Transforce, Inc. Lebanon, TN Bluegrass Trucking, Murfreesboro, TN FMCSA, USDOT Safety Violations, Stolen Pay Lebanon, Harrodsburg Tennessee, Kentucky

Transforce is a truck driver lease, temp. employer, which has accounts nationwide. In my particular case, I drove for one of their clients, Bluegrass Tucking of Lebanon, TN and Harrodsburg, KY, for about eight months. During that time, I had a 100% on-time record. Upon discovering a mechanical defect in the particular tractor that I was driving, I reported it, as I am obliged uner federal and state statutes, to do. After repeated attempts to have the defect repaired by Bluegrass in the persons of Casey (KC), the Bluegrass Dispatcher, and, consequetly, Matt, the Terminal Manager, I contacted Transforce and asked them for help. Tranforce purportedly asked Casey (KC) whether the tracor had been rpaired, and was told by Casey (KC), in the Murfreesboro office of Bluegrass, that the tractor had been "serviced". Upon receiving this information second-hand from Melissa, the Regional Director over the Lebanon office of Transforce, I called Penske, the corporation from which the tractor in question had been leased, and was told by the Penske representative that the truck had not been serviced. As was born out by the fact that the drumming noise in the area of the A-frame and tie rods had not ceased drumming loudly. Incidentally, this repair service is covered by the lease agreement, and, consequently, would have cost Bluegrass nothing in additional charges. 

At the end of my work-week, I informed Transforce, my employer, that I would not be willing to drive the tractor in question, until the repairs to the steering unit were complete. During the interveing week in which I did not work, and for which, consequently, I was not payed, Casey (KC) sent me a text, and asked me with whom I had spoken at Penske. I told her that I had spoken to the national, commercial truck, account desk. I heard nothing more from Bluegrass after that. Subsequently, I spoke with Nanette, my Driver Manager, at Tranforce, inquiring as to the outcome of my refusal to drive the Bluegrass tractor. She stated that I had been removed from the account by Bluegrass, and that I had also been charged $50 for a "truck clean-out" fee, initiated by Bluegrass Trucking, The charge of which, Tranforce consented for the tractor, sight unseen. The truck had been driven by numerous drivers up to this point, over a definable term of years, and in my opinion, based on over twenty rears of driving experience, was not dirty enough to require a professional cleaning. 

Firstly, it is illegal to retaliate against truck drivers for reporting safety concerns, and illegal still, to terminate them for refusing to drive unsafe equipment. A loaded 53' trailer and an 18' sleeper-cab type tractor are difficult to stop at seventy miles-per-hour, particularly when the driver has lost control of the steering mechanism. Any accident caused by mechanical malfunction, would, therefore, have been directly attributable to my negligence, had I consented to drive said tractor. Imprisonment was, therefore, subsequent to any accident that I had caused, not outside the bounds of possibility. NO ONE WOULD HAVE CONSENTED TO SUFFER SUCH A PENALTY IN MY STEAD.

Fortunately, I had my name placed in the record of my phone calls to Penske, and so, it is now open to conjecture, and thus uncertain, as to which legal remedies are open to me.