Owner-driver claims McAleese Transport promised 24-hour payment, but it's not how the operator sees it
By Ruza Zivkusic-Aftasi | February 26, 2013
McAleese Transport’s 24-hour guarantee payment to sub-contractors only applies to those on continual runs, its General Transport Manager Andrew Downey says.
The statement follows complaints by a sub-contractor who claims he completed work earlier this month but was not paid within the 24-hour timeframe he believes he was promised.
Dwayne Slater, who has been working part-time for the Queensland-based company for several years, cited an advertisement in ATN sister publication Owner//Driver stating drivers were paid within 24 hours.
He says he delivered an oversized load on February 12 to Brisbane followed by another run the next day to Gladstone and back to Brisbane.
“The following day [I] went into [the] depot to drop [off the] trailer and hand in paperwork. I asked why I hadn’t been paid for the previous load and I was informed by Andrew Downey that I was on a 21-day pay instead of 24-hours guarantee payment as advised in the magazine, which contradicts the advertisement in the print,” Slater says.
Slater, who runs a small business called Cruzz Xpress Service, says he relied on the payment to make it by.
“My partner and I have been surviving on food packs from the local food bank due to a lack of funds,” he says.
“I was relying on that payment to survive [and] I don’t understand why they have done this because prior to the breakdown with my truck they were paying me 24 hours on return of paperwork.
“The advertisement is still running in the current [edition of] Owner//Driver and still states 24-hours guarantee payment. They hadn’t informed me of any changes.”
Downey says the 24-hour payment applies to drivers who work continually for the company. He says it is designed to encourage them to keep hauling for McAleese.
“That’s the whole point of the incentive and that’s what’s been explained to the drivers,” he says.
“It is for drivers who continually run up and down the highway and not do one job and go off an do something else and then when they need quick money they come back and do another load for me in a couple of weeks’ time.”
