Operations

Your Jan. 26 Pre-Trip: Trucking company owes fired driver $45K

Jan. 26, 2016

Here are five things worth knowing today.

Here are five things worth knowing today: 1. OSHA has ordered New York-based Brindi Trailer Sales and Services to pay a fired employee more than $45,000 in lost wages, damages and fees after finding he was illegally terminated for notifying regulators of a workplace safety violation, Business Insurance reports. According to the report, the driver notified the company of defective equipment on his truck and requested the conditions be repaired. But the company refused, according to the report. The driver took the truck to be inspected and found it contained 16 violations. After repairs were made, the driver notified his employer and was discharged, according to the report. Business Insurance has more.2. The president of a Dayton, OH, trucking firm, Jet Express, is collecting donations of bottled water to ship to Flint, Mich., the Dayton Daily News reports. He is asking donations to be left at the 4518 Webster St. offices during business hours. Nearly two years ago, Flint city officials switched the city’s water supply from Lake Huron to the polluted Flint River, according to the report. Due to water eroding old iron pipes and lead contamination, the Flint’s nearly 100,000 residents cannot drink from their taps.3. According to a Tech Crunch report, Uber announced it has been running a pilot program that uses drivers’ smartphone gyrometer data to gather information – whether it be measuring how fast the driver is going or whether drivers check their phones too much during rides. Uber said it believes this can help the company assess which of their drivers are being rated fairly and which ones may be getting a bad rap. Tech Crunch has more.4. The Motley Fool says forget about ice road trucking; the real excitement is in hauling explosives for the military. When it comes to hauling freight for the military, hauling is broken down into two segments: general freight – everything from uniforms to construction materials – and more sensitive arms, ammunition and explosives (AA&E). According to the report, one survey showed that the Pentagon rates for general freight dropped in the first half of the decade, while there has been a 5% increase in the rates paid for AA&E.5. Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche said both Apple and Google had made more progress on their car projects than he expected, Value Walk reports. Zetsche, who met with 70 Silicon Valley companies recently, did not reveal whether his team had meetings with Apple and Google, according to the report. Value Walk said that soon after Google tested its driverless car, Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz came up with an S-class limousine that drove more than 100K without any human driver input.

About the Author

Cristina Commendatore

Cristina Commendatore was previously the Editor-in-chief of FleetOwner magazine. She reported on the transportation industry since 2015, covering topics such as business operational challenges, driver and technician shortages, truck safety, and new vehicle technologies. She holds a master’s degree in journalism from Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut.