Covenant Transport False Information Filed on USIS/DAC Report Chattanooga, Tennessee

I worked for Covenant Transport from 09/04-06/06...There were 7 incident/accidents on my record...When I would apply to new companies, they wouldn't hire because there was no clarification...at the end of my employment with covenant i was a trainer...i was knocked unconscious with a metal flashlight by my student...covenant demoted me from trainer to otr driver...then a month later they fired me for violation of company policy...they have kept this violation on my record even though tennessee dept of labor determined i had a right to defend myself from the students aggressive action...they also determined covenant was in the wrong for reprimanding me twice for the same incident...i have had similar incidents with other companies celadon trucking... and koch trucking ...these actions are making me unemployable as an otr driver and have taken my ability to earn a living away in my field of work

YOU CAN CONTACT USIS AND CONTEST THE INFORMATION ON YOU DAC REPORT(FREE OF CHARGE AND YOUR LEGAL RIGHT). USIS WILL CONTACT COVENANT FOR A REBUTTAL.IF COVENANT DOES NOT RESPOND, THE INFORMATION WILL BE REMOVED BY USIS. IF USIS REMOVES THE INFORMATION ON YOUR DAC,DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES NOTIFY COVENANT AS THEY WILL CONTACT USIS AND THEN MAKE THEIR REBUTTAL (AFTER THE FACT) AND THE ORIGINAL INFO WILL BE RETAINED.

I CONTESTED THE INFO ON MY DAC,COVENANT DID NOT RESPOND AND USIS NOTIFIED ME BY MAIL THAT THE INFO WAS REMOVED. I CONTACTED COVENANT ABOUT THIS AND NOTIFIED THEM OF A POSSIBLE LAW SUIT AND THEN THATS WHEN THEY MADE THEIR REBUTTAL TO USIS AND THE ORIGINAL REASON FOR MY DISMISSAL WAS KEPT AND USIS ALSO NOTIFIED ME BY MAIL ABOUT THIS. THIS WAS ALL DONE AFTER THE FACT. YOU CAN ALSO GET A COPY OF YOUR DAC THROUGH USIS WHICH IS YOUR RIGHT UNDER THE 'FAIR CREDIT REPORTING' ACT(FREE OF CHARGE AS LONG AS YOU MEET IT'S PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS OTHERWISE THERE IS A SMALL FEE,I THINK IT'S $8.00) AND SEE WHAT IS ON IT. CONTACT THEIR CONSUMER CONSULTING DEPT. @ (800) 381-0645. BE ADVISED,IT HAS BEEN MY EXPERIENCE THAT COVENANT WILL NOT DEAL WITH YOU WITHIN THE BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES OF "INTEGRITY,HONESTY,AND RESPECT" THAT DAVID PARKER (CEO AND PRESIDENT) CLAIMS TO OPERATE COVENANT TRANSPORT BY.

USIS is pulling the same scam as some of the major credit bureaus! This online form is being offered as it is in their favor for you to use it! DON'T DO IT!!

When making a dispute you need to have proof of exactly what you sent, and of when it was recieved and by whom. Just like doing a credit bureau dispute, as DAC / USIS is governed by the FCRA.

When you dispute online you have no proof of exactly what your dispute said, or when they recieved it, etc. NO PROOF OF ANYTHING!!

ALWAYS do your disputes IN WRITING on real paper and send by certified mail, return reciept requested.

Be sure to put the certified# on the letter itself to prove exactly what you sent. This procedure is VERY important as it proves exactly what you sent.

You will need this evidence when they ignore your request and you have to sue them in court.

Trust me on this one.

There are a couple of things you need to be aware of. First, Covenant Transport has one of the worst reputations at the moment, for blackballing tactics in regard to USIS/DAC Services, Inc. reports. The second thing you need to be aware of, is that this practice is patently illegal.

Covenant Transport is playing with fire. They are risking severe liability if those harmed were to take action against them for the level of information they are misrepresenting when submitting DAC Reports. The civil liabilities they are risking could be millions, if all were pursued. I'm reading of many complaints on a weekly basis.

Don't take this lying down. You need to get busy and to start the process of fighting these willful, inaccurate entries on your report.

First of all, calling them on the phone will not get them to act. A phone call is no proof of a thing, and they know it. You need to sit down, and compose a stern, firm, but as polite as possible a protest letter to these entries. In that letter, remind them of both incidents, including the dates if possible, and recite the details briefly. In the first incident you cited, road debris thrown from another vehicle is not a preventable natured event, much less an "accident", despite the damage that occurred. Had the event been considered an accident, and especially one that they considered "preventable" in nature, they had a legal obligation to contact you in some manner while you were still employed, notifying you that the event was deemed as an accident and that the company considered it preventable, and that it would be entered into your permanent employment file. It is required by them to do this in written form.

The second event involved the mechanical failure of the fifth wheel assembly to operate as it should have, and can hardly be considered anything more or less. A mechanical part of the truck failed. Again, in the absence of any notification in writing to you while you were still employed, that they had deemed this event an "accident" and that it was "preventable" on your part, leaves them no legal means to support that claim, post employment.

Along with the recanting of the two events that they are claiming to be accidents, you need to notify them that the information they are reporting is false, and especially misleading. Inform them that you intend to seek any and all avenues to resolve this issue, up to and including consulting an Attorney to seek restitution for damages.

Inform them that these entries are in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Fair And Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT ACT), and these willful misrepresentations are preventing you from finding gainful employment. Remind them that such willful violating of the rules in place as set forth in the FCRA for offering false and misleading information can be grounds for a civil lawsuit which could result in a judgment up to and including actual damages due to your inability to find gainful employment, and could additionally result in an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), upon your complaint for these willful violations, that may well result in fines of up to $2,500 for each occurrence, if your complaint is found to be justified upon conclusion of such an investigation.

Next you need to file a dispute with USIS/DAC Services, Inc.

USIS has joined the 21st century and now offers an online form that can be used to file a dispute. I urge you to take advantage of this service, and begin to dispute this with USIS. But don't stop there. Follow up the online dispute as I will outline below after you finish the online portion of the dispute process. Once you submit your online dispute, it will start a clock that will tick down from thirty days, to force them to act upon your dispute.

Absolutely follow up your online dispute with a letter to USIS, stating that Covenant Transport is offering what appears to be willfully misleading information on your report. Copy the letter you will be sending to Covenant Transport, attention to the person or department that submits USIS reports, and include that with your letter to USIS. Send both letters of correspondence to Covenant and USIS via certified mail, return receipt requested. Consult the USIS website for information on how to submit a written dispute to your report. You will find this information in the "Consumers" section of the site. The link button will be at the bottom of the page, once you navigate to the "Contacts" page.

If by chance USIS decides to remove the entries, they are required to submit to you, a free copy of your corrected DAC Report.

If, after thirty days has passed, and no action has been taken, which will be in evidence if USIS has NOT contacted you by mail, then the next step will be to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission , which also offers an online complaint form on their website. I also urge you to write them with COMPLETE details as well, to the specifics of your complaint.

If another thirty days has passed, and you still have not received satisfaction to your complaint, then hiring an Attorney will be your next step, and I assure you that you have a case. Seek one that specializes in employment law. A good attorney will get results, and his or her fees will come out of Covenant's pockets, not yours.

Hindsight is 20/20, so the rest of this is for anyone who might be reading this and wondering how you avoid this type of situation.

First of all, always get copies of anything you are required to sign when hiring on and while working for a trucking company. Insist on this, and don't take "no" for an answer. Offer to pay for copies if you have to, to thwart any arguments immediately. Never leave blank lines on any form you fill out. Write "N/A" in those lines if it does not apply to you.

Second, if you call the police for any incident, make sure you follow up and get a copy of that report, no matter how innocuous it may seem at the time. You are entitled to it, and you never know when you may need it to support your side of the situation in the future.

Third, if you are ever involved in any incident that may remotely be used against you by any company to support any charge of negligence on your part, especially if it involves anything that the company pays out any money for while you are operating their equipment, get a copy of that bill...period. Make a copy of it yourself if you have to, BEFORE you turn it in to the company. Keep a disposable camera handy at all times, to document anything again, that could ever be used against you. If a tire blows out, take a picture of it. If a rock hits your windshield, take a picture of it. If you hit a deer, ditto.

And lastly, and this is a big one. If you find that a company has any policy in place, where they state and ask you to sign in agreement with, that you are responsible for ANY set amount in the case of an accident or incident, EVEN if you are only negligent, pick up your things, and head for the door. You are destined for a rip-off. No decent company would ever have such a policy, and Covenant's $500 charge is nothing short of a rip-off, and it should never be tolerated. They are insured for incidents of loss, and that is what insurance is for. If they have a deductible, that's their problem and their decision.

Transferring responsibility for any accidental loss to the driver is absolutely wrong. If someone is willfully negligent, then fire them if you must. But to make them pay a fine of sorts, then reward them later with a black mark on their employment record is an insult of the highest degree.

David Parker, if you should happen to read this, I hope you will start to become aware of the fact that the web is full of reports of just how devilish your so-called, Christian company is being run by the people you place in charge of it. Your Corporate offices are in my back door, and I would not apply for a job cleaning the company thrones. I have to wonder how your people sleep at night.

I remember many years ago, twenty to be exact, applying for a job at Covenant, when they only had a hundred or so trucks. I was victimized by a company, now deceased thank goodness, that had entered an "abandonment" charge on my record. Covenant informed me of this charge, which I fought and won, but I was not hired by Covenant. Many times I have thanked the man above for that false entry. First of all, it made me aware of how important it is to protect myself against these kind of things. And secondly, it prevented me from becoming a victim of Covenant Transport at the same time.

Life sure is funny sometimes.

I have called continuously once a week after the two weeks I left Covenant and STILL NOTHING!! They don't answer, pass you to someone else, or it just gets you to an answering machine. Two other people that I know have recently also left there, that started when I did as a student. One had a trainer who had the student drive every night all night long so he could sleep, and if the runs were short, didn't do any driving. When they were laid over or broken down the trainer would get drunk. This same trainer was reported by the previous student before my friend got on the truck with him, and he lied his way out of it --changing the story as to what happened told not only my friend but myself that they would believe him (the trainer) over a student any day as he had been there a while and the student was new.

The other friend quit because of how he was treated by yet another trainer. Treated as if he was a child, stupid, and basically the trainer had a power trip going on. Thank god I haven't had to deal with any trainers in over a year!!! But anyways--I wish you luck on your fight with them. They are very hard to get ahold of in person. Being on hold for up to an hour when you do get thru also doesn't help. I'm just glad I left when I did with only being two weeks in the hole. I wish people would check out these trucking companies online at trucker's forums, this sight, and fmcsa. FMCSA tells the truth along with the safety record of these trucking companies. Good luck!!!