Wait, whaaaaaaaat?!

[Deserted]

(This might be better off in Cursing Out Coworkers or Morons In Management, but what the hell.)

A friend of mine, who also happens to drive a wheelchair van, seems to have been all but fired today.

So. Some background.

When arriving at a call -- any call -- we have to wait for the passenger at least 5 minutes. For a scheduled call, we have to wait for them until 5 minutes after the scheduled pickup time. After that 5 minutes, we have the option of leaving. We don't get paid if we leave (but honestly, if you schedule a cab for a particular time, is it really that hard to be ready to go?) and we often give wheelchair passengers quite a bit of leeway with this.

</background>

My friend had a call this afternoon. She arrived at the call, which I gather was a ride home from a medical appointment, and went inside to find her passenger. The front desk told her that the passenger would be right out.

Several minutes later -- rather more than 5 minutes -- my friend decides it's time to leave, and sends in a no-show to dispatch... which is quickly denied. Friend calls in to find out wtf, and is flatly told that she HAS to go back and do the call... which is something that goes against EVERYTHING we have ever done as cab drivers. Specifically:
1) She waited more than the required 5 minutes, and
2) Drivers can refuse to do any call. The only downside of refusing an accepted call is a half-hour suspension (meaning can't get any calls over the terminal; flag fares only, which are very rare in Desert Hell).

My friend says she's not doing it, and the dispatcher tells her about the suspension. My friend points out that she's not refusing the call, but that the passenger isn't ready, a legitimate reason for leaving. In response, the dispatcher tells my friend that a supervisor (who magically came out of nowhere) is now saying that my friend must be suspended.

So my friend goes home and takes a break. When she comes back out to her cab, she finds this on her terminal:

CONTRACT SUSPENDED
SEE OPERATIONS MANAGER
RETURN VEHICLE TO YARD

The contract in question is my friend's contract to drive for Big Green Cab Co. A suspended contract is basically the same as an unpaid suspension from a normal job.

My friend spent quite some time trying to call various people around the company, including the afore-mentioned ops mgr, the leasing office sup, and a few others. Nobody was answering their phones.

Finally, after about an hour of calling, she gave up and called dispatch. She got through to Awesome Dispatch Lady and explained the situation. Awesome Dispatch Lady put my friend on hold and investigated, eventually coming back to tell my friend that a dispatch sup was downstairs talking to the ops mgr, but my friend really did have to bring her van back to the yard. (My friend lives almost 30 miles from the yard. Not exactly a trivial drive.)

My friend does so, and talks to the ops mgr. What develops is:

1) My friend is "trying to defraud the company". I have no idea where that came from.
2) The company lawyer is going to get involved for some reason, because ops mgr apparently has magically forgotten that the 5-minute-wait rule ever existed.

There will be some sort of review on Monday, but until then, my friend is without a vehicle. (Her car bit the dust some time back, and she hasn't been able spare the money to fix it yet. Kids and all that.) That review will determine whether or not my friend is still driving for Big Green Cab Co.

When she told me all of this, I asked her, "Do you really want to keep working for this company?" (This isn't her first time butting heads with management, but it's the most serious.) Her answer: "No, but I have to do something, and where else would I make as much money?" Well, since your income is zero at the moment...

[Shyla]

I am assuming the disabled person called the cab company after your friend left. Either she said something convincing about a lawsuit or she knows someone at the cab company. Since s*** rolls downhill, your friend is in trouble. How awful. They should be telling your friend the real story.

[eltf177]

This stinks. But if the five-minute rule is in writing I don't see how the company can ignore it...

[Sandman]

I'm also guessing that since the manager forgot the rule, it caused the company to break the contract causing them to be liable for financial damages payable to your friend.

[EricKei]

I am assuming the disabled person called the cab company after your friend left.

Probably. My guess is that their version involved one or more of "I was outside before the cab ever got here," "He never showed up at all," "He was rude and yelling profanities at me," "He only had to wait a couple of extra minutes past the scheduled time"... take yer pick.

He absolutely needs to check that handbook, as well -- Both to look up that 5-minute rule, and to see if there's any remedy/compensation involved for the sup giving him an undeserved suspension. If he ends up out of a job over this, perhaps a call to the Labor Board would be in order, to have a chat with them about Constructive Dismissal.

[Deserted]

I'm not sure if the 5-minute rule is in writing anywhere (and there's no handbook or manual), but we're told about it in training, and if someone sends in a no-show before 5 minutes, it's denied because the driver didn't wait long enough. I've actually been specifically told "you have to wait at least 5 minutes" before by dispatch. (Although in that specific case, it was stupid. They told me they're not going, why the hell should I stick around? Think they're going to change their minds?)

As for the person calling in, I imagine all that was said was, "Hey, my cab left! What the hell!"

Regarding wrongful termination, etc., Desert Hell is a right-to-work state, and we're all contractors (and we're not unionized, and it wouldn't matter much if we were). There's basically zero red tape involved in terminating a contractor. It's almost as easy as getting rid of a temp. And getting paid by Big Green Cab Co for anything that isn't actual work is like getting blood from a stone; I'm pretty sure it would require a costly & lengthy lawsuit, and a significant fraction of any judgment or settlement would go to the lawyers.

(And the manager didn't forget the rule, he "forgot" the rule. Note the difference.)

[KuariKaydrith]

The only thing I'm thinking is that the passenger decided that the taxi should have waited while he took his sweet time, and when the taxi left the passenger played the 'I'm going to sue for discrimination' card. Or, the company was looking for some trumped up reason to let your friend go, which sucks balls.

[notalwaysright]

Several minutes later -- rather more than 5 minutes -- my friend decides it's time to leave, and sends in a no-show to dispatch... which is quickly denied.

Unless the passenger had previously called and said "you will wait for me or I will sue!" I feel like this situation was premeditated by management. Because the driver was told right away to go back, there wasn't any time between the driver saying that she was leaving, and getting told she wasn't allowed to leave. Plus, Deserted said it wasn't the first time she had a run-in with management, so I feel like they just want her to go away.

[EricKei]

Good points -- Tho, if the CW is a Contractor -- as in "Files a 1099" -- they should have a contract which spells out very explicitly what does and does not constitute grounds for dismissal (if it should formally come to that). IANAL, but I don't believe "dismissal without cause" (for right to work/at will) applies to contractors. I mentioned the Labor Board because they can often get people legal aid for free, or else on a contingency(?) basis (they take a cut of the final judgment/payment). If they don't pay you guys for work performed within a specific amount of time, that could be a possible issue to bring up, as well. Just something to keep in the back pocket. The worst thing they can say is "Sorry, you don't have a case."

[wolfie]

Unless the passenger had previously called and said "you will wait for me or I will sue!"

This is why it's necessary to have a written policy of how long the cab is to wait for the customer. Without such a policy, a sucktomer threat like that could have a cab waiting for hours, taking it out of service so other customers can't be served (and the driver can't make money). By having a "Cab will wait 5 minutes after the appointment time" policy, the sucktomer has no grounds to sue - they weren't discriminated against, since cabs won't wait more than 5 minutes for ANYBODY. Of course, such a threat should be responded to "I'm sorry, but since you have said you'll sue, all contact between you and our company must be through our legal department. Dispatch can no longer take your calls to send a cab".

[TheSHAD0W]

1) My friend is "trying to defraud the company". I have no idea where that came from.

All I can think of they think your friend is in cahoots with the person who called for the cab, allowing them to have grounds to sue? Or could be from some other incident...

[Rosco the Iroc]

da-dah-doommm (ominous music)
hummm interesting idea

[Deserted]

I talked it over with another driver, one who is much more experienced than I. Seems to be that, if I have the entire story from my friend, she didn't follow proper procedure. Turns out this part:

my friend decides it's time to leave, and sends in a no-show to dispatch...

...was probably incorrect. Turns out, instead of sending in a no-show, she should've called in to dispatch and been taken off the call, and not sent in any sort of no-show. That's what I do, and I've never sent a no-show in a similar situation (mostly to avoid the minor fee that goes along with the call; if I send in a no-show I pay the fee, but if dispatch clears the call without a no-show then no fee applies) but it never would've occurred to me that a no-show was specifically against any rules or whatever.

She's meeting with a manager in a couple hours. I'm curious to see how it goes.