Posted on 01/07/2010 8:19:31 AM PST by RMrattlesnake
This is how I lost my job with Stevens transport. I was delivering in Houston Texas in early November. After I was done was told to call a clinic down there for a random drug screen. I was told that the Clinic had truck parking. I called the Clinic and they said they knew nothing about truck parking. I went by the place and it did not look like a place I would want to pull my truck into so I got on the interstate and headed about 15 miles west to Katy Texas at a Loves Truck stop. Once my truck was parked and secured I went in and called for a cab. I was waiting a long time so I called the cab company again and the dispatched me a second cab. The Second cab never showed so I called again they dispatched a third cab. This cab called me a little while later and said he was out front. I walked out front but saw no cab. I called him back and found out he was at a loves truck stop but in Baytown the other side of Houston. Frustrated I went over to my truck and on the Qual-comm there was a message telling me to call a certain number asap. I called and was told not to move the truck because I was being terminated for refusal to take a drug test. I explained my situation and they said there policy was if you do not take the test within two hours it counts as a refusal. The sad thing is I never touch drugs. I don’t even do the over the counter stuff except and occasional Motrin from time to time. Because of this I have a difficult time getting a driving job. If you have some advise for my email me at rmrattlesnake@hotmail.com
Does Stevens Transport have a grievance procedure?
I would get an attorney.
Lawyer.
You couldn’t find a place to park your truck closer than 15 miles away?
Are you a union member? I would call the ACLU but you are probably a white guy...
That is nuts.
I don’t know why you’d have to drop everything and get tested within 2 hours or lose your job, thats weird.
I don’t know why cities make it so inconvenient to be a truck driver when almost everything they have depends on truckers to deliver it.
I do know that trucking companies are having to cut back and at least 2 have gone out of business recently that I know of. Bad economy means less stuff is bought, fewer truckers are needed to deliver it. Plus long haul trucking now faces stiff competition from frieght trains, which are cheaper at the moment per pound/mile.
Good luck, I hope God watches out for you.
If you didn’t have a trailer you might have found some shopping center or Wal-Mart to park at. It would have been closer.
Houston, a lot of things I don’t like about that city.
I’d say this is the main issue:
At the time they told you to go for the drug screening, did they make it clear you needed to be there within 2 hours? Or is it somewhere in your contract that there’s a 2 hour limit once they notify you to go for a screening?
If not, get a lawyer.
Document everything you said on paper:
“After I was done was told to call a clinic down there for a random drug screen. I was told that the Clinic had truck parking.”
Document who told you this and when. Get proof.
“I called the Clinic and they said they knew nothing about truck parking.”
Document that they did not have truck parking. Get proof. Come up with evidence to support that where you did park was the closest place where you felt safe leaving the company’s truck unattended.
“Once my truck was parked and secured I went in and called for a cab. ...”
Get the cab company to document the whole thing, with the multiple calls and wrong assumed destination by them. Get time stamps. Do it soon before records slip away.
Take all of this evidence with a clear timeline back to the company and make sure someone with some power sees it. A good truck driving job is worth fighting for. Besides, if you do go the attorney route then your lawyer will want all of this anyway.
So sorry for this madness. Our country is doomed with the bureaucrats running everything.
Notice how well our anti terrorism department worked.
Hope you get your job back. Even better I hope you get a better job.
Detrimental Reliance?
Your employer misled you when they told you there was a truck parking area at the clinic. Them misleading you caused you to lose your job.
You may well need a lawyer to write a letter, and you may need to go buy a drug test right now.
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