Complaint Review: K & B Transportation

First let me start out by saying this,im a very fair, honest, hard worker that is loyal as anyone can possibly be towards people.

I was interested in what K & B Transport had to offer me as i was considering moving back up to Sioux City, Iowa as they promised me that they would give me a local position shuttling trailers between plants and also various other duties including an occasional run to pick up "Abandoned Equipment". This position was a "special" position for a "select" few such as i as it involved being under the guidence of the Vice President of the company. This position was to pay me $150.00 a day for every day worked. This sounded really great to me so i contacted Jeanne in Recruiting and she immediately sent me a Bus ticket to Sioux City, Iowa. She was very nice to me up to this point. So far,so good.

I soon found out in the meantime that i wouldn't be starting this unique position right away. So as fate would have it, i soon learned that i had to drive over the road first for 4 weeks. Ok,i could handle that i suppose but it was at this moment when i started to feel very deceived. I arrived in orientation at 7am Monday morning. Upon my arrival, the first thing i noticed was a sign on the wall stating that the drug screen was $35.00 and it was to be deducted out of my first paycheck. Gee, nobody said a word about that but thats ok, typical. We filled out TONS of paperwork, something you would think only much larger trucking companies were only capable of producing. I started seeing red flags at that moment. I was seriously starting to reconsider my interests in this company. Around 10am i had my drug and road test out of the way. Noon came around and they were nice enough to feed us lunch, which was pretty good as it was grilled Hamburgers hot dogs, chips and sodas. The rest of the day was mostly waiting for the rest of the new hires(7) to complete their road tests, physicals and drug tests and filling out and going over more PAPERWORK!We got done with orientation at 6pm that evening.

Yep,11 hour day. Onto day 2,today was spent almost entirely on "Safety". It was crammed into our heads that no matter what happens with your dispatcher, or whatever your case may be, Nancy in "Safety" was on the drivers side through thick and thin. You have a problem,go to her. She's on your side no matter what! NOT!!! As i soon found out. By noon everyone was getting their trucks assigned to them. At this point, i found out that i would be flying back to Memphis 1st class to pick my truck up as the previous driver had "Abandoned" it there at Freightliner in Memphis because he was complaining exhaust was entering the cab through the A/C Vents. I went to the service desk to get the repair invoice and found that they replaced and repaired the A/C compressor. Interesting, i didnt know A/C compressors give off carbon monoxide exhaust. Very intersting indeed! I was told since this truck was "Abandoned", to make sure i did a very thorough pretrip on this truck and write up ANY Preexisting damage and ANYTHING else that needed repairs, which i did. I called in the preexisting damage and informed them of seven(7) things that needed to be repaired before i would be road worthy and DOT compliant. They are as follows: #1-Pig tail was stripped down to the wires, bare wires showing and melted / shorted together. #2-Right headlight was'nt working properly, #3-Air Dryer? blowing oil / fuel all over the place, especially on fuel tank, #4-Fuel Guage sending unit gasket leaking, #5 - Excessive Exhaust coming from under truck- WHAT???- Did i say Excessive Exhaust coming from under truck? Your dern right i did. I'll be dern, i found the source from where that previous driver was complaining he was smelling carbon monoxide that was making its way up into the A/C vents. I asked Steve at Freightliner about this exhaust and he said it was "harmless". He said it was Excess Exhaust relief "vapors" from the crankcase. Alot of drivers have complained about it in the past but it really is no big deal. Its common on Freightliners. He said the longer the truck idles, the more thicker this exhaust becomes. So i asked him, isn't this dangerous? Suppose im parked somewhere with the A/C on and lay down and go to bed and all this "harmless" exhaust is coming through the A/C vents while i'm sleeping. He didn't give me no answer or response what so ever. In case your wondering, This hose that this exhaust is coming from is aimed straight down from the engine about 4-5 inches from the ground. It doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure out that this smoke rises up under the hood and accumulates and comes thru the vents A/C vents system. This has got to be one of the most idiotic places to put one of these hoses...VERY DANGEROUS!!!

Common sense will tell ya something like this needs to be routed out and away from the cab/sleeper. But im just a truck driver, what do i know, right? Enough of that already,l et me go onto #6-A/C not working-WHAT???, you got to be kidding me, this A/C just got done getting "fixed". It just came out of the shop, this Freightliner shop i might add!!! Oh,and dont let me forget about problem #7-this truck is beyond FILTHY-INSIDE and OUT. During this time of discovery, dispatch let me know that i was dispatched to pick up a load in Blue Mountain, MS going to Des Moines, IA. I informed my dispatcher that this truck is a Freightliner Classic and the fuel tanks are FULL and the load im picking up is 45,000 lbs. I was told in orientation to NEVER go in to pick up ANY load with FULL tanks(as i wouldnt be able to axle out,never mind the 45000 lbs-WAY OVER GROSSED)-not my fault,this truck was fueled to the max by the previous driver.So how can i pick this load up like that?I was then informed to GET GOING to pick up this load because i only had till 530pm to pick it up that day and it had to be 700 miles by 8am the next morning. I informed them that this truck isnt safe to drive and needs to be looked at and repaired before i can go anywhere! And besides, i been up since 9am this morning going back and forth with you all about getting this truck fixed and there is no way in hell im going to make them pick up times and deliveries no way. By the way, i called the broker - Dana,and she said this can be loaded till 1030pm tonight and that i could deliver it anytime tomorrow by 630pm. So therefore,there is no reason why yall cant get this truck looked at and fixed right now, as im still at the Freightliner in Memphis. They said they werent going to do that. They then said all they were going to do is buy the pigtail and headlight and make me install it myself and run and pick up this load and deliver it by 0800 the next morning.I said that just isnt going to happen as i already been up all day now already and i'm just about out of hours-go figure, 9am-6pm is 9 hours, i only got 2 hours to drive before i have to take my 10 hours off duty. They said i shouldnt be logging that time spent trying to get this truck straightened out.You cant do that.As far as were concerned,you have a full 11 hours to drive.Obviously,we got a real problem at this point with dispatch.So i called Nancy in "Safety".You remember her,she said she'll straighten out those dispatchers, shes for the drivers and the publics safety!. To make a long story short, she sided with the dispatcher and proceeded to tell me that i "F cked her over. This great and wonderful company flew me 1st class to pick this forsaken truck up. This is the same woman who less than 24 hours earlier told all of us in orientation to strictly log EVERYTHING as you do it. We dont operate illegally around here, not this company. If theres a problem or anything wrong with your truck, you let us know and we'll get it fixed immediately! My oh my, 24 hours earlier youd swear these were some of the nicest people you could ever meet. Now all of a sudden theyre making you feel like the lowest scum of the earth and treating you like filthy sh_t. Talking down on you like a child. At this point, i really began seeing the light about this company. It all adds up, they flew me down here 1st class for one very specific reason. This previous driver was complaining about being exposed to carbon monoxide. A)They probably fired him for "other" reasons or he quit because he got sick of being treated like sh_it and being exposed to all their gross manipulations and childish, unprofessional illegal behavior. They werent willing to correct the real problems with this truck, they wanted to masqerade it by saying it was the A/C causing that "problem" and wanted it "legally" documented that they did something to "correct" the problem. It was worth it to them to fly me 1st class to Memphis hoping that they could manipulate and persuade me into driving this unsafe truck back to their terminal in South Sioux City,Ne (By the way,they routed my trip all on secondary roads, less risk of getting caught ;) So as a result of me NOT letting them jeapordize not only my livelihood but my LIFE and the publics safety as well, they FIRED me. So much for "Safety" and management loyalty. They wanted me to sneak this truck back to their terminal in South Sioux City, Ne so they can cover up their EVIL deeds. If Freightliner in Memphis fixes whats actually wrong with this truck,it would definately expose this companies illegal way of doing things and if i was that previous driver, i would definately be filing a lawsuit. I know i am going to do just that myself. This company is beyond worthless, somebody needs to run these clowns out of town for good before they get someone killed, more than likely, it'll be the truck driver that doesnt know any better. I worked for some sorry companies in the past but i believe this has to be the most sorriest company i ever worked( besides U.S. Xpress). Unfortunatly,i didnt check this site out before hiring on with these losers. There ought to be federal investigators impregnated into companies on random bases and start running these pathetic thugs out of business instead of letting trashy people like this ruin peoples lives...LITERALLY!!!

Alan
Memphis, Tennessee
U.S.A.