Marten Transport: Lies for Sale! Mondovi Wisconsin

I will assume, based upon when it seems you hired on, and the pay rate you were hired at, that you were an experienced driver?  If so, you should already know freight is low between January 15 and April 15, typically (yes, it's been bad since the recession began pretty much all the time).  That you got the miles you did is amazing, I averaged less than 1,000 miles a week that winter (the new hires, especially those with lower pay rates, got priority, until the rest of us balked about that).  Weather, taxes, consumer holiday debt, flu season, fuel costs, all sorts of things come into play to kill off freight in the winter.

Where you erred first was hiring on in the winter, and expecting great miles right off the bat.  I do the same thing, of course, but I do it to give myself space to get use to a new way of doing things (every company is different) without the added stress of having to haul butt everywhere right off the bat.  That's just me, and how I do things.

Your second mistake was in not returning the equipment to the terminal.  If Marten hadn't paid for those miles, you would have had a wage claim through your state's labor board, and wouldn't have taken a hit on your USIS/DAC report.

Your third mistake was not keeping the conversation to the Qualcomm, and using your phone instead (in regards to what to do with the truck).  Getting told to drive to the terminal, and then not getting paid for it, would have assured you would win the wage dispute.

BTW, the information you got regarding recording of telephone conversations is not quite correct.  12 states prohibit single-party consent for recording calls, and if you're in one of them and recording a call without the other party's consent, you could wind up in prison (but will likely just face a huge fine).  The other 38 are single-party consent states.  Only California and Arizona have exemptions to this for an alleged crime victim to record the actual criminal act (which would not apply in this case, because your issue is civil).  Interstate calls are generally under federal rules, but nearly always default to the state with the more strict rules.  If you're in California on your cell phone talking to someone in Wisconsin, for instance, California's more strict two-party rule would apply, and you would have to obtain permission before recording.  Most states, and federal law, require a periodic tone when recording as well.

Trust me, I've run afoul of this one, as have others, and it can be very expensive. 

Amazingly, a judge told me a telephone diary, which has the date, time, number, and name, along with a general description of the phone conversation, is allowed, if kept regularly (for all calls, all business calls, and/or all personal calls) and the accuracy can be verified (date-time-who called) independently (usually through phone bills).

Biff-Nashville Anytime you have a company that wants to pick-up your truck and they dont give you an option to return it to a terminal or a place where the company has security of their equipment have them to email you a statement that this is the way they want to recover their truck. Make sure you tell them that the email MUST have their company LOGO on the email with a signed name. In that email make sure you have them to include the truck number the address and the city and state in which they are picking up the truck and that the company holds you harmless of the condition of the truck and that you have no more responsibilities of their equipment. If the company refuses to do that-just tell them the wrecker or recovery company thats picking up the truck WILL NOT GET IT. If the trucking company gets the police involved-you tell the police officier what you wanted the compnay to do as to emailing you that request to pick up the truck-tell the police officier that the company will put on your DAC record "TRUCK ABANDONMENT" nad that affects your work record. I tell ya this happened to me one time and I did just as I explained it to you. The police came out and I told them about the DAC thing and they know about DAC. They called the company and got ahold of someone to send me that email with the company logo on it-otherwise the police officier told the company they could not make me take the truck off my property. The officier told the company they would have to file a COURT ORDER to get the truck off my property-but that would take weeks-so the trucking company had no chioce to but email me that email I REQUESTED them to send me. Good luck my friend

Ok while I have a hard time believing that Randy took a moment to send you a letter saying that he is thanking you for not returning the tractor, well stranger things have happened.

So could you post the contents of the letter on here minus personal information like addresses, phone numbers etc? I am just wondering what he had to say. Also keep that letter for ever-and-ever since you never know when it may come in handy for you.

Also if you would have returned the truck to either GA or WI I would have suggested applying working for the company I work at here in MN. They have a yard there in Portland, TN but I know for a fact they won't look at you now for that one issue.

Other then that good luck on your future driving career. Not returning the truck is NOT the kiss of death per say. Yes it is for a good-size company but there is plenty of small mom and pop companies and owner-operators (in your area) that might be willing to let you have a shot working for them as long as you live near by in the event you do leave.