K&B Transportation review: Over the road driving job

realizing that late deliveries are not allowed k&b transportation, and not trivializing any late delivery, even the worst-case scenario, this load might have been only a few mins late.
the even bigger problem, and the point of this letter, is k&b transportation's consistent, willful, and wanton violations of state and federal laws, including falsifying their drivers' hours-of-service logs, in their attempt to get closer to their goal of "99.99% on-time".

after my getting only maybe 3 hrs sleep during my mandatory 10-hr break, one of the company's night dispatchers called my phone at 03:10 am. i saw it was 1 of the dispatchers' numbers, ignored it, and tried to go back to sleep. 1 min later, the dispatcher then sent me a message at 03:11 am, which said, "call in!".

he called my phone 2 more times, at 03:17, and 03:18 am.
the dispatcher then sent another msg at 03:23 am.
call in! you need logs adjusted and to get rolling

dispatcher again sent another message at 03:27 am.
i ignored that also, but it was later determined to say:
going to have to send someone out to check on you

it was now impossible for me to go back to sleep.
i also realized, that with them calling me so early, these calls and messages were not that much about getting me to the 6 am delivery on-time, it was really about getting the this load done, and lining up the next load to be picked up, probably at 6 am, or something close to that, thereby requiring that i dump this load early.

the fact that that would shorten my 10-hour dot break into an 8-hour "split sleeper berth", and require me to go to sleep again later, for another two hours to makeup the ten, which i probably would not be able to go back to sleep in the middle of the day, and the fact that they would have filled my two-plus hour break with more work and distractions, is all part of what k&b deems their perogative - the driver has no say in these surprise no-notice changes to our sleep schedules, which generally result in aggravating more driver fatigue.

some readers now might be reasonably thinking, why didn't i just call in, as the company wanted?
this is not a one-time incident - k&b does this all the time, and not for any substantial or legitimate reasons - there are no real emergencies to address.

k&b transportation's dispatchers and managers are knowingly, flagrantly, and rudely waking their drivers up, interrupting and violating our legally-mandated sleep and rest periods, demanding that we answer numerous phone calls, respond to messages; copy down directions, names and addresses, p/u and delivery times; record reefer temperatures; perform planning; perform live relays with other drivers swapping trailers; perform yard checks & truck maintenance; all the while, we are logged as "off-duty".

over half1 of my orientation class and another dozen or so k&b drivers that i met performing relays and at truck stops, are also quitting the company for these reasons.

earlier, i parked at the truck stop with a full truck load of -10 degree fahrenheit frozen beef, confirmed my frig temp was good and went to my sleeper berth on my 10-hour.

i woke up maybe 3-4hours, got out of my truck, and before walking into the truck stop store to use the restroom, checked my cooler temperature.
shockingly, the cooler unit was off, the red light was blinking, and i observed three 'live alarms'.

from that point on, i was awake and on-duty, although i confess i was still logged "off-duty", mostly because i wasn't thinking about logging, since i was pre-occupied with troubleshooting my cooling unit. a lot of time went by, while i tried unsuccessfully to get the refrigeration unit to defrost, or restart.
i eventually got the alarms to clear, and did get the unit restarted. i went inside the store, used the restroom, came back out maybe 20 mins later, the unit had critically shut itself down again, and i continued to troubleshoot & called the company.

at this point, not knowing the actual value, i presumed there might have been $151, 000 worth of the shipper's product on board, and it was supposed to be deep frozen at -10 degrees, and instead, for an unknown number of hours out in the hot sun, their product was thawing at +39 degrees fahrenheit.

i eventually got dispatch someone in maintenance, and he talked me through some troubleshooting procedures, most of which i had already done, and we got the unit to restart again.

standing outside in the hot sun, i watched the cooling unit. after several more mins, it performed another critical shutdown. i called the company back, got the technician on the phone again, and after some discussion and my description of what was still occurring, he sent me to the facility for repair.

i said, "you know i'm in the middle of a 10-hour... what do you want me to do?"

he said, "hold on... let's see here (pause - while he looked up my hours-of-service on his computer) ...ok... instead of a 10-hour, you will do an 8-hour split, let's see... yep, you got another 18 minutes. make sure you wait until your 8 is up, then go. try to not trip your log. you know how to move the truck? as long as you don't go over ten mph, and don't go more than a mile, you should be ok.
he repeated himself, and said, "you'll be ok! if you do, don't worry about it, we'll have the log department fix it."

so i drove over there, the eobr computer tripped me to the "drive" line, and when i parked my trailer in the garage and disconnected the tractor from the trailer as instructed by the mechanic, the eobr automatically put me "on-duty".

i was distracted by responding to the mechanic's questions, then watched the mechanic perform the repair for part of that time. at 1 point, i went back into my tractor, i saw that the qualcomm had me still "on duty" for one hour and thirty-two minutes.
i know what the law says, but i also know what k&b would do if i logged too many hours "on-duty".
at that point, i logged myself "off-duty".

once the repairs were completed, over 2.5 hours had elapsed, just at the carrier facility, not counting the hrs during my break that i was actually working.
upon getting a copy of the carrier repair invoice and being released by the carrier mechanic, k&b called me, and said that i should not have been logged "on-duty".
since i was 'not supposed' to be logged "on-duty", the one hour and thirty-two minutes that i had been logged "on-duty" was going to be "... fixed by the log department."
the dispatcher continued, saying, let's see, yes, as soon as we fix your logs, i want you rolling, and making money!

i was super-tired.
i had been accumulating a huge sleep deficit over the previous 5 days, and my body was screaming for sleep.
i sat for several minutes in the parking lot debating what i should do:
i said to myself: there is no way i can drive tonight. i'm going right back to the pilot, i'm parking, logging myself "off-duty" again, and i'm going to sleep, and i'm not even going to set my alarm to wake up.
then i thought, no! you can't do that! i'll be in serious trouble with k&b, and the customer needs their product.
then i realized there was no parking available at the truck stop at this time, anyway
i sat there probably 10 minutes rubbing my face, trying to figure out what to do.
finally, i entered the freeway.

just as the dispatcher said he would, my logs clearly showed where k&b had edited my logs, changed the 1:32 from "on-duty" to "off-duty" and in the remarks column, they deleted my remarks referencing the maintenance - refrigeration unit repair, and k&b put "driver request", a complete lie.
for the record, i never requested anyone in k&b, at anytime, to edit my logs for me.

but that is precisely, why k&b does not allow k&b drivers to edit our own logs.
k&b will pretend to the dot officials that they do not trust their drivers with editing their own logs, thereby not allowing their drivers to cheat the hours of service, thereby preventing the drivers from getting themselves, and k&b in trouble, which is partially true.
but the real reason, is so that k&b can falsify the drivers' logs, cheat the law, and the drivers cannot undo their deception.
this provides k&b unlimited power to manipulate their drivers, giving them absolute control over the management of the drivers' rest and driving periods.
so at the end of the driver's possibly 12-14 hour workday, he might have just, say, 38 minutes drive time remaining, and with that the driver knows he can't do anything more, knows he is done for the day, and plans on parking, eating, showering, putting on clean clothes, and going to sleep in a truck stop.

k&b can edit your logs, create another hour-and-a-half, or whatever, and instead of winding down for the day, with your truck parked at a truck stop where you can get fuel, food, and shower, k&b instead directs you to go straight to the next customer, pick up the next load, and spend your 10 hours sleeping in the customer's parking lot, many times with no access to toilets, no showers, and no food!

later, a different k&b driver told me that he had been required by k&b dispatch, to deliver a load, 5 hrs into his 10-hr break.

when i complained to the sr dispatch mgr accusing k&b of falsifying our logs, he denied it.
then he smugly said: well!... (as if shrugging it off) ... doesn't matter! you have to validate and certify your logs! k&b can't do that for you!
his implication was, whatever k&b log dept does to our logs illegally, the violations are not on them, but on us.

my dispatcher complained to me, again while i was on a 10-hr dot, because i was "...logging too much on-duty time... we can't run you, you can't get no miles, if you are constantly running out of hours... don't do that! you should never have more than one hour per day logged on-duty. you log 15 minutes for loading, 15 minutes for unloading, never more!"

the real reason i kept running out of hours had little to do though with 'excessive' on-duty logging, which, in either event, was mostly complying with the law.
k&b's ongoing policy and practice does not allow 34-hour resets 'out on the road', forcing all of their drivers to operate exclusively on "recaps", mandatory without any driver option, and strictly at the sole discretion of k&b's dispatchers and managers.
drivers indicating they are tired, are interrogated and reprimanded.

with my only 5:40 hours available, the dispatcher was pissed off again, because that assigned load far exceeded the hrs i had available.
compounding matters worse, leading up to this as well as later, k&b dispatchers kept planning and assigning me load after load, not planning or allowing enough time to deliver on-time.

k&b operates in an alternate reality. they insist on not allowing professional drivers to do their own rte planning, demand 0 deviation from their designated routes and sometimes stupid plans, which often times are without efficiency, exceed human stamina, and fail.

at 04:02 am, still laying there awake, i heard a vehicle pull up in the rest area.
i got up, looked out, and there was a law cop car with spotlight and headlights on. a sheriff deputy, walked over to my truck with flashlight in-hand.
k&b, true to form, had called the local sheriff's office, lied to the dispatcher, and according to the deputy:
k&b claimed that they "... were concerned for my well being...", that they had sent about 30 messages, and made over 30 calls to my cell phone, and they had gotten no response, and "... we have not heard from our driver in over 13 - 14 hours".
all 3 elements above were pure fiction, lies told by k&b to misappropriate public safety officials. all lies were easily proven to be patently false when i showed the deputy my driver's logs on my eobr.
the computer clearly showed the truck was being driven up until @17:00 hours, roughly 10 hours before the officer was called out.
the eobr showed the deputy my logging "off-duty" as of, 19:18 hours, roughly only 8+ hours earlier, and also clearly less than the full 10-hr rest period.
the electronic on-board recorder also showed that k&b sent me just 2 qualcomm messages earlier that morning, at 03:23 am, and 03:27 am, not thirty.

i also showed the deputy my cell phone showing 1 call from k&b at 03:10 am, a second call at 03:17 am, and the 3rd call was made at 03:18 am, with no calls prior, far less than k&b's lie, of "... over 30... ".

so, from k&b's earliest attempt that morning to get me to call in at 03:10 am, until their last message at 03:27 am, there were less than 17 minutes effort on their part 'trying' to get in touch with me, before calling the police, not the 'over 13-14 hours' that they falsely claimed.
it was also clear based that my 10-hour dot break was not over until 05:18 am, therefore, absent any real emergency, there was no good reason to be blowing up my phone and qualcomm when i was still on a legally protected rest period.
clearly, k&b had initiated a call for help based on false and malicious pretenses, and surely, that is a criminal action, probably a felony, that deserves lawful prosecution.
since this is not the 1st time k&b has abused law enforcement for their purely selfish, trivial, and spurious reasons, and since they will continue to abuse public agencies as a matter of k&b policy and standard practice, severe consequences are appropriate and past due.

at the minimum, for each public service response, for each unnecessary waste of agency resources, and putting the public at risk due to diverting assets from their real jobs of protecting lives and property, k&b should be fined, charged $1, 000 per incident.

in orientation k&b even bragged about calling the local police to wake up their drivers frequently
drivers who turn off their cell phones and mute their qualcomms to get some undisturbed sleep, will get a knock on their door at any time of the day or night, and we will be ordered to return the company's phone calls!
as the law requires, i had to log my interaction with law enforcement, as "on duty". this reset my 10-hr clock.

the mgr's purpose in brazenly telling us about their routine use (abuse) of the police, was to warn or dissuade any of us from turning off our cell phones and ignoring their qualcomm messages.
what the mgr didn't tell us, was why the k&b drivers were even refusing to answer messages in the first place.

the reason we discovered quickly, is that k&b does not allow us to get the sleep we need, to drive all night, and stay up all the next day, drive all night again, over and over.
this selfish company's mania and hysteria, is for no valid reason, other than to fulfill some sadistic impulse.

the sr mgr told us this was company policy as part of his orientation briefing. he told us that just a few weeks before, one of k&b's drivers was found sitting in his driver's seat, dead.
since any one of us drivers might have been assigned to that same truck, one of the new hire drivers then asked, seriously concerned, what was the tractor number of the guy who died?
the manager's laughing about it, came across to me as inappropriate - pretty vulgar and irreverent.
when anyone dies, for whatever reason, or whatever circumstance, it is not funny.
but it was an accurate revelation, as well as a warning, of k&b's general lack of maturity, and their disrespect for their drivers.

and for all these self-proclaimed k&b 'emergencies' that demand that their drivers immediately asap! do-this, and do-that, sometimes illegally for the company, yet, when real emergencies, family emergencies occur, k&b cannot get the driver home in a prompt and reasonable fashion.
i know of 2 k&b drivers, right now, with deaths in their families, who are dispatched on company lds that guarantee they will be further & further away from their homes and families.
"oh! we'll get you home in two days!", company dispatchers will say.
2 days later, the driver finds himself 400 miles further away from his family, and being dispatched still further away, held hostage, held against his or her will, and aggressivley threatened with 'abandonment of equipment', a device used by most carriers to hold drivers hostage to loads and company equipment.

regarding my lack of sleep:
i got maybe 4 hrs sleep the day my refrigeration unit went out.
on a different night, i got maybe 48 minutes sleep in a 24-hour period.
on another relay, during the day, i got only bits and pieces of sleep, waiting for my trailer to be loaded, in st. louis, mo.
1 more example, of many, that serves as proof that we are not getting enough sleep driving for k&b; this actually occurred to me, and i made notes throughout the day.

drove all that night, until early morning - 06:15 am
arrive at the distribution center early
check-in at the security guard house
receive map, directions, rules, and instructions, drive half-mile to dock, break seal, open trailer doors, and back to dock as per instructions
temperature check of the reefer unit, send to company "temp check" qualcomm message, disconnect, lower landing gear, and drop trailer, drive to bobtail parking area
check-in at receiving office, and deliver bol, return to truck
pop latches, tilt engine hood, check engine oil level, and clean parts of the engine
send in qualcomm message for "vehicle inspection report" to company

since i was only in the truck a few days, the interior cab of the truck was nasty filthy, and stinky from the previous drivers and their dogs and smoking, so i had just got around to buying some cleaning materials, so i started sterilizing and sanitizing the cab for a couple hours while i was waiting for my trailer to be unloaded.

some more time goes by, i get tired of waiting, i lay down in the bunk to get some sleep.
a little while later i am woke up by a qualcomm msg sent by the company to all drivers: "weather ..."
i read and delete the message.
i laid down in the bunk again.
a while later, qualcomm goes off again, i get up and read it.
this time the msg is: "are you unloaded yet?"
i put my shoes back on, walked 200 yards to the receiving office, talked to the female clerk, and she informed me that my load was scheduled for a "7-hour unload. 07:00 am plus seven hours, ... check back [with her] around 14:00 hours. [she] will call me when my trailer is empty."
i walked 200 yards back to my tractor after going to the men's room.
at some point, i logged myself "off-duty".
i called my dispatcher informing him of what was going on.
i was tired, but i knew i couldn't go to sleep.
the truck was too hot, i was hungry with no food, no water, and frustrated by dispatch and their senseless interruptions.
i probably spent another hour wiping the truck down with disinfectant cleaning wipes.
finally, i lay down again to get some sleep.
maybe 43 minutes later after i was drifting off to sleep, my qualcomm goes off again. the message i think said something like, "call me asap!"
irritated, i got up, read the qualcomm eobr message, and ignoring it, went back to my bunk again.

i get another qualcomm message: "call me asap!"
i called my dispatcher.
he told me the specific details of my next load, which i had to write everything down in my notebook: what time i am supposed to roll, where i am picking up, where i am delivering to, pickup and delivery times, and so forth, a whole bunch of information which took a few minutes, and then when he got off the phone with me, i had to enter and save all the addresses into my gps, record the distances in miles, and then consulted my laminated paper atlas, to determine the possible routes between each of the points.
the dispatcher said he was going to send me the load messages.
again, i tried to go to sleep.

maybe 20 mins later, on the phone again, disptach informs me that he is required to do mandatory safety training.
he reads to me from a prepared script about the restart of the school season, school zones and speed limits, lasting 3-4 mins.
i go back to the bunk again: try to get sleep.

i am not able to sleep because my truck is still too hot, and the yard jockey, is banging, crashing, lifting, and dropping trailers all around me making an incredible amount of startling noise.
finally, i get a call around 14:02 hours from the receiving clerk that my trailer is empty, & yard jockey delivers and drops my trailer next to where my tractor was parked.
i walk 200 yds back to receiving, pick up my paperwork.

i grab my broom, climb inside the trailer, sweep out the trailer, reset the reefer temperature control.
i took the trash out.
a while later, finally, i get the 7 load msgs. i write down the information which takes another 20-30 mins.
i might have the chronology a little out of sequence, but all these things and more occurred while i was supposedly on a ten-hour 'break'.
the remaning hour-and-a-half, or whatever, of my 10-hour break was uneventful, and most of that time i probably slept.

when the alarm went off around 4:15 pm, i was too tired to drive, but in order to comply with my dispatcher's cockamamie delivery schedule, i had to push and push on.
when i got far enough into his plan, i was finally eligible for my 30-min / before 8-hour break.
town after town on their stupid required route, i could find no available, legal, or safe parking location for the truck, so i had to keeping pushing to the next town, then the next time and so on.
finally, i found a place to park on private property, set my alarm for 30-minutes, woke up when it went off, realized it was not possible for me to drive, i was so caffeine-induced groggy, calculated how many mins more i could sleep and still make my delivery on time and not violate my hours of service, reset the alarm, and then over-slept.

most drivers will complain amongst themselves, and scream profanities at their dispatchers, but very few can write a sentence, and most will not report to the authorities what is going on, which keeps enforcement mechanisms in the dark and helps to perpetuate the problems.
we have tried to fix these problems but k&b management refuses to acknowledge their guilt or comply with the law.

watch this abc news video.
turns out, k&b has not changed anything for the better; you would think that such a public scandal reported publicly on live tv news would shutdown their unsafe and illegal practices, and instead, their unsafe operation of motor vehicles is as bad today, as it was two years ago, probably worse.

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/video/fatigued-truckers-deadly-consequences-25639370