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Here it is, in full and unaltered, as was sent to the management at the company. I shall remove it after the weekend I think.
After long and drawn out consideration, I have decided to give notice that I shall be leaving Bigfreight on May 30th, '08. This decision came after I booked my time off that week, and I have things which need to be done that week so that time cannot be changed. The decision was, in fact, made on Friday/ Saturday of last week, and finalised today.
Now I need to explain why this difficult thing has become necessary. Over the past seven months, things have been very trying for me. It all began with that meeting, Eric, between you, Christine, ****** and myself, although I do not think it is in any way fair to blame ****** as she seemed as mortified as I was. That was nothing short of threats and blackmail as far as I can see. Do you realise that I don`t think a day has passed since then where this meeting has entered my mind. It has made my time there very hard to bear, although I have sorely tried to let it pass.
I still have the copy of the minutes you put in my pigeonhole and have yet to decide about that. Also, and you can deny this as hard as you wish, I simply have not earned enough to survive. You cannot say that this is particularly my doing. I have always been prepared to do the work in whatever form it takes, and would have continued to do it for as long as I am capable. But it has come to a bad way when the longest trip I have done in the last month is Edmonton. I have never said I wouldn`t go somewhere. I have never laid down any form of rules. Others do, I am not that kind of person.
When you have drivers being given 2000 mile trips because they have demanded to go somewhere, only to take a week off once they arrive, while I get a run all the way to Chicago 2 weeks running, it is a sorry state of affairs. I just don`t think it is right and doubt you can convince me otherwise.
After all, the trip planned out for me this week was to Saskatoon. This was sent after I requested a reference from you, but before Chad went and asked the planner for something better. That trip to Saskatoon would have come on the back of a 2000 mile week and we all know how reloads are from SK, so I would have ended up loading from Glaslyn to Winnipeg again. Another wasted week.
Before you defend this by saying something about the trip that came through for North Carolina afterwards, that was Chads doing and not sales. It was glaringly obvious! Now this suggests that, whether you think it is paranoia or not, someone in sales has been actively curbing my miles. It simply won`t do.
Furthermore, I have given 2 1/2 years of loyal and good service to the company. I spent 6 hours pulling a set of axles straight and securing them so the trailer could be moved to unload. It was me who cut the bent wheel-rims off with a lance so that new rims could be put on, and then decked the trailer (F05050) from Pennsylvania back to Milton. What did I get out of this? I was paid empty miles to Milton. Not a thank-you or anything else.
When C594 gelled up this winter in Sioux Falls, it was my hand that got it started. The mechanic they had sent out was trying to get the truck towed and it would have been sat there until the following week. Had I not been there then ******* would have had to go into a motel for 3 nights while the truck would have been sat idle.
Again, I received no gratitude or a few hours of pay for it, and have had my miles reduced by the company instead. So loyalty means nothing, does it?
You have recently employed 2 former drivers in responsible positions within the company. They did not display the loyalty, the same loyalty you raised in your office a few months ago, Eric, that I have shown. I cannot imagine that this sort of position would ever be offered to me as I do not feel that the company consider me an asset in any way.
A former dispatcher told me once that the company will force people into quitting instead of firing them. I imagine this was my situation to a tee. It saddens me to think that this is the case.
You said once that I was a maverick, Eric. Well maybe I am, but surely that would mean you should recognise this trait and utilise it as best you can. By being maverick, and by having just enough mechanical knowledge to get things moving, I saved the company a great deal of money and time with those 2 examples alone. There were many other times where things were done better and faster because it was me behind the wheel of C528. Yes, I am blowing my own trumpet a little because, like it or not, I am damned good at what I do. I know it, and so do you.
But I have been to see you and Jeff on many occasions to voice my concerns. I am told any old thing just to make me feel better and things just go on as before.
It can't continue. My well-being and that of my family, the one you said I should divide, comes first. Therefore, I am going. You win. I only request that you do not withhold any of the money I have earned. I worked the full 2 years and then some, and those 2 1/2 years have been, for you, reasonably trouble free. 1 overload fine and a bent trailer bumper are the sum totals of claims that I am aware of, and nothing else has ever been suggested so I hope you do not come up with more at this late stage.
I have not been reprimanded by the company for anything that I know of so I would hope that this will also be left as such.
I am grateful, and always will be, for the time I have spent at Bigfreight. If you can shake the company into the same way it was when I first came there then I would happily return. But as long as there is such spite lurking behind the glass the company will never return to its heyday.
As things stand, I have to go where I am going to be earning less per mile, but where I should be able to get enough miles to earn a living.
Again, thanks for the opportunity and the time I have had in the employ of Bigfreight. I am sorry
that it has come to this.
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