The email copied below should be self-explanatory to all but the most ignorant or least attentive! Neither of which I would expect a Vice President of a rather large Trucking Company to be!

From: Dennis Dearborne [mailto:dennisdear@aim.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2009 6:33 PM
To: coodou@covenanttransportation.com
Cc: dennisdear@ec.rr.com
Subject: Warning shot fired across your Bow!

Please send any email responses to dennisdear@ec.rr.com

To: Mr. Doug Cook, Vice President of Safety at Covenant Transportation Co.

Mr. Cook,

This email is intended, not as a threat, but as a “shot across your bow”. I want this to be your opportunity to “do the right thing”.

On the 4th of July, at 4pm, one of your company drivers (of only 1 month, according to him) backed a trailer into the front end of my truck (that I own). He contacted me at just above the headlight (on the passenger side) and continued tearing his way through my hood. Contact with his trailer didn’t end until my passenger side door mounted mirrors.

He had approximately 100 YARDS of clear maneuvering space in front, and the spaces are EXTRA wide (Pilot Truck Stop in Breezewood, PA – just at the exit of the fuel islands). Your driver (James E. Barker.. truck number 11503), in spite of having all that maneuvering space in front of us, performed a “blind side” approach. I DO have a witness to this “Accident”. Weather was DRY and CLEAR! Your equipment sustained NO DAMAGE WHATSOEVER! I, however, am an Owner Operator and no one is going to be “bailing me out”. Your driver was “released to leave the scene” by your Safety department. He was not detained, was not told to call the police, and was not drug tested! This, on top of being GROSSLY INCOMPITENT/NOT PROPERLY TRAINED to perform one of the least challenging backing scenarios I could possibly imagine!

These are just some facts of this occurrence. Now, the real reason that I have to write you this email!

The incident was reported to both your company and mine! Claim numbers were issued. Police report filed (by ME, since your safety department did NOT direct your driver to report the “accident”). I was given a name and number to call this past Monday (Jan Luttrel). I placed a call, as she directed me to (via verbal communication relayed from  your driver) but was put into voice mail. I have called TWO additional times today. I STILL have received NO communications from ANYONE at your company.

My company, whom I lease back to, is a VERY LARGE competitor of yours, and will remain unnamed at this time. Being an Owner Operator, I’m on my own! Subject to having to wait for YOUR company to respond. However, I AM STILL under a Customer Watch load that MUST deliver (to be considered an ontime delivery) TOMORROW evening in Baltimore. Obviously I cannot deliver that load myself! But they are, nonetheless,  putting me under some great pressure to give them status (which I DON’T HAVE) of what YOUR company is doing about this situation!

Now… back to the “shot across your bow”, and a fair warning for you to intercede in this mess!

I publish an Online webZine called the “HiTech Trucker”. AND I’m a contributing editor to someone who writes a daily column at the Lexington Examiner. These are NOT just some “casual editorials”, done “once in awhile”!  They are done DAILY! I’m also HEAVILY involved in the Twitter, Facebook, Friend Feed, and YOUtube communities (only to mention just a FEW) and well respected there! I have some even greater ties than what I’ve mentioned. But, again, my intent is NOT to threaten, but more to forewarn!

I trust you have at least a small grasp, maybe even greater, of the power of the Internet Mediums. I’m prepared to do a piece that explicitly identifies your company, the apparent lack of proper training, and the way that (at least in MY case) things are handled by your company. This IS, after all, well within my First Amendment rights! I hope that I don’t need to tell you the speed of which these kinds of things are picked up on, and proliferated, by the Internet (Just Twitter alone, if NOTHING else!).

I’m hoping that you can get involved in, and intercede, before I have to resort to doing more than just a warning shot across your bow.

I plan on making only TWO more phone calls to Jan in the morning (7/8/09). I expect that I will only be able to leave yet TWO more voice mail messages. The first will be to inform her of my editorial avenues available. The second call will be to inform her that the articles are READY to be distributed (will only take me a couple of hours!). I’ll give her about 1 more hour…. and then I “push the button”.

Mr Cook, I assure you, from that point the stories will distribute in an unstoppable fashion. Please don’t make it come down to that!

I’m a reasonable sort of guy, and patience IS one of my virtues. But enough is enough! This is going to end up putting me OUT OF BUSINESS if I don’t do something that, normally, I’m not inclined to do.

This letter to you, would ALSO be published, in its entirety.

I thank you, in advance, for anything that you can do to end this travesty.

Sincerely,

Dennis Dearborne   Editor, writer, originator of the Hitech Trucker webzine  www.hitechtrucker.net

Mr. Cook,

After finally (this morning) getting in touch with your Claims, and Insurance departments, it was brought to my attention that I sent the correspondence (above) to @covenanttransportation.com address instead of @covenanttransport.com. This, of course, means that you did not receive this email last night as I intended. This was my error when filling in the address line, even though I had it written down correctly. Computers are, in actuality, just dumb machines following the orders of we humans.

The appeals I make to you, in the email above, are now rendered moot, for the most part, in that the process is now finally moving forward.

However, I do STILL beseech you to take to heart the portion of this email that DOES fall under your direct purview, those related to Safety AND training of your drivers. I don’t feel that my judgments of the lack of the “backing skills” of this particular driver are without merit. I, as well as others involved in activist areas of the Trucking Industry, ARE watching lawsuits pending (or settled) that your company has been, or is currently involved with. In particular, those that would seem to indicate improper or inferior training of your drivers. I am still going to reserve the right (again, via my 1^st amendment rights, if nothing else) to post articles pertaining to our findings. The public, AND innocent truck drivers (like myself in this case!) need to be protected from incompetence on our highways! Incompetence from the operators of ALL forms of vehicles.

Thank you again, for any assistance you may provide,

Dennis Dearborne

The reply to my email, from Mr. Cook, cannot be copied here as there is a legal statement, at the bottom of his email, which forbids me to do so. However, even though I followed directions conveyed to me (as written in my first email to Mr. Cook), his response indicated that the “slowness of the claim process” was MY FAULT! Citing that I had contacted “incorrect people” in “incorrect departments”.  And, also, that any further correspondence should NOT be sent to him! I wonder how he “processed” the parts of the email that WERE directed appropriately — to the VP of SAFETY! They were summarily ignored. And I was “dismissed” with a simple wave of his hand, as some ignorant trucker!

Pretend, for just a moment, that YOU are the VP of SAFETY of ANY corporation. Is this the way that YOU would have handled this issue?

I enclose a couple of pictures to illustrate the “Parking Challenge” their driver had to contend with!

Look at all that “maneuvering space” for a straight line back! Can you imagine how backing could be any simpler?

Parking stalls are EXTRA WIDE. My Grandmother could back a truck into a stall successfully under these circumstances. Imagine this driver, with his obviously lacking training, backing into a “normal” stall in a “normal” Truck Stop row spacing! YIKES!!

© 2009, Dennis Dearborne. All rights reserved.

PRE-APU mpg was 5.918 mpg. POST-APU is 6.097 mpg — this is my new updated “Base Mileage” for the Turbo3000D test results**

I initially intended to publish only a “bottom line” evaluation of this device. However, I have since reconsidered my approach. I’m now thinking that I would like to do “progress  reports” on a per “fill up” kind of basis (go to bottom of this post). That “bottom line” evaluation, to be fair to the “test”, wouldn’t happen for a few months yet!

My over all mileage data for the past 7 years (See immediately below) includes; hot weather, cold weather; heavy loads, light loads; up-wind, down-wind; Non-APU and APU equipped; flat land driving vs mountainous. You get the drift! My total mileage over ALL conditions for almost 1 million miles of ownership of this truck.

AVERAGED MILEAGE, SINCE JUNE 2002 TO DATE = 5.96mpg (includes Non-APU and APU equipped)

Next, I propose, that I give you my overall mileage from 915,900 miles until mileage at install of the Turbo3000D (at 135,140 miles on the odometer after it “flipped over” at 1,000,000 miles) will also be given. This will then be called the “Base mpg” to represent all miles PRE-install of the Turbo 3000D. I will then give you mpg figures  for all miles AFTER install. I’ll update the mpg figures for you with every “fill up” so that you can compare what I’m getting against that “Base mpg”.

AVERAGED MILEAGE  from 915,900 miles on 5/23/07 until installation of Turbo3000D at 135,140 miles on 6/6/09 = 6.097 mpg.    This is my “Base MPG”.

Don’t focus too much on the initially reported  mpg figures for a couple of reasons. Firstly, we need to give a good month or so until the truck’s computer “adjusts” to the effects of the Turbo3000D. And, secondly, my initial miles (after install) have been some HARD miles! Very heavy loads, and lots of mountainous routes. But, I think, after a couple of months of mpg reports that it should be settling down to something approaching “average operating conditions”. Let’s just see what happens.  I think this methodology will be more representative of how YOU would evaluate the “results” of whether you had wasted your money, or if the Turbo3000D is going to pay for itself.

See FULL Review for continuing test results

NOTE: I haven’t been to my house (on the beach in Wilmington, NC) since January. I’ll be there until probably 6/29 so there won’t be any updated mileage on this post until I get back out on the road again. Back out on the road in the morning…. so the “test stats” will start “flowing” again really soon.

FOOTNOTE: I’ve neglected to mention what kind of truck I’m running AND what type of power plant. I have a 1999 Freightliner Classic XL with a Detroit 60. Transmission is Super 10. Truck is Yellow (Old Yeller!) with Vietnam Service Medals Graphic above Visor — Just in case you see me coming at you out on the road!

Dennis

© 2009, Dennis Dearborne. All rights reserved.