about the slippery roads, traffic, stop signs, all the things that are included with driving he will only pay you that 15 minutes no matter what so don't bother adding any little extra even if you are right and up front honest sorry you won't get the pay only what he says you get.  The director of this place posts bids but he will let you sign up all you want senority you say? Nah that's up to him who is senority.  He is the senority because there is no union in this place.  Someone with lower senoirty that he likes or thinks is smarter or more better he will give to them no matter how long you may have worked there longer than the next guy but forget signing your name to the bid.  Happened to me with several bids that he never came through on bust instead handed it to someone else.  

This director is hiring people straight out of his church. He goes around claiming he is a pastor and well sure he maybe but he sure does not act like it.  A true preacher would not fraud people out of their hard earned work time.  He does not enforce the county dot inspection mileage sheets that are to be signed with current mileage and problems with the bus for that day.  He and his dispatchers will book things so far apart so you can't get hours or they will book them so close together that it's almost impossible to get everyone on time putting stress on drivers and passengers both but who gets the blunt end...the driver.  The buses are not the greatest mechanical shape everything from out of aligned steeering wheels to unbalanced tires, to lift ramps that don't work half the time and cameras in the bus that never work.  Jay Allison is also doing the thing the previous director of this place did to get fired but yet they could not find proof on her.  He is inflating the numbers of passengers.  He states to us drivers that no matter if they are on medicaid and don't have to pay you are to count each time that person gets on and off the bus and that counts as $2 per person for me.

 Jay also has a list of personal cell numbers, personal addresses, and employee names and work phone numbers out in the breakroom for everyone that wants to see it can.  I don't know about you, but I personally don't like my cell phone out there for just anyone to call and stalk me on.  There have been times I have had to switch buses out due to varying reasons mainly because Jay is too tight and wants to save a few bucks on gas so switching from the bus to the van but here is the kicker.  By DOT Iowa regulations you are to pretrip that vehicle making sure everything works correctly.  However in Jay Allisons book hurrying and rushing around to get the passenger that may have waited 2-20 minutes is more important than safety. See where Im going so if something were to happen that gives him more fuel to say "oh as a professional driver and employee you are to check the vehicle" basically to cover his a*s is what he is doing playing a mind game.  Also say you do manage to get a pre trip in you write down the 15 minutes he is supposed to pay you for to do that.  However he will cross that off too if he sees fit without even telling you but you will notice on your pay stub how much he has shorted you.  For instance just this last pay period I was shorted an hour and a half.  In fact several of my checks have been shorted.  If you call Jay and if he answers his phone that is, say you have a problem with a bus breaking down or something wrong with it out on the route, he will say call "Richard" Richard is the mechanic.  Jay only thinks about one thing that is $$$$$$ this is all he sees.  Safety is no concern to him it's just how fast you can drive across town to get the passenger who may go to his church he so claims to be a pastor at.

 As of lately he and his dispatchers have screwed me big time out of hours giving my hours that I normally would get to lower senority people.    Jay Allison also states to us drivers he can't pay us any overtime so he tells his dispatchers to keep people under 40 hours.  Say they are short handed which always happens, and of course they call you at least 3-4 times a week asking where you are at for hours, and say you tell them you are nearing 40 but yet they still give you work, okay you go over 40 but here is the thing your doing that for free!! Yep you guessed it..Jay and Carrie will cross that off of your timesheet.  Had it happen.  So you worked free but in your mind your thinking you got some overtime.  Jay Allison claims he burned through his overtime and his budget can't afford it.  Gee is this why he is cutting certain drivers time?  Is this why he no longer wants drivers to use the BP card but to fill up at the bus  barn?  Is this why he is inflating the numbers of riders?  If you are lucky, you will get out of town trips but since Jay decided senority was no more and writes his own rules as he goes, the lower senoirty drivers get longer trips out of town that is where the hours are at and they usually get 40 or more.  Well that is if he likes them.  In fact he just had one quit and come back but yet get this the guy never lost a bit of senoirty and is driving a newer bus while the rest of us are driving the old beaters that barely run.  If you do a trip in Ottumwa in town he is supposed to give you 15 mins of pretrip of course, 15 mins of drive time to get to the passenger, and then 15 mins to drop them off at desired spot, and then another 15 to get back to station but he has been cutting that drive time back to the station off my time sheet.  Another thing is Jay Allison tends to speed while driving or when he fills in which is rare, but he has even been seen running a stop sign or two not making complete stops.  In fact Iowa courts show he has several violations of speeding, operation w/o registration.  In fact his buses all had expired registration forms but somehow he has gotten by with it makes ya wonder don't it?  Cop turns a blind eye or dot turns a blind eye?  However once someone spoke up about it, he has went and updated the forms really quick. He knew he was caught.  

You won't make a good living here drivers are treated like s***, anything that happens even if a wrong address is listed on a tablet you the driver are the one they blame.  The dispatchers could do no wrong in this place.  You only get a measly $10.95 up to $11.25 an hr as a driver high as you can go is 11.25 and that is it. Dispatchers make $16-$24 an hr.  Plus he has a dispatcher who is also getting even higher pay than that filling in as a mechanic so you can only imagine gettin that double pay.  Jay claims to have "contracts" but yet can't produce them when confronted.  He makes up rules as he goes.  He is so disorganized he can't even find half of the "contracts" he claims to have.  At one time there was a senority list in the break room not any more and has not been for several months.  Jay Allison likes to violate peoples 1st amendment rights when they are off duty.  What he don't understand is that what I or anyone else say or do on our own time is our own right. If I wanna get drunk and walk down the road that is my right. If I wanna say screw that place I can.  Jay Allison we don't live in Germany bud. This is America.  You my n**i friend are not gonna stop anyone.  Jay claims what we do on our off time reflects on his bus place. Ha so what. So do a lot of other employers and employees posting booze pics on the internet and talking trash but yet they still have a job.