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<blockquote data-quote="MrFedEx" data-source="post: 1189344" data-attributes="member: 12508">In my many conversations with Ground drivers, and through this forum, doesn&#039;t all of this sound rather familiar? As in it happens all the time? How does someone who isn&#039;t even an employee say or do anything about this kind of abuse without getting fired or otherwise punished...for doing the right thing by reporting it. Sure, you can call the DOT Hotline or &quot;report&quot; the contractor to FedEx...and nothing will probably happen to correct the situation. FedEx doesn&#039;t care, because as long as the contractor is fulfilling service requirements and Fred is making his money, it&#039;s all good. In a business model like Ground, the unethical contractor has an incentive to cut as many corners as possible in order to put more money in his own pocket. He fully knows that his non-employees had better keep their mouths shut and makes it clear that spilling the beans will result in loss of their job. On one level, this is theft. The contractor is requiring free labor. On the vehicle maintenance issue, it&#039;s also illegal, because both employees and the general public are being exposed to the danger inherent in poorly maintained vehicles. I see Ground &quot;rolling wrecks&quot; all the time, with marginal tires, dinged-up bodies and all of the usual signs of neglect. However, you can&#039;t see bad brakes, cracked frames, and other internal issues from the outside...only an inspection can reveal these types of issues, and local Ground vehicles don&#039;t get them. So the contractor gets away with it. And if you report him, you get fired.An easy way to prevent the maintenance issue would be to require Ground contractors to have an independent vehicle inspection performed by a qualified shop at specified intervals. In other words, the contractor would have to prove to FedEx on a regular basis that vehicles were safe. But that won&#039;t happen. For one, it would cost money. And second, it could put FedEx on the hook legally. IMO, Ground will eventually come under Federal investigation for it&#039;s business practices. This will be when the employee/non-employee issue gets fully aired, and also reveal the way Ground really runs, which is under the radar for the time being. The FMCSA scores of Ground might help motivate this, as they continue to be poor, especially on the OTR side of operations.I would hate to have to see Fred explain all of this away.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="MrFedEx, post: 1189344, member: 12508"] In my many conversations with Ground drivers, and through this forum, doesn't all of this sound rather familiar? As in it happens all the time? How does someone who isn't even an employee say or do anything about this kind of abuse without getting fired or otherwise punished...for doing the right thing by reporting it. Sure, you can call the DOT Hotline or "report" the contractor to FedEx...and nothing will probably happen to correct the situation. FedEx doesn't care, because as long as the contractor is fulfilling service requirements and Fred is making his money, it's all good. In a business model like Ground, the unethical contractor has an incentive to cut as many corners as possible in order to put more money in his own pocket. He fully knows that his non-employees had better keep their mouths shut and makes it clear that spilling the beans will result in loss of their job. On one level, this is theft. The contractor is requiring free labor. On the vehicle maintenance issue, it's also illegal, because both employees and the general public are being exposed to the danger inherent in poorly maintained vehicles. I see Ground "rolling wrecks" all the time, with marginal tires, dinged-up bodies and all of the usual signs of neglect. However, you can't see bad brakes, cracked frames, and other internal issues from the outside...only an inspection can reveal these types of issues, and local Ground vehicles don't get them. So the contractor gets away with it. And if you report him, you get fired. An easy way to prevent the maintenance issue would be to require Ground contractors to have an [B]independent [/B]vehicle inspection performed by a qualified shop at specified intervals. In other words, the contractor would have to prove to FedEx on a regular basis that vehicles were safe. But that won't happen. For one, it would cost money. And second, it could put FedEx on the hook legally. IMO, Ground will eventually come under Federal investigation for it's business practices. This will be when the employee/non-employee issue gets fully aired, and also reveal the way Ground really runs, which is under the radar for the time being. The FMCSA scores of Ground might help motivate this, as they continue to be poor, especially on the OTR side of operations. I would hate to have to see Fred explain all of this away. [/QUOTE]

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