Attorney Paul Taylor from Truckers Justice Center
Believe it or not, truck drivers have rights too. There are laws in place to protect professional truckers from company retaliation for refusing to operate unsafe equipment, falsifying logbooks, false information placed on their DAC Report and even disputes that arise from trucking companies lease purchase programs. Per our previous post, OSHA and your rights as a truck driver, many truck drivers fail their case due to not having the proper legal representation.
Trucking employment law attorney, Paul Taylor was our special guest on Truth About Trucking “LIVE” Blog Talk Radio, on Thursday, July 15th, 2010 . The law office of Taylor & Associates, Ltd., of the Truckers Justice Center have been helping workers get justice for their employment-related problems for more than 20 years. Having come from a trucking family, Mr. Taylor understands the hardships faced by the professional trucker and specializes in trucking employment law.
Truck drivers who refuse to violate HOS rules or to operate the CMV in a way that would violate a Federal Commercial Motor Vehicle Regulation are protected from any kind of retaliation by the trucking company, under the STAA, 49 U.S.C. Section 31105, and are encouraged to report any such retaliation to the FMCSA and to OSHA.
His law firm offers free initial consultation and works on a contingency fee basis, meaning that you pay NO ATTORNEY FEE unless they recover. As mentioned in our earlier post, one study found that OSHA ruled in favor of the truck driver only 31% of the time. However, in most of these cases the employee chose to act without an attorney experienced in employment law.
If you missed the broadcast with Paul Taylor of The Truckers Justice Center, you can catch it here:
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Great show on Blog-Talk-Radio Allen. Paul has been a personal friend for over 15 years. Its great to see that drivers are now waking up to the protections they have under the law against unscrupulous employers that threaten their jobs if they dare speak up about equipment issues, HOS, adverse weather conditions, or other safety related issues.
In fact, he is my attorney in an OSHA complaint against Cargo Express, Boise ID. They fired me because I dared to speak up about an air & oil leak at the turbo actuator.
The President of Cargo Express, Dennis Schlegel, had the audacity to send me a Qualcomm msg:
“…a leak at the turbo actuator is not a safety issue. If you don’t want to drive my truck back to Boise, Lets say so now and I’ll send a recovery driver. Otherwise, quit the nonsense and lets get to work.”
Less than 1 week later, I was fired.
Six hours after I was fired … the lawsuit was on Cargo Express’s fax and filed with the US Labor Dept and OSHA.
Thanks T.J. – Yes, it was a great show and we have gotten a lot of positive response from listeners. We’ll have to have Mr. Taylor on again …. thanks, Allen
Allen,
I’ve taken Mr. Taylor information and printed it off. I hope he can assist me. I’m going to call him. I have complaints I hole he listens too. It’s such a effort to find legal counseling for particular situations. Sometime it seems hopeless in this industry. Trucking companies are so scandalous and unethical. Without unions there’s no way to turn. Trucking companies lie to drivers to get you to sign on, offer the driver a (pie in the sky) and when it doesn’t turn out that way, the driver quits and the company makes disparaging remarks to DAC about the driver. Especially if you quit without notice. I will quit without notice. Why should I give a notice I’m quitting. They’re not going to give me notice when they terminate me. Maybe I shouldn’t feel this way, someone tell me why not.
Perkins Specialized Transportation Noblesville IN
1-Scam lease purchase program. 2-Steal all your money and under pay for trip loads. 3-Keep your truck in red so you can owe them money each week and have no pay check. They have drivers who have received no pay checks for months, drivers who lost their homes, drivers are threatened with bad DAC reports if they don’t do what they ask regardless of safety and the law. These people are scam artist and organized crime comes to mind when you do some checking. Check them out on the web.
Do not work there they will rip you off, turnover rate is 98% they bring in 8 to 16 new drivers a week and only operate 189 trucks a roll over scam no money no pay and the worst safety rating of any company with D.O.T. check it out a the U.S. D.O.T. web site. They lease the same trucks over and over and are making a killing of f the sweat of hard working people.
These people need to be criminally investigated
While we are in the area of Trucking Employment Law Attorney Paul Taylor on Truth About Trucking “LIVE” | AskTheTrucker, For some people, they feel as though the law is there merely to protect their interests, and that they have no need for daily interaction. However, they assume that if the day comes where their behaviour is called into question, the law will operate, the course of justice will be run, and the will of the people will be fulfilled. This is perhaps a naïve interpretation of the function of law, and indeed the way it operates in our lives throughout the day. For instance, at the top level we have the constitution, establishing parameters within which the government can and cannot act to protect the citizens of our nation. That has an overwhelming effect on the way in which our government and indeed our country is run, which has a knock on effect on everything we do throughout the day and how we do it. Even at a local level, the law interacts with the services we are provided, the jobs we work and pretty much everything to do with the lives we lead. A distant concept? I don’t think so.
While we are discussing about topics relevant to Trucking Employment Law Attorney Paul Taylor on Truth About Trucking “LIVE” | AskTheTrucker, Many war criminals are merely cogs in the machine of a legal regime, which ultimately permits their actions, however unjustifiable morally. Natural law theories give a basis for challenge on these grounds, whilst avoiding the awkward question of direct legal contravention, which ultimately works to serve justice. In this sense, it is perhaps useful as a canon of interpretation and in determining just and equitable outcomes in ‘difficult’ cases. However, as a wider legal concept, natural law and the proposed intersection between law and morality seems too awkward to reconcile with considered academic legal understandings. Having said that, natural law has provided an excellent starting position for further advanced argumentation, and has provided a platform for critique that has been essential to the development of the more sophisticated ideas held in regard in this modern day.
I also worked at Cargo Express in Boise, ID. They had me pick up a drivers seat in Arkansas and bring it back to Denver, for Navajo, to the yard, and when I got there, I was pulled from my truck, taken to the doctors office, and blood drawn for possibility of hepititas C. Navajo did not call or inform Cargo of the situation or the doctor visit. Bio hazard stickers were placed on my truck, I have pictures, and when I texted my dispatcher Steve back in Boise and sent him the pictures of the truck, his response was and I quote, tear that shit off of there and go pick up your load and get moviing.
In my last job at Don’s Frozen here in Caldwell, ID, the owner op we were working for, he had 2 trucks and a buddy and I were driving, we just got screwed out of over $5000 in wages. We thought everything was fine, a big happy family, and after I ran to N Carolina, when I got home on the 4th of Nov, he told me to let someone pick up the truck for repairs, and on the 8th, he fired Dan and I. He said I lost $5000 in reciepts, and Dan lost $4000 in reciepts. He told Dan he was taking care of his child support, that was not being done either. Paul Merchant Trucking out of Weiser, ID. If anyone hears of anyone going to work for him, get everything in writing, and be careful when he hesitates to even hand out fuel money. We are going to small claims court in Jan. of next year.
I also worked at Cargo Express in Boise, ID. They had me pick up a drivers seat in Arkansas and bring it back to Denver, for Navajo, to the yard, and when I got there, I was pulled from my truck, taken to the doctors office, and blood drawn for possibility of hepititas C. Navajo did not call or inform Cargo of the situation or the doctor visit. Bio hazard stickers were placed on my truck, I have pictures, and when I texted my dispatcher Steve back in Boise and sent him the pictures of the truck, his response was and I quote, tear that shit off of there and go pick up your load and get moving.
In my last job at Don’s Frozen here in Caldwell, ID, the owner op we were working for, he had 2 trucks and a buddy and I were driving, we just got screwed out of over $5000 in wages. We thought everything was fine, a big happy family, and after I ran to N Carolina, when I got home on the 4th of Nov, he told me to let someone pick up the truck for repairs, and on the 8th, he fired Dan and I. He said I lost $5000 in reciepts, and Dan lost $4000 in reciepts. He told Dan he was taking care of his child support, that was not being done either. Paul Merchant Trucking out of Weiser, ID. If anyone hears of anyone going to work for him, get everything in writing, and be careful when he hesitates to even hand out fuel money. We are going to small claims court in Jan. of next year.
Well, here we are almost 3 years from when this entire ordeal started.
Labor Department Judge Orders Cargo Express, Inc. to reinstate driver and pay damages.
In a decision issued April 1, 2013, Judge Lee J. Romero, Jr., an administrative law judge of the U. S. Department of Labor has ordered Cargo Express, Inc., a Boise, Idaho motor carrier to reinstate a former driver and pay him back pay and punitive damages. Judge Romero found that Cargo Express violated the law when it fired Mr. Graff because he complained of an oil leak and an air leak on his assigned truck, and because he refused to drive the truck due to these defects. Cargo Express claimed that it fired Mr. Graff primarily for failing to meet a monthly standard for miles driven. The judge was not persuaded because Cargo Express had fired no other drivers for low miles driven during the time Graff worked there, and there were other drivers with mileage performance issues who were not fired.
Judge Romero ordered Cargo Express to reinstate Mr. Graff, and pay him back pay of $65,767.24 and his attorney fees. He also awarded Graff punitive damages of $25,000.00 because Cargo Express’s “actions rose to the level of reckless or callous disregard” for Mr. Graff’s rights.
Graff brought his claim under Section 405 of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act which prohibits retaliation against commercial drivers because they made complaints about violations of commercial vehicle safety regulations or refused to drive in violation of a commercial vehicle safety regulation.
Mr. Graff was represented by Paul O. Taylor, an attorney with Truckers Justice Center in Burnsville, MN. http://www.truckersjusticecenter.com
I have just heard the broadcast and it was quite informative and helpful. No doubt truck drivers also have some rights. And the step taken by Paul is really appreciated. I encourage Paul for continuing this cause.