Everything I state here I can back up with messages and emails. I was recruited by this company, and it's owner, to drive a truck on long haul runs. As soon as I inspected the truck I saw some problems. Federal inspection paperwork and stickers, truck interior was a bit dirty, a completely missing shock mount bolt on the trailer, missing trailer registration, an unsecured spare tire in a tire rack on the trailer, a small hole on the outer front wall of the trailer. Badly mismatched tires on the drive axles of the truck. Also found an extreme amount of flatbed equipment, and a full set of tire chains, stored in the truck.
An extreme amount of weight, probably overloading the cab suspension. Far beyond what I considered wise, and I told the truck owner this. Asked to have some of the flatbed equipment removed, and the owner agreed. I have over 26 years of experience driving trucks, and I do really thorough inspections on trucks I drive. Especially the first one. So I tend to find things less experienced drivers don't. So I expected to find a few problems, just not as many obvious ones as I did. Insisted on correcting most of those problems I found. Was told by Bogdan Roman that the questionable tires would be replaced within a month. I took the truck out on the first run, a load from Illinois to Washington state.
From the beginning it was obvious there was a severe handling problem. At partly due to the mismatched tires on the truck, but I suspected more was going on. And I reported this to the truck owner the next day. The truck was quite a handful to drive. I got it out to Washington, and was then sent to Phoenix, Arizona. I told the owner the owner the handling problem had to be fixed, or I would have to quit. He agreed to replace 2 valves on the suspension. This did not solve the problem, and it helped very little. He chose to do nothing about the tires. I took a load to Pennsylvania, and then a load to Chicago area. Left the truck at a repair shop in Mokena, IL as instructed by the company. Went home for some time off.
As I was nearing the delivery in Pennsylvania the truck suddenly lost a lot of power. I knew it was a turbo problem. Boost went down to less than 10 psi. After about 90 minutes it seemed to resolve itself. I reported all of this to the owner. Strangely, he didn't seem surprised at all. Told me to let him know if it happened again. I have no doubt this was not the first time a turbo problem crept up. Just another thing this guy chose to hide from me. After I finished my time off I agreed to take another run to Washington, mainly to see if the truck was fixed. It was obviously immediately that it wasn't. Finished the run to Washington, and told the owner I needed to get the truck back to Chicago safely. He understood I would be quitting.
He booked a load that picked up a day and a half after the Washington delivery. Then he sent me info that the first delivery was scheduled, and it would require me to sit in Wisconsin for 3 full days waiting. He offered me nothing for sitting those 3 days. I told him if the load could not be delivered in a reasonable amount of time that he would have to find someone else to do the deliveries. I was instructed to leave the truck and trailer at the company storage lot in Chicago, and someone else would do the deliveries. As it was around the holidays, I was willing to lose a little time to make the deliveries. But I considered 3 days a little extreme. I even suggested leaving my large personal padlocks on the trailer, to make sure the load stayed secure, and I left the keys behind. The owner thought this was a good idea.
Enroute to Chicago from Washington, I was inspected by the South Dakota state police. I got a clean inspection. Had I not found the problems I did earlier, and had them corrected, there would likely been multiple citations during that inspection. But, again, I was given a clean inspection. I have multiple messages from the company owner praising my work. * I invite you to look at the company website. Very polished. And full of fraudulent information and photos. Some of the photos of their alleged drivers are stock photos I've seen all over the internet . Claims to have had drivers since 2015, yet the company has been in business only since 2018. Talks about all the services they can provide, yet the company has 2 trucks. Total nonsense.
* Now this company is withholding my final pay settlement, something in the neighborhood of $3,000. It's creating a serious hardship for my family. I told him soon after my pay was late that I do not let anyone rip me off and walk away. He said he would contact police and his lawyer if I bothered him again. I told him he will need a lawyer, and that I will be going to work on this problem the next day. I haven't contacted him since. I did my job well, but I refused to continue driving his junk truck. Now he is cheating me out of what he owes me. So the war is on.
Old James Freight Reviews
Everything I state here I can back up with messages and emails. I was recruited by this company, and it's owner, to drive a truck on long haul runs. As soon as I inspected the truck I saw some problems. Federal inspection paperwork and stickers, truck interior was a bit dirty, a completely missing shock mount bolt on the trailer, missing trailer registration, an unsecured spare tire in a tire rack on the trailer, a small hole on the outer front wall of the trailer. Badly mismatched tires on the drive axles of the truck. Also found an extreme amount of flatbed equipment, and a full set of tire chains, stored in the truck.
An extreme amount of weight, probably overloading the cab suspension. Far beyond what I considered wise, and I told the truck owner this. Asked to have some of the flatbed equipment removed, and the owner agreed. I have over 26 years of experience driving trucks, and I do really thorough inspections on trucks I drive. Especially the first one. So I tend to find things less experienced drivers don't. So I expected to find a few problems, just not as many obvious ones as I did. Insisted on correcting most of those problems I found. Was told by Bogdan Roman that the questionable tires would be replaced within a month. I took the truck out on the first run, a load from Illinois to Washington state.
From the beginning it was obvious there was a severe handling problem. At partly due to the mismatched tires on the truck, but I suspected more was going on. And I reported this to the truck owner the next day. The truck was quite a handful to drive. I got it out to Washington, and was then sent to Phoenix, Arizona. I told the owner the owner the handling problem had to be fixed, or I would have to quit. He agreed to replace 2 valves on the suspension. This did not solve the problem, and it helped very little. He chose to do nothing about the tires. I took a load to Pennsylvania, and then a load to Chicago area. Left the truck at a repair shop in Mokena, IL as instructed by the company. Went home for some time off.
As I was nearing the delivery in Pennsylvania the truck suddenly lost a lot of power. I knew it was a turbo problem. Boost went down to less than 10 psi. After about 90 minutes it seemed to resolve itself. I reported all of this to the owner. Strangely, he didn't seem surprised at all. Told me to let him know if it happened again. I have no doubt this was not the first time a turbo problem crept up. Just another thing this guy chose to hide from me. After I finished my time off I agreed to take another run to Washington, mainly to see if the truck was fixed. It was obviously immediately that it wasn't. Finished the run to Washington, and told the owner I needed to get the truck back to Chicago safely. He understood I would be quitting.
He booked a load that picked up a day and a half after the Washington delivery. Then he sent me info that the first delivery was scheduled, and it would require me to sit in Wisconsin for 3 full days waiting. He offered me nothing for sitting those 3 days. I told him if the load could not be delivered in a reasonable amount of time that he would have to find someone else to do the deliveries. I was instructed to leave the truck and trailer at the company storage lot in Chicago, and someone else would do the deliveries. As it was around the holidays, I was willing to lose a little time to make the deliveries. But I considered 3 days a little extreme. I even suggested leaving my large personal padlocks on the trailer, to make sure the load stayed secure, and I left the keys behind. The owner thought this was a good idea.
Enroute to Chicago from Washington, I was inspected by the South Dakota state police. I got a clean inspection. Had I not found the problems I did earlier, and had them corrected, there would likely been multiple citations during that inspection. But, again, I was given a clean inspection. I have multiple messages from the company owner praising my work. * I invite you to look at the company website. Very polished. And full of fraudulent information and photos. Some of the photos of their alleged drivers are stock photos I've seen all over the internet . Claims to have had drivers since 2015, yet the company has been in business only since 2018. Talks about all the services they can provide, yet the company has 2 trucks. Total nonsense.
* Now this company is withholding my final pay settlement, something in the neighborhood of $3,000. It's creating a serious hardship for my family. I told him soon after my pay was late that I do not let anyone rip me off and walk away. He said he would contact police and his lawyer if I bothered him again. I told him he will need a lawyer, and that I will be going to work on this problem the next day. I haven't contacted him since. I did my job well, but I refused to continue driving his junk truck. Now he is cheating me out of what he owes me. So the war is on.