Long story, but I was doing my first ever hazmat tanker load from Chicago to Detroit. Last load before my week off. I got there early the next morning, watched my safety videos and they told me to drop the tanker. I assumed I’d get it unloaded and take it back to the tank wash in Chicago. I was told by the scalehouse to drop it and bobtail out because they said they had no empties. I immediately called my dispatch and waited an hour to get the the load updated and the paper work for the empty tanker.
The guy who gave me the paperwork told me I was good to go and since it was my first time there I didn’t know I’d have to scale out an empty tanker. So as I was leaving I was told to turn around and head back to scale out. To myself I was thinking “why didn’t the guy who gave me the paperwork tell me to scale out before I left”. I didn’t think much of it until I parked on the scale and went into the scale-house. The dude in there starts yelling at me “do you normally steal when you go places”, “you know that is theft right” and as I was explaining to him the situation and after he called me a thief I shoved the paper work at him and started raising my voice. He motioned that he wouldn’t take it and started telling me to shut up.
I didn’t even have to cuss him out, but I felt highly disrespected. He didn’t even do anything with the paperwork I guess they just wanted the weight. I’m a 23 year old black trucker and maybe it was cause he was bitter he had to work on the holidays, but the theft comment felt racial to me. I won’t ever go back there, but people need to be better.
