Are truckers protected from retaliation for refusing to drive in bad weather?

[@lawrencegolba2244]

On my second day driving tractor trailer local route my trainer had to cover another route for another driver. Sunny day to start. First time using a gps which wasn't designed for commercial driving, it kept trying to take me through neighborhood streets. After being called off from the first two stops I had missed my dock time windows, I finally made it to my third stop which was furthest from our terminal. No snow when I pulled up to the dock. Went in to hand load. 30 minutes later I walked out of the building to find blinding conditions and 6" deep snow, high winds (50 mph). Crawling traffic, missing entrance and exit lanes on the wide highways because I couldn't see the road signs due to whiteout conditions and encountering a dropped loaded pallet in my lane resulted in more lost time and fatigue as I hadn't developed my leg muscles yet for operating a clutch for that many hours. Since I was only permitted to be in Canada until midnight, I couldn't just get a hotel and wait it out until morning. US customs made me pull into the dock for a load inspection. Finally made it back - 16 hour day. My boss was surprised I showed up for work the next day after my 12 hour rest. I made up my mind that because driving truck was what I wanted to do, I was going to do it. The only time I refused to drive for that same company was one very cold winter day when I was handling a straight truck route. I got sick while warming up the truck - it was probably the start of carbon monoxide poisoning due to a low exhaust pipe and the fumes staying near my breathing zone. I refused to go across the border. Instead they gave me the choice to work in the warm warehouse or go home. I worked until lunch then went home to rest for the next day.

[@markboyce1001]

I don't care,they can fired me,If I don't think it safe to drive,that truck don't move,rather get fired than to get in a wreck,either I get hurt,hurt someone else are both..

[@akbarshoed]

Documentation is something people forget about but then want to sue later.

[@tthomsen76]

I had just completed a 3-day orientation class with a trucking 🚛 company here in Missouri back in 2019 I was assigned a truck 🚛 had my fuel card and 🔑 was all ready to rock and roll until I met my dispatcher for the first time he was telling me for no reason am i to shut down without his permission and I said all do respect sir I've been driving for over 20 years and if the weather is bad and I feel it's not safe for me to be on the road I am supposed to be the captain of my own ship I'm the one out there in the field you're either in your office or at home I'm the one seeing what's going on I'll shut the truck down and then notify you and he yelled at me saying are we going to have a problem here he said again for no reason are you to shut the truck down without my permission and then he walked out of the office to go talk to someone else saying we have a problem here and that's when I got up and walked out to my personal car and went home trucking 🚛 is my life and I'm not going to have some company forcing me to operate a 80,000 lb truck down the road when I feel it's unsafe to do so just because they're worried about getting their load on time it's my butt on the line my CDL on the line and other people's lives on the line around me that load ain't worth it yeah of course I've pushed through bad weather many of times over the years but I'm not going to do it if I feel unsafe or having some company forcing me to do it I had a dispatcher back in '04 call me when I was asleep on my break telling me they needed me to roll on to the shipper and pick up my load or they was going to lose this load and I told them I'm on my break I don't have hours to drive right now my dispatcher said just get on up there and pick up your load and let your log book catch up with you and this was all over the phone so I proceeded headed on up there not knowing dot was set up at a surprise checkpoint in a rest area and they caught me and shut me down and I told them my dispatcher forced me to come off my break to go pick up my load and my company denied the whole thing and fired me and said I violated company policy so therefore I will never have a company forcing me to do something that I'm not willing to do especially over the phone if I'm going to go down for some shit they're going to go down with me it's all going to be in writing cover your butt 😉✌️♥️

[@ronniebenoit4081]

Actually....I haven't come across any company with that mindset. And if I get run off for being unsafe I don't really care. I'll get even one way or another