michael morris 24 7 transport Turquoise truck llc wage theft marion Iowa
Michael Morris runs help wanted ads for a driver/drivers to be independant contractors working for him as a 1099 employee out of cedar rapids iowa. Hes leased onto turquoise trucking. He seems extremely bipolar and has a temper which flares often . thats only half the story. I ran in 2014 for a month. His truck was a disaster thou he prides and idolizes his 14 year old semi. The biggest problem was a radiator leak which he says the radiator was just replacedwith in a month or so and was brand new. His detroit engine was dscribed as brand new and not rebuilt and then later rebuilt by a man in laredo tx. I sat in Laredo for three days with out pay for break down or layover.
His driver door and passenger doors wouldnt open from the inside when i got the truci as i observed mike reach out the window down to the door handle to open it. Both windsheilds were cracked and fractured and the spread continued to travel. I was inspected in C0 and shut down for repairs. An a/c line blew while down at the scale house.
His so called 200dollar seat covers were covering seats not fit for your back yard trash burning days. He was upset I had left 4 items in the seat on my home time off for which I was ill for a week do to the exhaust leaks and radiator leaks over that month, and the truck was swept out and windexed the dash and windows as well as made the bed . But I was expecting to return to work on Monday and was able to call and was ready to go on Thursday. He fired me and placed another driver in the truck he said. All my trucking items including my 100 cobra i owned was left in the truck expecting to return.
With direct deposit to be paid on Wed and have it accessible by friday - he never paid me for the last three loads i did or all the out of pocket expenses as oil and radiator fluids. Im down 1300 bucks+! Thats wage theft. Every pay day was late by two days up to the following monday which is 4 days.
The advances were to be 360 per week as needed and subtracted frommy pay settlement. I received one settlement sheet statement by email of 4 pay days. Every dispatched load was a pdf by email of the laod and easy to read and follow. I was never late pcking up or delivering.
The day I was hired I explained I ama driver on paid vacation - a joke - he never got. I explained I was not fixing stuff as I am not a repIr person. If he can talkme through something I am willing to try but I am a contracted driver not a b***h slave. And I am paid to be a driver to service his loads by his company he is leased on to. This was all part of the hiring conversation.
The truck was taken to his residence and he was called and he said hed speak to me later. Later that day he texted me complaining of the door lack pull up plastic bob was off the lock. The guy who replacd the two windows in Wichita broke it off while trying to get the door open so he ould work the glass replacement. The repair guy explained why and how to fix the latches and replace the rods in both doors.
By Iowa law an employer or contractor has to be paid at least minimum wage and any deductions have to be itemized and can not reduce the minimum wage limit for hours worked. -
This is the ad I answered.
Driver needed immediately.
Class A CDL.
AT LEAST 1 YEAR OTR EXPERIENCE REQUIRED.
Must have clean MVR!
DRIVER PAYED 35% OF EACH LOAD AFTER CO % AND FUEL!
EX; FROM LAST WEEK.......
MUSCATINE TO DENVER.
890. MILES. PAYED $3,800. So.... 3800- co% (15%) = 3230. 3230. - fuel (700) = 2530. 2530. - 65% (me) = (35%) or $885.50 to you for one 2 day run!!!
Now, out of denver isn't as good....
Denver to Des Moines aprpox; 667. Miles payed $1,100. So 1100. - co% (15) = $935. $935. - fuel (400) = $535. $535 - 65% (me) = $187.25 to you for a one day run!
Right now you are at $1,072 75. For 3 dsys of work!
Last load of the week was Des Moines to Houston. 980. On the miles. Payed: $2,400. So, $2,400. - co% (15) = $2040. - fuel (600) = $1,440. $1,440. - 65% (me) = $504. To you!
Now you are at $1,576.75 for 5 days driving... and when the weeks go like this and you go by 70 hr rule... then you could get one more run in on this pay period!!!! Up to you!
This is a actual run from last week! And is representive of how a week goes!
YOU CAN MAKE MONEY WITH ME!
YOU MUST STAY OUT TWO WEEKS.
2 DAYS HOME.
FUEL CARDS.
$200. CASH ADVANCE WEEKLY.
PAID WEEKLY : AFTER FIRST TWO WEEKS! WE HOLD BACK ONE WEEKS CHECK.
THIS position is open now!
We pull dry van.
no touch.
2014/15 trailers.
No NYC. (UNLESS YOU ASK TO GO.)
NO LA. (UNLESS YOU ASK TO GO.)
Truck available is a 2005 freightliner classic xl.
CALL, TEXT, or EMAIL MIKE AT show contact info
PLEASE HAVE A RECENT COPY OF YOUR MVR! WE DO NOT PROVIDE IT AND WE NEED IT TO INITIATE THE hiring process!
WE CAN HAVE YOU IN THE TRUCK AND ROLLING IN TWO DAYS
He has stolen my wages and wont return my personal items.
Ive spoken to him and he is 100% uncoperative and spitefull. I was ill and i never wrecked or damaged his 14 year old truck.
Ive spoken to Turquoise llc and they are of no help in getting me paid or my personal items returned to me.
Ive spoken to his contracted accounting office and they explained thou he paid himself every week I worked, he did not turn in any loads under my employee name for payment of wages.
Theres more but the big thing is wage theft....
Im been a company driver since 1990! Ive never not been paid incorre tly with out a corre tion on the following weeks hecks. ive never not gotten a pay settlement statement from an employer. Ive never not been paid.
For him to do this so easily makes me believe he does this continuousilyto his employee drivers. Beware!
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Mike
Cedar Rapids,Iowa,
USA
A very bad , distructive and filthy driver.
#2REBUTTAL Owner of company
Wed, June 03, 2015
I'm really shocked to read such a fictitious account of this incident! Only thing true is the age of my truck and the new radiator! This guy don fread came to me for a job! So lets start at the beginning, does anyone reading this see anywhere in my add that don posted that I'm looking to send a driver on vacation? Well don says he's a driver on vacation! My add clearly states what I'm looking for and what i expect and what the potential for pay would be. there was an issue with the driver side door not working properly. .this was done by the driver of this truck prior to don and i was not aware of it until the moment don showed up. He seen me struggle with getting the door open, so if this was going to be this big issue for him then he should have asked me to fix and came back later! He didn't! Instead he said we can fix it along the way and we both checked the passenger door and it worked fine With a little tug. To make a long story short, he worked for me less than a month before i fired him. Now anyone with any kind of work history knows the deal...first week check held back, first check in two weeks! Second check 3rd week and in his case no checks at all after. why? I'll gladly tell you...he parked on a wed night with the agreement that i would fix door check and fix radiator and ac, check exhust. and he would be back sat to go. I came home off the road that night. Next morning mechanic showed up and together we discoverd my completely torn apart truck! This guy had literally ripped the inside door panels and fabric from both doors. He had some how managed to completely knock out the little driver side street view window. I assume he locked himself out the truck and thats how he got in!??? Also he had broken and bent the tods and plastic connectors to both doors, broken the lock on the driver side and the top piece that protrudes! Also all tires off on air some by 20 psi either direction and all kinds of chrome missing or broke! The truck was so filthy outside that you couldn't even see the lights were on. And inside was horrible! Snot and i do mean bugers everywhere! Who does that?! Particals of food all over steering wheel doors and dash also cabinets and floor. i fixed everything wrong! Ac, doors, no exhust leaks, repaired radiator hose and washed outside of truck fixed a couple lights, fixed the window, aired all tires correctly, adjusted slack adjusters and topped of all fluids! Did i mention my oil was a gallon short!! For the record..i pay for truck washes and fluids. I also give drivers 360 a week advance that they can use to do these things and i reimburse them. so now to sum up this rebuttal. .. don fread was supposed to be back on Saturday to go out, after all that he did i was still willing to work with him i called and text him many times from Thursday through sunday with no response! I fired him monday! I replaced him wed. I charged him gor all the damage he caused and i charged him 200 dollers for no two week notice as per signed contract and i charged him for the complete in and out detail that had to be done to the truck before any other driver would even think about driving it! When all said and done..don owed me $ 80.00! i did not ever hear from don again! Only heard from company and accounting thst he called. Now i ask you...did i do anything wrong? On his personal items...I'm not a storage center and why would i do him a favor? If these items were so important to him...why didn't he ever call me to Get them?