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  • Report:  #86642

Complaint Review: B & R Delivery - Irving Texas

Reported By:
- Grandview, Missouri,
Submitted:
Updated:

B & R Delivery
2220 Penn Street Irving, 75061-5753 Texas, U.S.A.
Phone:
800-721-9623
Web:
N/A
Categories:
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I worked for B&R Delivery in Irving, Texas from January 2001 to July 9, 2003. During my employment with Bill (William) Baker, owner of B&R Delivery, I drove an 18-wheeler. I was an independent contractor just for a few months before I was terminated from my job. The rest of the time, I was an employee.

At either time, as an independent contractor or as an employee, was I EVER liable for truck repairs, license plates, insurance, gas, or any other expenses associated with being a business owner / owner operator of the trucks owned by B&R Delivery.

I worked extremely hard for Bill Baker the whole time I was there. I did everything he asked me to do, the way he wanted it done, unless he gave me permission to do it another way. No matter how hard I tried to please him, Bill Baker was NEVER happy with anything I did for him. He acted like I was his own personal slave. He expected me to be at his beck and call, and then when I needed to do something for myself, he would get angry and threaten to fire me.

Bill's personality was very volatile, changing as frequently as the weather; his moods were very unpredictable.

I worked many, many long hard hours; many that he never paid me for. For example, Bill would have me take special trips to Athens, Texas, which is a one-and-a-half-hour drive from Irving, for the truck repairs. Then I would have to sit around and wait for hours at a repair shop while the truck was being worked on. Bill didn't want to spend his own time taking care of his truck, and he didn't want to take the truck somewhere close to his office, so he expected me to take his truck to repair shops and truck washes on my own time and not compensate me for the time I spent taking care of his truck.

Bill Baker wanted as much out of me as he could get without paying me for my time. I know he is cheap because he hires Mexicans to work for him since he knows they will work for less money than American workers.

In addition, Bill would have his drivers run all over various cities that we weren't familiar with trying to locate stores with Western Unions so he could send us trip money. Sometimes it would take several different stops and a couple of hours to find a store with a Western Union. more wasted time that we were never compensated for.

In addition, there were many, many times that I would get laid over for one-three days waiting for a load back to Dallas, Texas and I was never paid for that either.

Whenever Bill got mad about something, he would take it out on me, even though it had nothing to do with me. He yelled at me several times over the phone, including the use of foul language at me. Throughout the course of my employment and on numerous occasions, his verbal abuse also consisted of threatening to fire me. He used this tactic frequently to try and intimidate and control me.

I put up with this for so long, only because I had nowhere to live. The only reason I took a truck driving job is because I could sleep in the truck and make some money so I could get a place to live and get out of truck driving altogether. If it hadn't been for having nowhere to live, I would have quit this job the first week I started, just like almost everybody else he hires.

I cannot go into the entire work history with my previous boss. It would take literally volumes to explain everything.

On my last trip to Florida, all the sudden everything took a turn for the worst. During a phone conversation with Bill Baker while I was still in Florida, he started again with making threats of firing me. In addition he also made accusations that I was driving 500 miles more than the other drivers to Northern California. There are only a couple of ways to get to California, and following those routes would never constitute an additional 500 miles. His accusations are ludicrous! From Irving, Texas, I had to drive to Ardmore, Oklahoma or to Athens, Texas first to pick up a loaded trailer. This would have added a couple hundred miles to the trip. Then when I got to the point of delivery, I had to drive to another location to get the trailer loaded. This would add on another 100 miles - at least. Bill was not figuring this into his calculations on the miles I drove. He felt that one trip to California should average 3500 miles because he was going by Rand McNally. But the miles never came close to that number because of all the extra driving I had to do. If I had driven directly from Irving, Texas to California and back, with no out-of-the way delivery's or pick-ups, then my miles would have been close to 3500 miles.

I had tried to explain to him how I was arriving at the miles I had driven on my last few trips, and that what I charged him was the correct amount for the work I did. But he never wanted to listen to anything I had to say. He started threatening to fire me again over the phone; telling me to get everything out of the truck when I got back from Florida, and he was going to give me my last paycheck, and that he was through with me, as he put it. I had heard this so many times before, that I didn't know if he was just blowing smoke again, or if he really meant it this time.

When I returned to Texas from my trip to Florida, that is when everything took a turn for the worst.

A few days before I went to Florida, I had told Bill that there was money missing from my paycheck from some previous trips I did. He told me to talk to the new secretary about it because she wrote the checks. I went in and talked to her like Bill said to, and then his brother (who also works there) told the secretary to call the police on me. I hadn't done a thing; I was only trying to resolve my paycheck problem, and they called the police on me! I left the office to resume removing all of my belongings from the truck, and not even two minutes later Bill called me on my cell phone yelling at me saying: What are you doing talking to my secretary about your paycheck?..The only person you're supposed to talk to is me... Why are you talking to her? I told Bill, because that's what you told me to do!

There were many times in which I did what Bill said to do, and then he got mad that I did it.

After Bill called me on my cell phone to harass me for doing what he told me to do, I continued on with removing my belongings from his truck and storage trailer..about ten minutes later, Bill drove onto the property. Then he came over to me and said something to me. I was mad about the way I had been talked to on the phone in Florida, for the way I was treated for talking to his secretary about my paycheck, and that his brother called the police on me because I hadn't done anything wrong, so I didn't want to talk to Bill.

While I was trying to get the remains of my property out of the truck, he came over to me and started to get extremely hostile and aggressive, both in his demeanor and his language. I told him that I was getting my stuff out of the truck, I didn't want to talk to him and all I wanted was my paycheck. Bill said (very arrogantly and cocky) that he would give it to me whenever he felt like it, that he would give me WHAT he felt like giving me, and that he had 21 days to pay me.

I warned Bill that if he touched me that I would call the police on him and file an assault complaint.

While I was trying to get my stuff out of the truck, Bill reached up and grabbed my shirt, and began yanking and pulling on it. I got away and went inside the truck and grabbed the truck keys out of the ignition so he couldn't go anywhere until he paid me what he owed me before I cut ties with him. He went and got some spare keys to the truck, got in it, and left.

A few minutes later, I called the police and filed an assault complaint against him.

On another day, after I had already left B&R, I called Bill Baker and told him that I wanted my money. He claimed he wasn't going to pay me for everything he owed me because he didn't want to. He said he was going to pay me what he felt like giving me. He said he was going to send the check to my attorney, and if I had a problem with what he was paying me, to have my attorney call him, or to sue him. I asked him why he would go through all the time and hassle of going to court, instead of being reasonable and paying me what I was entitled to receive for compensation for my labor. Bill told me, in a very cocky and arrogant manner to take him to court because I would never win.

After I received my paycheck from my attorney, I calculated what Bill paid me, and compared it to my trip records and found some serious errors.

This is a record of the trips I did, with the miles, and what he should have paid me:

Mississippi: 1201 miles X .26 a mile = $312.26

Florida: 2688 miles X .26 a mile = $698.88

When I returned from Florida, I did a special favor for Bill because he was begging me to take a trailer to Athens, Texas so he could stay in his office and do payroll. He said he would pay me $10/hour. I had been gone already for about three weeks straight, and I had many things I needed to do for myself before I left on another trip the next day. But I told him I would help him, so I took the trailer to Athens. This special favor I did for Bill completely threw my plans off for an entire month. It took me a whole month to even get back to what I needed to do because I put Bill first. I charged him for only four hours for the trip to Athens, even though it took longer.

Bill paid me for the Mississippi and Florida trips on the same paycheck, but he never paid me for my 4 hours to Athens, which should have also been on the same check.

The total amount of the Mississippi and Florida trips, including the four hours to Athens should have been $1051.14. Bill paid me $1011.00.shorted $40.14.

The next problem with my paycheck is after the Florida trip, I went to California. The total miles were 4034, which = $1048.84 plus $40 for unloading. TOTAL - $1088.84. Bill paid me only $1050. I was shorted $38.84.

Then I did another trip to California. And then I went to Florida after that. The amount he paid me for those trips was correct.

Then when his truck broke down in Dallas, I had to call a service truck. Bill charged the repairs onto his credit card, and then took the money out of my paycheck! He stole almost $300 out of my check for the repairs, and I never agreed to pay for the repairs on HIS truck.

Bill said the reason he did this is because I used his truck for personal reasons. Regardless, he had no right to take my money to pay for repairs on HIS truck!

When I returned from my last trip for B&R Delivery, Bill's property was packed full of trucks, trailers, and cars. There wasn't any room to park another truck, so I went down the street and parked at a truck stop for the night. The next morning, I went to the bank to cash a paycheck that I had been trying to cash for six weeks. I was working out of town so much for Bill that I never had time to get to the bank.

There were about six trailers blocking my car in, and I wasn't going to take my time to move all of them just so I could get my car out. It would have taken an hour or more to move all of them myself. I had been out of town for six weeks straight, and I had things to do. I didn't have time for moving trailers, especially when I knew he wouldn't pay me for my time to move them.

I figured the drive to the bank was about 20 miles; I couldn't get my car out; I had worked hard for Bill for 1.5 years; I had been gone for six weeks straight and after all that, it would be no big deal to drive the truck a few miles to the bank to cash my check and come right back.

Just after I had left the bank, the truck broke down on a side street a couple of blocks away from the bank. I had warned Bill the truck had been having problems. I told him on the phone at least twice, and I even put it in writing on my trip sheet so he couldn't say I never told him about it.

Next, I called Bill and told him about the truck breaking down, and then I called somebody out to repair the truck.

The total bill came to $293.26. Bill charged it to his credit card, but then when I got my paycheck from my attorney a few weeks later, I found that he had charged me for the repairs, just because he was mad at me for taking the truck to the bank!

I am not an owner/operator; therefore I am NOT responsible for any repairs or any costs involved with owning Bill's truck. The truck is not mine, and I was not leasing it either.

Bill claimed that the $293.26 was a wreckers fee, but there was never a wrecker involved - only a service truck.

After all I did for Bill after I worked so hard for him for 1.5 years, and did special favors too, you'd think he would at least give me the allowance of taking the truck to the bank, and not make such a big deal about it, especially when he knew it had problems and I couldn't get my car out. The truck could have broken down anywhere, but it just happened to break down a few miles away from his office.

Bill stole a total of $372.24, and I am seeking to retain the amount he withheld from my last paycheck. And if he refuses to pay the amount, then I ask the courts to place a judgment against him.

Sincerely,

Tammy

Grandview, Missouri
U.S.A.


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