Question about truck privileges.

**hurley24** · January 11th, 2011, 08:55 PM

I was curious as to truck privileges for USIC. Say I finish working and I get off for the day and need to pick up my son. Would I have to drive all the way home to get my personal truck or can I pick him up in the company truck.

**Goldenboy** · January 11th, 2011, 08:59 PM

You cannot have anyone in your truck except another employee. I believe this would go for just about any company out there. If it is a company truck they would not let you do this because of insurance reasons.

**sprayandpray** · January 11th, 2011, 10:35 PM

Per USIC's rules you are not allowed any personal use of the company vehicle. If you stop at a store on the way home after you have clocked out, you are risking your job. It happened last year to 2 employees who stopped , after work, at a Dave and Buster's in the DFW area. A DM saw their vehicles, 1 was unlocked, called them in and fired them the next morning. He said they were 'stealing' from the company.

Of course, this doesn't pertain to the $3 per day personal use the company reports to the IRS.

**Shadowcat** · January 12th, 2011, 01:45 AM

Originally Posted by sprayandpray

Per USIC's rules you are not allowed any personal use of the company vehicle. If you stop at a store on the way home after you have clocked out, you are risking your job. It happened last year to 2 employees who stopped , after work, at a Dave and Buster's in the DFW area. A DM saw their vehicles, 1 was unlocked, called them in and fired them the next morning. He said they were 'stealing' from the company.

Of course, this doesn't pertain to the $3 per day personal use the company reports to the IRS.

Funny. I got permission to go to Dave and Buster's here in KC without a problem. Infact, as long as I let my sup know, I can got just about anywhere I need to within reason.

**Shadowcat** · January 12th, 2011, 01:51 AM

Originally Posted by Shadowcat

Funny. I got permission to go to Dave and Buster's here in KC without a problem. Infact, as long as I let my sup know, I can got just about anywhere I need to within reason.

Let me re-word that. As long as I'm not clocked in and I worked that day, I can run a quick errand as long as it's not too far outta my way. You have to be within reason with your requests.

As far as going to Dave and Buster's that night, I was oncall, and in my area you take your truck with you while you are oncall. I'm not just going to stop my life just because someone puts me as the oncall person.

**Wingfoot** · January 12th, 2011, 05:56 AM

Originally Posted by hurley24

I was curious as to truck privileges for USIC. Say I finish working and I get off for the day and need to pick up my son. Would I have to drive all the way home to get my personal truck or can I pick him up in the company truck.

Hey hurley - Don't do it! Do not have anyone else in the cab of your truck unless it's a fellow employee or a "ride along" prospect that is coordinated by supervision.

USIC is a self-insured company and will not cover unauthorized riders. Worse case scenario, you and a loved one as a passenger are passing through an intersection. A drunk ignores the red light and t-bones the USIC truck you are driving. You survive as an invalid and the unauthorized rider expires. You get nothing for the loss or medical bills, pain and suffering for yourself. The company's stance is you became an ex-employee the instant the passenger door shut on the unauthorized rider. Please don't tempt fate.......

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**OVUS1** · January 12th, 2011, 01:35 PM

Originally Posted by Wingfoot

Hey hurley - Don't do it! Do not have anyone else in the cab of your truck unless it's a fellow employee or a "ride along" prospect that is coordinated by supervision.

USIC is a self-insured company and will not cover unauthorized riders. Worse case scenario, you and a loved one as a passenger are passing through an intersection. A drunk ignores the red light and t-bones the USIC truck you are driving. You survive as an invalid and the unauthorized rider expires. You get nothing for the loss or medical bills, pain and suffering for yourself. The company's stance is you became an ex-employee the instant the passenger door shut on the unauthorized rider. Please don't tempt fate.......

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Actually Wing, if the drunk driver has any insurance and is deemed to be at-fault, his/her insurance company will pay the victim(s) up to the limits of the policies. If the victim(s) have health insurance, the medical bills will be paid (minus deductibles) and subrogated to the at-fault driver. If the drunk driver has any personal assets, the victim(s) can sue for any damages suffered beyond the dollar limits that drunk driver insurance company paid and recover through that means as well.

Bottom line is that company vehicles are to be used exclusively for company business. If you stray from that you will definitely be opening the door for adverse reactions and the employee can possibly be held personally liable for injuries to any person that is in the vehicle if company policy expressly forbids such.

**ProfessionalLocator** · January 12th, 2011, 06:03 PM

In general most all firms prohibit non-company passengers. As for any use of the vehicle other than driving straight to the jobs and straight to and from home USIC tends to be Draconian in their rules and punishments. For example you are driving home after putting in extra hours and pull of at a carryout and get a burger. This is directly on your route home and you took a total of 200 extra feet of driving, there are firms that will fire you for this. I also notice that these same firms expect you to wash qand clean out the company truck on your own time.

Some firms allow the vehicle to be with you at all times during on-call but still have to prohibit passengers for insurance reasons. It make sense to allow the on-call, and their "back-up", to use the truck this way becasue it also makes "cents".

Suppose after hours dispatch calls the on-call locator and the locator replies that they are two hours away from their home, the time it will take them to go home, get the company vehicle and get to the emergency will be beyond the response time limits. Now they have to call the back up locator and hope they are home or close to home. So keeping the truck with the on-call locator makes both sense and cents.

How does it make cents you ask? Simple, if the on-call locator cannot take the vehicle with them they can get out of time range to respond so having them keep the truck with them makes sense. Where it makes cents is that to require that the on call locator stay close to their home violates Federal Wage and Hour regulations regard the reasonable use of their off time. Now the company has to pay standby pay to both the on-call and their back up for the entire company, that adds up to a lot of cents.

So far requiring employees to be within the response time limits if they are using the company vehicle does not violate reasonable use of their time and stand by pay is not required.

**UULC** · January 12th, 2011, 06:40 PM

PL, you are 100% correct. Even though USIC has a response time of 1 hour, under the Federal Labor Law you do not have to adhear to it since you are not compensated. I went so far as to talk to a labor lawyer about this and other policies USIC has in place. If someone is disciplined for this there can be repercussions to USIC.

**sprayandpray** · January 12th, 2011, 07:06 PM

Originally Posted by UULC

PL, you are 100% correct. Even though USIC has a response time of 1 hour, under the Federal Labor Law you do not have to adhear to it since you are not compensated. I went so far as to talk to a labor lawyer about this and other policies USIC has in place. If someone is disciplined for this there can be repercussions to USIC.

Did this change recently ? If it's always been the case I'm very surprised someone hasn't initiated a Class Action against USIC, Utiliquest , etc. I think I would really want to verify this b/4 I take a deliberate rist of not making it to an after hours emergency within the alloted time.

**UULC** · January 12th, 2011, 07:51 PM

I know this as fact. I discussed this with an attorney here. At the time i really did not care and did not want to stir the pot. I would take all the ot i could get. I was talking to him on another matter. I would not take one persons word on it I would follow up with your own attorney.

**locator00566** · January 12th, 2011, 09:29 PM

If you fart in a USIC truck you will be fired.

**sprayandpray** · January 13th, 2011, 06:30 AM

Uh Oh!!!

**jarhead** · January 13th, 2011, 11:41 PM

Don't idle your truck in this weather to thaw out yout feet and hands either. Just take the frostbite and do the next one.

**ProfessionalLocator** · January 15th, 2011, 09:14 PM

Originally Posted by sprayandpray

Did this change recently ? If it's always been the case I'm very surprised someone hasn't initiated a Class Action against USIC, Utiliquest , etc. I think I would really want to verify this b/4 I take a deliberate rist of not making it to an after hours emergency within the alloted time.

I have been in the situation where being on-call does not allow the 'reasonable use of their time' per Federal wage standards. I never filed a suit becasue I was working so many hours I had all the money I could want. I think this will apply to most people in such a situation.

The problem with not allowing the on-call locator, and their back up, to keep the truck with makes it a necessity to require them to stay at home to meet response time requirements. This invites a lawsuit as it annoys the employees. All it takes is one fired employee, or one current employee, who will not get much money from a class action suit to want to get back at the firm. They file a suit whcih can cost the company millions even if their own share of the award is small. Plus it has the long term effect of requiring that firm to pay standby pay for the rest of it's existence.

Usually the best answer to a problem is the simple one. But in business with the complexities of wage laws and the variances in field conditions the quick and simple answer makes things much worse.