#1 My New Career At FedEx Lasted 5 Days

Friday March 5, 2021 Thru Tues March 9, 2021

I was looking at a new career and a friend of mine suggested we drive as a team for FedEx.  My background in global fixed income derivatives at Deutsche Bank did not automatically qualify me for this gig, but I need to pay the rent. I did my research and saw that FedEx team drivers with the Custom Critical White Glove division make more than most new (like me) truck drivers, in the $60k to $90k annual range. If you buy your own truck which costs about $270,000 (something I was unable to purchase since I ran out of money five years ago, running out of money can really suck badly if you let it, but I digress, story for later)) then you can make more.

So, we found a trucking company (name redacted to protect the guilty) with a FedEx Custom Critical White Glove contract and they bought us a brand new 2021 Freightliner Cascadia Bolt 116” custom side by side sleeper and offered a 60/40 gross revenue split.  This is one of the best trucks out there with a pretty standard deal and we felt incredibly lucky.  Here are pictures of our beautiful new truck:

We picked up the truck at 9 am Friday morning March 5, 2021, and by Tuesday, March 9 we were out of a job.  We completed one load.  Career over. Hopefully, lessons learned for the tuition I paid.

What happened? Here is the postmortem:

It took me three months and cost me about $4,000 to get to that Friday, March 5, 2021 (my tuition). I will spare you the excruciating details of what it took to get appointments to do all this during the pandemic, lucky I live in Florida. In chronological order. I went to truck driving school and got my CDL license.  I got the Hazmat and Tanker endorsements.  They took my fingerprints in order to get the Hazmat.  I got a TWIC card (more fingerprints) so I could drive into the airport and shipping ports. I got hired by a trucking company with a White Glove FedEx contract who agreed to buy us the new truck with a 60/40 gross revenue split. Then I passed the FedEx background checks, White Glove training and got FedEx certified to transport explosives and radioactive materials.  As good an arrangement as we could find after speaking with dozens of similar trucking companies. We really wanted that new custom truck.  Those other companies all lied to us about the truck they would provide, all of them said they would get the new truck for us after a while.  Pure BS. Big shortage of team drivers. Now I know why. 

We picked up the beautiful new truck Friday, March 5, and did not have our first load until Tuesday, March 9, a TVAL (temperature valued cargo) load.  TVAL is a load that needs to be kept within a certain temperature and we print out a log of the actual temperatures of the four sensors in the box during the haul. We needed to haul this load (even though it was a low-paying load) to be TVAL certified by FedEx and haul higher-paying TVAL loads in the future.  Our first load on Tuesday was from Columbus, OH to Louisville, KY and it paid about $580 for a 3-hour drive. We were to get paid 40% of that gross amount, about $116 each.  I use the conditional because I am not sure the trucking company will pay us.

From Friday to our first pickup Tuesday, we had free time, so we shopped for supplies for the truck.  We had a refrigerator, freezer, sink with running water (if we could find fresh water to fill it – truck stops offer non-potable water), stovetop, TV with Direct TV service, and an APU that provided us electricity, heat, and air conditioning when the engine was off while we were parked. Sweet! Here are more photos:

On Sunday evening, March 7th, as my team driver was backing the truck into a parking spot between two trucks at the truck stop, he bumped the truck next to us with the back of our box and broke off that truck’s hood mirror.  About $300 damage to that truck.  Ooops.  This is kinda funny because he had been driving trucks commercially for seven years without an incident up until then.  The funny part is that he was worried about my driving, me being a new driver.  Ha-ha.  BTW I drove this truck hundreds of miles and parked several times without incident. I always have been a good, safe driver. 

After surveying the damage my team driver called our mentor that our employer, the trucking company, assigned to us.  Our mentor directed him to exchange information with the other driver of the damaged truck and told him he will call him back after speaking with the owner.  A few minutes later he called back and told my team driver that the owner wants him to wait until the next day, Monday to report the incident, and when he reports it to tell FedEx that it occurred on Monday.  He gave as a reason that the owner was late on submitting insurance paperwork to FedEx for my team driver.

This is a big no no. In fact, the CDL driver permit manual specifically addresses this.  It states that when your boss tells you to violate the rules you must tell your boss no.  Say something like, “It is my license at risk and if you insist, I must report you to the federal authorities”. And then report them.

Unfortunately, my team driver was intimidated and afraid to lose his job, so he complied with the boss’s request.  I asked if he thought it was a good idea and he did not respond then I said nothing as it was not my place to tell him what to do.  He waited until Monday and called FedEx safety to report the incident and told them it occurred on Monday.

After delivering our TVAL load Tuesday afternoon in Louisville, KY, and heading to pick up our next load back in Columbus, OH, (that load would have paid $1,300 for a three-hour drive - $260 for each of us) FedEx safety called my team driver to ask him about the incident report he filed.  They told him the other driver reported the incident Sunday and my team driver admitted to lying.  Poor bastard folded like a cheap suit. 

Now my team driver may lose his license as it is a felony to falsify an incident report.  This is a shame because if he reported the incident on Sunday as required nothing would have happened.  NOTHING. The unfiled insurance paperwork was about my team drivers’ workers comp insurance and had nothing to do with the truck insurance that covered the incident.

After that call from FedEx on Tues, our truck was put out of service by FedEx and both my team driver and I were placed on FedEx safety review and unable to drive.  We had to wait until the following Tuesday, March 16 for FedEx Mgmt. to complete a safety review of the incident.

The morons at the trucking company offered us a job driving for a different company than FedEx for less pay in an older truck with bunk beds.  We rejected their offer and canceled our agreement with them and drove home.  Don’t want to work for people that tell me to commit a felony on their behalf. Next, another $800 tuition for a one-way Payless car rental. I even had to pay $185 to fix a bad tire that had a slow leak that went flat and could not be repaired. More tuition.

Tuesday, March 16, FedEx advised that nothing was noted on my driving record about this incident and that I was ok to drive for FedEx again.

My team driver was advised that his CDL record would be marked an avoidable accident and with a serious false incident report.  He may lose his license.  We have not heard from the trucking company since Wednesday, March 10.

Update March 23, 2021:

Letter from FedEx to my team driver indicating he is being reported for the unavoidable accident and not for the false report.

Lessons Learned:

Do not pick the wrong team driver.  I first learned this lesson (apparently, I needed a refresher) when I divorced my first wife.  “Never marry the wrong woman again”.

If you want to see God laugh, make plans.  I made plans to be in the trucking business for a long time that all started with a learning curve driving for FedEx Custom Critical.  I lasted five days. God has a really good sense of humor.

God doing for me what I could not do for myself.  I was so relieved to be going home at the end of my five-day truck driving career. Again, I was prepared to stick it out and get used to being uncomfortable at all times except when I was driving or in Love’s truckstop private shower room. The beds on the nicest custom truck made are too small for me. My feet and head touched both ends.  I needed to sleep with my knees bent.  Also, sleeping on the bed while the truck is moving is like being on a bouncing trampoline.  The only comfortable seat on the truck is the driver’s seat, really, really comfortable.  Shout out to Freightliner Cascadia. I was prepared to stick it out and get used to being uncomfortable.  God laughing again.

Wear life like a loose garment. When my truck was taken out of service and I decided to go home I was not upset. Not in the very least. Whatever God has in store for me is OK with me. Much better that way. It is the resistance that causes the pain.

Forgive the trucking company people for their bad behavior. Immediately. Drop the Rock as Sandy Beach said. Done. Better to give a resentment than to get one.

Tell the truth.

Tell the truth.

Tell the truth.

/Sober Robert