Bad O/O and Bad Drivers

[fortwayne]

It bothers me to see EO allowing even the first name of a driver being 'tagged' yet no such references to bad O/O are permitted or yet any references to bad carriers either.

Personally, I don't believe NONE of it belongs here.

If O/O and carriers do their proper background checks, which I believe should include verify employment for the past 10-years (required any hoot), I also believe it should require criminal background check as well........if they do that they should be able to REDUCE their risk.

And if drivers do their proper background checks, which I believe should include talking to current and past drivers, current and past O/Ops, in addition they should at least check the safety stats (available on line) of the carrier.....heck I believe why run for a carrier if their safety stats stink to high heaven - it kind of shows me to a degree they don't do their background checks on their drivers.

My point is this.....if we all do our homework and we still get burnt, well so be it, that happens, things still can and sometimes go wrong. But if we don't do our homework and things go wrong, well then - we have no one to blame and should have no outlet to ***** and moan about our own failure to do our own job.

My suggestion is - if you reap the benefits of this business because you did your homework and worked your business plan - then pat yourself on the back and tell everyone about it!

If you suffer the failures of failing to do your homework and having no business plan then slap the heck out of yourself and stop blaming everyone else for your ignorance!

 

[Vinnie T]

One of the best I drivers I ever had was an ex con. Sure he couldn't run some loads and go to Canada, but he was a great reliable driver... Just Sayin

 

[fortwayne]

But, you did your background on him, you rolled the dice by your choice and it worked...but, at least you knew cause you did the homework.

 

[idtrans]

? Fort Wayne are you OO or contracted driver? And lets say you are a owner op wouldn't you want to find out if someone messed over someone with abandoning a truck 900 miles away in a non parking spot ?

A contract driver when applying may have been the best worker for the references but he may have forgot to list the 1 or 2 people they did mess over bad .

And nothing against x cons but the companies I lease with do not accept criminal records.

Point is we should all have a list bad contractors and I agree bad companies. and also bad O/O / fleet owners.

 

[Vinnie T]

But, you did your background on him, you rolled the dice by your choice and it worked...but, at least you knew cause you did the homework.

I knew, nobody would give the poor guy a shot. Took him 3 years after getting his CDL to finally land a driving job with me. He is now a fleet owner himself and has 3 semi's leased to a carrier that advertises here on EO.

 

[ATeam]

I knew, nobody would give the poor guy a shot. Took him 3 years after getting his CDL to finally land a driving job with me. He is now a fleet owner himself and has 3 semi's leased to a carrier that advertises here on EO.

That's a success story I am happy to hear.

I did a quick search to find out what the recidivism (re-offend) rate is among felons in the U.S. but found too many conflicting statistics and too much hyperbole to get a quick answer. I know for a fact that it is less than 50 percent in Minnesota; meaning that over half of the people who do time never offend again.

That's not a story that gets talked about much. It's much more fun for self-righteous people to bash the cons instead.

 

[Bruno]

That's a success story I am happy to hear.

I did a quick search to find out what the recidivism (re-offend) rate is among felons in the U.S. but found too many conflicting statistics and too much hyperbole to get a quick answer. I know for a fact that it is less than 50 percent in Minnesota; meaning that over half of the people who do time never offend again.

That's not a story that gets talked about much. It's much more fun for self-righteous people to bash the cons instead.

I would hire a Ex Con if the carrier we are lease to let him come on. I'm not perfect and we all have made a bad choice in life one time or another. I hired a Ex con to work for me at a fence company back when I was 20. That was 21 years ago and he still works at the fence company still today. So not all people are bad.

 

[xiggi]

Names should not be allowed, just too much chance we are not getting the whole story.

 

[Brisco]

I did a quick search to find out what the recidivism (re-offend) rate is among felons in the U.S. but found too many conflicting statistics and too much hyperbole to get a quick answer. I know for a fact that it is less than 50 percent in Minnesota; meaning that over half of the people who do time never offend again.

That's not a story that gets talked about much. It's much more fun for self-righteous people to bash the cons instead.

You've brought up a whole different conversation here that probably deserves it's own thread down in the soapbox there Phil.

There are a lot of factors involved when it comes to what the actual recidivism rate is for felons all over the country. Examples are Race, Location, Economic Enviroment, and so on.

My opinion on why Minnesota's recidivism rate is less than 50% is answered right here in this link:

Demographics of Minnesota - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Demographics of Minnesota
By Race:

White Black AIAN* Asian NHPI*
92.06% 4.18% 1.66% 3.31% 0.12%

If this interests you further and you decide to study it with more depth, look into the population racial demographics as well as the recidivism rates among felons. In other words, you may find that Atlanta or Los Angeles could have an 88% recidivism rate while Helena could be as low as 9%.

Just something to study and keep your mind busy, that's all.

 

[ATeam]

If this interests you further and you decide to study it with more depth, look into the population racial demographics as well as the recidivism rates among felons. In other words, you may find that Atlanta or Los Angeles could have an 88% recidivism rate while Helena could be as low as 9%.

Just something to study and keep your mind busy, that's all.

The topic interests me only to the extent that it came up here when the above success story was mentioned in the context of expediting. I am not interested in looking into it further because it is not of immediate importance to me and I already have some insight. Before letting the topic rest, and since you brought more into the conversation, allow me to share this.

I was not a corrections officer (CO) but did work in a state prison for several months as a staff member. My job put me in the shops with the inmates, working side by side with them. This was in what the Minnesota Department of Corrections called a Level 4 facility, with Level 5 being the highest security. In other words, this was the real deal where violent offenders were housed, sometimes for life. It was not some minimum security facility where an inmate could walk away if he wished.

New CO's got 13 weeks of training before they began work and additional training after that. Staff people had to take the first two weeks of training the CO's took before we could begin our work inside. CO's and staff trained side by side and in the same classrooms for those two weeks.

The training and a few months of experience in this environment provided many insights that support opinions now held. I believe the reason Minnesota's recidivism rate was then the lowest in the nation is because Minnesota spent more money on programs for inmates than many if not all other states. With few exceptions, the CO's and staff members were not corrupt. They were there to do their jobs and that's exactly what they did.

It was explained to me by someone who was in a position to know that there are three kinds of inmates.

One kind is represented by the guy who sets foot in prison for the first time, looks around, and is instantly reformed. He swears he is never coming back, does his time, gets out and lives the rest of his law-abiding life true to his oath.

On the other extreme is the guy who does his time, gets out, quickly re-offends and ends up back in prison. It is a cycle repeated for his entire life. He is the kind of guy that when you get to know him you realize there is a very real need for prisons. Society does not need this guy to pay a debt. Society needs him to be locked up so innocent people can be safe.

In the middle are inmates who could go either way. They may live law-abiding lives once they get out, or they may re-offend and end up back in prison. What makes the difference in many cases is the amount of program help they receive and the quality of it.

After hearing this, I met and worked with a number of inmates who fell into all three camps. It had nothing to do with race. You can pick any racial group in prison and find all three types of inmates within that race.

I don't know what goes on now in these tight-budget times but I knew then that Minnesota put a lot of money into helping inmates get ready for life on the outside and living it lawfully. It was money well spent as shown by the state's low recidivism rate and by the fact that it costs more tax money each year to house an inmate than it does to send someone to college. It is also nice to see someone get out of prison and never again create a victim by committing a crime.

 

[TS462]

Names should not be allowed, just too much chance we are not getting the whole story.

So you really think that fleet owners don't get on here... If someone called them a bad owner and was bashing them for whatever reason... Then you could have The Paul Harvey Rest of the story to make it all fair

 

[Moot]

One of the best I drivers I ever had was an ex con.

I'm an ex con. Panther leased on a whole bunch of ex cons in July of 2006. Many are successful expediters, E.O. members and productive members of society. Please, this holiday season, remember the ex con and the fact that only you can prevent forest fires. Thin the forest, cut a Christmas tree. Hire an ex con. Support the Ad Council.

 

[fortwayne]

And I would like to point one thing out. I did not say a con should not be hired. I simply stated that I believe we should do a criminal background check on everyone. Therefore, we know what we are getting ourselves into, aka the risk factor.

To me it would depend upon the degree and type of crime.

 

[ATeam]

And I would like to point one thing out. I did not say a con should not be hired. I simply stated that I believe we should do a criminal background check on everyone. Therefore, we know what we are getting ourselves into, aka the risk factor.

To me it would depend upon the degree and type of crime.

I would hire a murderer before I hired someone who had been in and out of prison for armed robbery or drug sales a couple of times. The murderer is less likely to re-offend. Of course, it's not an issue at all since years ago, in purusit of a simpler life, I swore off employees.