Thursday
Church.
Yes, I went to church last night. It went on a bit long, too. I didn't leave, though, I stayed until it ended at 9:00pm and didn't waste any time getting out of there, getting home and getting to bed.
I got a bit of a surprise yesterday as I was about to leave work. No, the ops manager did not show up to hand me a pink slip. My manager handed me a white piece of paper and said here.
Okaaaaaay. I open it up and read a one-liner. I says I am receiving a $.55 per hour raise. Uhh, that's not bad, really. In fact, I was surprised I got any kind of raise after all the commotion was started when I was pulled over twice in December for vehicle inspections and given fully 4 warnings: 2 per inspection. Seriously, that information came down from the near the top and went through every level of management until it got to my manager.
Okay, warnings for commercial drivers carry more weight after the initiation of "CSA2010". Some people say they have the same weight as getting an actual ticket itself, I would seriously have to disagree with that assessment. I asked about this new "thing" they have come out with that regulate the trucking industry much more than ever and affects commercial drivers to the point that, well, some companies may have trouble keeping their doors open if DOT comes in and shuts down their fleet.
But, anyway, they are not, allegedly, revoking class A priviledges for warnings. But, warning have a rating system through points. I think I am understanding it correctly that the points stack up against the company and that at some point, if enough points in a specific time period are accrued, DOT can come in and start the beginning levels of "big brotherism".
In some cases, I would assess that yes, some companies need to be watched like a hawk. If drivers in that company are getting into accidents or if the company is having them drive around unsafe equipment, then yes, I agree.
June 30, 2011 6:03 AM
Anonymous said...
But to not get a warning when they pull you over the exception, not the rule. They find one little thing wrong and they write up a warning. The first guy that pulled me over was a 20-something and definitely had the "god" syndrome going. You will bow and worship him, he is the final authority and if you don't, he'll make your life even more miserable.
It usually isn't worth getting into arguments with them, but I did confront him on the "following too closely" statement. NO sir, you weren't even parked in such a position as to SEE what was going on. Back and forth, but I knew it wouldn't help anything, still, I had to make my case.
The second officer that month was an older gentlemen, nice enough, who adamently claimed that the reduced speed limit was clearly posted coming into the construction zone. A trip back through determined that there was NO signage showing a new speed limit. The DOT crews had put up a STAND for the sign, but they never actually got around to putting the sign up itself.
That's when I complained to AZDOT. "Your officers are handing out warnings and tickets for a construction zone with signage that does not exist." The DOT officer that wrote me back said I would have to go through my company to file a formal complaint, but that he was also going to forward that email I sent to him on to AZDOT.
Yes, the signage magically appeared after that. I would laugh, but there is nothing funny about it. No-one was doing their job in that case. The DOT officers weren't looking to see if the signage had been placed - before handing out their invitations and the state of Arizona obviously hadn't done it's job since the new speed limit, which was supposed to be posted, was not.
The thing that really got me in this case is that there were cars speeding by me going at least 10mph faster than I. The officer didn't care about THOSE people who were REALLY speeding.
These are the kinds of things that make DOT officers mostly unliked in the realm of commercial drivers. They give us a hard time and frequently are very disrespectful, even if the driver is respecting them. If it had been a ticket I had been issued, I would have won that one hands down, because when I saw that the signs were down, I would have immediately driven home, got my camera and taken both pictures and a video of it.
Well whatever, the end of month today, although there is usually a big push to get out whatever product we can to bring up our numbers, all of our stores are doing very well this month. Save some for next month, lol.
G'day.
ben
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