Complaint Review: Combined Transport/Blackwell - Nationwide

I was employed with a reputable trucking company for 4-1/2 years as a Driver/trainer, I had recieved awards for excellence in my postion as a Driver/Trainer. In January 2015 I met a driver for the Blackwell division of Combined Transport, he was telling me about how great the company is and he was there for many years. I felt I wanted to investigate and find out more about this company, I called and eventually got in touch with Betsy Miracle a recruiter for Combined Transport/Blackwell. One of the top selling points for me was the companies pet policy. I have a little dog Ruby. I was hired over the phone within one day. I explained I needed to leave my current company with a good standing and prepare to move from Texas to Medford OR, this would take about 3 weeks, Betsy Miracle said no problem, my start date was to be March 2, 2015.

I arrived in Medford OR a week before, it was then when I was told the hotel Ramada Inn was not allowed to have pets per Combined Transport/Blackwell. This "new rule" was put in place sometime while I was on my way to OR. I had to sleep in my moving truck for a week to wait for my son to take 2 days off and drive appoximately 400 miles one way to get my Ruby while I was in the training program. Before I was checked into the Ramada Inn Jim Sanchez the company concier/orientation coordinator began to call me to see if I checked in, this was a Saturday. Once I told him I was in my room he showed up and insisted I needed to get the paper work out of the way. I wondered if this was normal because I was told this would all be done on Monday while in orientation. Jim Sanchez was in my room for about 2-3 hours. After he left I went to dinner with some other new hires and Jim Sanchez proceeded to text me about lunch arrangments for Monday as I had indicated I could not eat pizza and I would bring my own lunch, he wanted to let me know the company would provide me with hot wings, again I said no thank you. On Monday we all sat around and I couldn't help but notice I was the only female in this class, and I wondered if Jim Sanchez had gone to the other drivers rooms to also do the paper work. ???? Once it was lunch time it was very clear to me I had "wronged" this company for bringing my own lunch, I went from being welcomed to shunned. By now I'm starting to take notice of red flags.

After lunch I stepped outside for a smoke break when a young lady came out and joined me, she asked questions of where I came from and how the last company I was working for was, we had a simple pleasant conversation, she left and I returned to the group, we all got into the van Jim Sanchez drove us to the Blackwell yard located in Central Point OR, we all went inside to meet our recruiters. I was standing behind a man sitting at his computer as he was showing me some things on the computer when Jim Sanchez walked behind me and he either tripped or fell but, he fell into me and fell into the man at the computer, Jim Sanchez is a very very large guy. I asked Jim if he was alright he said yes thank you. I went outside to begin my pretrip with Ward Eister, I was only 10 minutes into the pretrip when a gentleman yelled to Ward Eister he needed me to go back to the building and he would only keep me about 10-15 minutes, I was introduced through this gentleman to Melissa Dockery and Heidi Vandyke, these two women escorted me back into the building and into a storage closet with boxes and closed the door, they began to question my conversation I had with the lady during my smoke break and Melissa Dockery and Heidi Vandyke told me they were going to exit me out of the company at that point, I asked the question, "your going to fire me because of a conversation I had not even an hour ago?" Melissa Dockery and Heidi Vandyke looked at each other and laughed and said the company doesn't tollerate sexual behaivor and they said there was several people in the room who said I was seen rubbing my a*s up against Jim Sanchez's leg as if I were pole dancing. That was their excat words to me. Melissa Dockery and Heidi Van d**e then told me I could return after 90 days once I have learned my leason, they said it was the "ministry". I walked out of the closet and went outside where Ward Eister "exited" me from the property, on the way back to the Ramada Inn I asked Ward Eister if this was common practice for this company, I asked why a closet? Ward Eister said because that room is not bugged and no cameras, that everything is bugged and listened to by the genereral manager,it is his way to keep "control" over everyone, he said "oh yeah, and it won't do me any good to go to the general manager either because he is probably behind it, he's the ring leader. Ward Eister also told me just a few weeks earlier the general manager fired another female driver for sexual advances and she didn't do it, he went on to express how Melissa Dockery and Heidi Vandyke along with a few other female employees will set a good driver up and make a lie about them to get them fired. Ward Eister called the women "Cackling C**ts". Once we got back to my room, Ward Eister stepped inside and said, "your not an employee anymore, how about a quicky?" I turned to him and said I'm not that kind of women. Ward Eister drove me the Super 8 hotel, I was given a check for $130.00 Ward Eister later that evening called the Super 8 and requested to speak with me and from there he aplogized for the comments and behaivor he displayed earlier, he came back to the hotel and we went to a dinner and movie. We exchanged phone numbers and stayed friends.   "Once I have learned my leason???!!"                                  

In under one hour I was left pennyless and homeless and I never did such a thing like that in my life!! I am a retired nurse and grandmother of 10 grandchildren, I carry myself as I want my children to see me along with my grandchildren. If these two women Melissa Dockery and Heidi Vandyke have any children they should highly reconsider their own personal actions agaist others and hope for forgiveness from all who they have treated in the most unprofessional and degrading manner I "endured". Melissa Dockery and Heidi Vandyke are liars! If this company won't keep you employeed, it will make sure you are not hirable with any other. It is sickning to know Combined Transport/Blackwell is conducting this form of not just ruiening good men and women but making a bad name for the company period. Before you consider to go to work for this company seek employement elsewhere. I look back on so many things and I have to accept the fact Ward Eister was right when he also told me, Cominde Transport/Blackwell is a full blown cult opperating inside a federal building... Ward Eister also told me the general manager only wants people he can control, and Ward Eister felt that I was displaying I am strong just like the other female driver and that was why we were set up to be fired. Combined transport/Blackwell is controled by a man who, if he can't control you, he will control whats happen to you after you are gone by applying their reason of why they terminated you on your work record without the "lawfull and formal investigation to justify their own beliefs. A sexual harrasment "aligation"is to be followed up on and thouroughly investigated with proof. I did not get that... Ward also told me one week later, Besty Miracle who had been with the company for many many years was terminated for hiring me.