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A trucking company is being accused of not paying new employees during orientations and baiting them with jobs that never materialize.
Six former drivers who worked with TransAm Trucking are accusing the company of violating federal and state labor laws, in a class action lawsuit filed Wednesday.
These drivers, who live in various states, claim they were enticed to sign up for work with TransAm and were promised jobs after attending an orientation.
TransAm only holds orientations in three cities, each in Texas, Florida and Kansas, according to the complaint.
Prospective TransAm employees travel for hundreds if not thousands of miles to get to these locations, the former employees said.
Once signed up, these drivers are expected to stay for 3 to 4 days, followed by a week’s worth of time shadowing experienced drivers in trucks.
The former workers say TransAm either doesn’t pay new employees at all for the orientation and shadowing or do so at a rate that falls below the federal minimum wage.
Even more, according to the class action lawsuit, TransAm misleads new hires by initially promising company jobs are available but later pressures them into buying a truck lease and working as an independent contractor.
All of the six former workers report this is how TransAm treated them when they drove the long distances to their orientations. One driver, John Curtis, tried twice and encountered this alleged bait-and-switch each time.
“Many individuals recruited by TransAm with the promise of company driver positions have little choice but to sign on as lease purchase drivers, because they are stranded at the orientation site with no way to get home and often without the financial means to do so,” the lawsuit stated.
The nonpayment of wages violates the Fair Labor Standards Act, the class action alleges. TransAm’s hiring practices of not being clear about job availability violates the Kansas Consumer Protection Act.
The plaintiffs are seeking to recover the unpaid hours in addition to damages.
In addition to not paying new employees, several trucking companies are allegedly misclassifying their semi truck drivers as California independent contractors—a practice that allows them to take advantage of commercial truck drivers by passing on business costs to them while still maintaining control over the means and manner under which the truck drivers must perform their jobs.
Do you or someone you know work for TransAm Trucking? Have you ever had your paycheck shorted? Let us know in the comments below.
Counsel representing the plaintiffs in this class action lawsuit are Brendan J. Donelon of Donelon, P.C.; Hillary Schwab, Brant Casavant and Rachel Smit of Fair Work, P.C.
The TransAm Truck Driver Wages Class Action Lawsuit is Roberts, et. al, v. Transam Trucking, Inc., Case. No. 2:21-cv-02073, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas.
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28 thoughts onTransAm Trucking Co. Accused of Not Paying New Drivers
Started orientation with transam 9/13 and I currently sit in my truck waiting to drop off their truck tomorrow. I’m not going to tell them I quit until I get through tonight as I’m in Georgia and live in Miami so I wouldn’t have a place to sleep tonight. They’re trying to pressure me to commit to a load I haven’t even arrived to, inspected, etc. I unloaded the last load I’m going to do for them yesterday and knew I wouldn’t be taking anymore trips. They gave me a service failure (like another story I read “best thing that could’ve happened”). They promise people a guaranteed weekly pay of $1000.00 as long as you have no service failures but give you loads that they already know you won’t make or find any reason to blame you for something you can’t help. As I told dispatch “so I’m getting a service failure for being trapped in a truck stop when you were going to change the appointment regardless. Their response: unfortunately yes. That was the tip of the ice berg for me. Prior this, I also informed them I needed to report for probation on the 6th of October since before being hired, however they could care less if I violate my probation or not as they denied my time off request and I have pictures of my Garmin of them lying giving me 2 different reasons. 1 being it exceeds the days limit (it didn’t). 2 being too many people was off that first week of October (blatant lie). I was told during orientation each additional day I waited on a truck after training (an extra week I had to wait) that I would receive orientation pay but was given what they call layover pay (a $20 difference). They sent me $25 each additional day claiming this money was mine for food as I waited at the hotel but took it out my check along with another $100 for “exp reimbursements”. Pay stub says “non negotiable” however I never knowledgably agreed to anything being deducted from my check. I was told I’d get paid $70 each day for orientation, which is 7 days, but only got paid for 4 days. Another driver tried to explain it’s because of how the pay period worked but it was too late for that as I noticed at the second paycheck that my money for 3 orientation days was missing. I guess they bank on most people not being competent to read and understand a paystub, or just being complacent with these work conditions. They also allow you to violate DOT’s hours of service and “tamper” with the logs in a manner that’s not right either and when I tested out emailing my duty logs to myself, I press the send button and it always tells me “network error” so thank God I didn’t drive long enough to get pulled for random inspection. I wouldn’t have been able to send my logs. They clearly bank on new inexperienced drivers fresh out of CDL school who don’t know any better or convicted felons not doing their due diligence to cover their own back because we’re told if we have any legal issues always contact risk management as these are our “lawyers”. So I was scammed by the school partnered by these scammers who charged me $10,000.00 for a CDL License and job placement program who placed me with these scammers. TransAm will also tell you that you’re ineligible for tuition reimbursement if you didn’t go directly from school to their company.
Please involve me with the settlement as well. 7862015033 Keith, is my name and number if anyone wants to reach out.
Transam is not paying me
So my name is Kirk Roberts and I began this lawsuit against Trans Am with Hillary Schwab and fair work LLC. First I like to say that if you are a plaintiff in a lawsuit publishers have a right to post your name in the law journal’s because it’s attached to a docket number which now becomes public information. When you agreed to enter the lawsuit in this class action you agreed to have your name publicly introduced into that lawsuit, and as we all know all court proceedings are available as public information.
So I would say that if for some reason someone doesn’t want their name attached to this lawsuit, if you don’t want your name reported in any future law journals or legal articles , I would contact your attorney and tell them to withdraw you from the lawsuit, otherwise your name is going to be attached to this case and maybe even in law journals and law reference material as the case may produce new laws or change existing laws.
That being said Trans Am is definitely made a business model out of what they do to their drivers and they have profited millions upon Millions upon millions in this practice…a
So to my fellow plaintiffs in this case ; this will take a long time, years mabey however just hold on and be diligent. The d ales of justice won’t be denied. ,Thank you.
You know if you’re going to use my name in this article it would have been nice if you contacted me directly 1st to get my permission and thoughts directly
Hello, I am IC currently driving for a Trans Am. Unfortunately I am disgusted with myself for coming to this company. I agree 100% with all statements I read here. I would like to add the straight up lie to drivers and sabotage our routes. For example dock bonus if load is late but sometimes we will be picking up a load that is already late. Also the fuel surcharges, every load has a surcharge and the amounts vary depending on load and distance. As a
IC we pay for fuel. Somehow Trans Am believes paying me 10-25 percent of fuel surcharges is legitimate. Basically if surcharge is $500 I get $50 and Trans Am keeps $450.i have called, complained and everything but get zero help on the reason why or changing this. My check today was $10. I’m going to be quitting. Feel free to involve me in anyway that will help shut down this discombobulated disaster they call a company.
Respectfully,
Tony
Trans am has called offering me a solo company driving position since last fall. I was skeptical. I’m glad I found this out before deciding to go with them.
I went through orientation in august 19’. Was lied to over and over. Ended up paying for my own motel room. At the end of orientation I was told to check out of the hotel and an Uber driver would pick me up and bring me and my stuff to the terminal to meet my dispatcher, get my truck and get on the road. Needless to say, I sat in front of the hotel for a few hours after checking out and never heard back from anyone at transam until the following day when I was already back at home. Had a relative come pick me up. Never got to drive for them. It’s a big scam. Never got paid.
I work for them from January to March and in February whenever I gave them my two week notice they didn’t pay me a dime for my last two weeks I owe them money on more months than they owed me money and then they sent me a statement saying that in March I made $15,000 and I never got over 1700 miles a week at a dollar a mile so how did I make $15,000
I worked for transam from May 2020 till April 3 of this month and had issues with them not paying right
If there’s anybody who is a lawyer or knows a lawyer that can talk to me regarding this issue I am also currently an independent contractor my profit margin is about 22 cents per mile that’s before I pay my taxes I have plenty of paperwork to prove my wages phone number 810-357-4810
Please contact me asap. I’m an IC for them and have worked for two months with negative paychecks. No one discusses settlement statements their tax service is not allowed to talk. I need a lawyer.