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Hello all, new user here. I have been offered a position as an independent contract driver for Medi-Fleet here in PA. They seem to have expanded nationwide. Anybody out there ever worked for them, and if so, how do they treat their ICs. Thanks for any input.
I honestly know nothing about Medifleet. But I've always been of the mind that being an independent contractor is nothing more than buying a job and you get all the expenses and the headaches while whoever you're contracted to skims the good money off the top. If you figure your honest costs and you still think you can make a decent profit after covering those, go for it. But make sure you know what you're getting into before you sign up.
Thanks for the input Chief. After looking at their contract, I think you are right about the skim part.
Glad you looked at their contract! Too many potential contractors don't. Or if they do, they don't understand what they are signing. In the almost-14 years I've been trucking, I've seen there are LOTS of trucking companies that really are nothing more than a glorified truck & trailer-rental company and/or broker and they want to pay their contractors .90-something cents/mile on freight that they get anywhere from $1.50-$3.00/mile (or more!) to haul. The sad thing is there is no shortage of people who can't do the math that are willing to keep leasing to these ripoff artists...
I know this thread is long dead, but I found it using a search and will post the info for others in the future.
I am a current Medifleet "contract" courier. I am not new to the courier business and understand it very well from more than one angle. For various reasons I found myself signing on with Medifleet to do some light delivery for a Hospital. I use my own car and buy my own gas and am not specifically compensated for either of these things. That means when gas goes up 50% per gallon like it has in the last 2 years, Medifleet does not compensate you for that. If you were spending $400 a month on gas and your expenses go up to $600 a month for gas, you just got a $50 a week reduction in your pay. Their "contract" makes no provision for compensation for fuel prices. You get to absorb 100% of it yourself. When you are an independent contractor, you are a business doing business with a business, yet you are expected to sign a contract which gives you no recourse for an increase in your cost of doing business. Amazing.
Don't forget you are now responsible for your own taxes, which are calculated differently since you are self-employed (unless you've incorporated). You get no paid vacation, no paid sick time and do not qualify for unemployment insurance benefits. You are expected to provide you own replacement if you need time off and Medifleet demands that it be someone who meets their requirements.
These requirements include proof of levels of your car insurance that Medifleet requires to buffer their liability with their own insurer. Yes, that's right. You have to buy extra insurance for your car so Medifleet can pay less for their own insurance. This insurance is required on any car you will be using for your courier duties.
Medifleet requires you to carry a two-way radio so dispatch (who generally don't know anything about the routes they deal with despite having the data right in front of them) can contact you for unscheduled pickups. You have the right to refuse the pickups, but let's just say they expect you not to. For instance, I recently was 10 mins from completion of my daily route and was called to do a pickup at a location 20 miles away. That's a 40 mile round trip and approx an hour of my time. They "did me a favor" and entered it as a STAT so I would get $9 for it instead of $3. That's right. $9 for an hour of my time, using my own car and using over $5 worth of gas.
Of course that's before Medifleet deducts a bit for some kind of non-optional personal injury insurance that's taken out of your check every week. I'm sure they are further covering their own butts by making you pay for something.
And that 2 way radio? You have to pay $5 a week for the license for the software on the radio. You also have to either rent a SIM card from them for $25 a week or provide your own. And is HAS TO BE on Boost Mobile, so even if you already have a cell phone plan, you can't use it. (unless you happen to have Boost Mobile). If you or Medifleet terminates your one year "contract" (which either of you can do with 10 days written notice), you have 24 hours to return the 2 way radio to Medifleet or they will deduct $475 from your last check. That's in the separate contract you have to sign for the radio.
Medifleet will call you at all sorts of odd hours to do pickups. I have agreed to the pickups based on special compensation for inconvenience promised by a manager and never gotten the compensation. You have to file some stupid paperwork to ask for the missing compensation, which needs to be filed within a certain tmie frame, but you don't find out you didn't get paid because they pay you the following friday for work done the previous week. Sometimes they screw up and pay you for the wrong route and ask you to personally pay the other couriers. Ive had that happen and then not been paid for my own route beacuse i didn't fax in my weekly sheet by the following monday. Remind me why I have to pay for a 2 way radio that lists the stops and has GPS if the only "proof' you have of my doing the work is a fax sheet?
The dispatchers will ask the drivers to find out which stops are open on holidays. Last time I checked, it was dispatchers job to tell drivers where to go, not the other way around. I've gotten calls to do a STAT pickup that's 20 miles out of my way when a scheduled driver will be at the same location faster than I can drive there. I have had dispatch, with computerized maps right in front of them, allot me 15 minutes to drive 50 miles in an ice storm because the stop is only 5 miles away (in a straight line across a river and a mountain range) on the map. They have no idea what they're doing. I am still scheduled to go to stops that are closed/out of business for over a year because Medifleet has no idea they're closed.
A couple other tidbits. The departments within Medifleet do not communicate with one another. Somehow it's your responsibility to facilitate that. The entertainment potential there is incredible when there's a problem. You have to wear your uniform - which you have to buy. Minumum is 3 $15 shirts to start. You either have to wear that or a jacket with a medifleet logo on it.
My first one year contract with Medifleet expired and it took over 8 months for them to come up with another one year contract. Then they were in a hurry to get it signed.
There's lots more, but I think this should give the picture to anyone thinking of working for Medifleet. I work for them because I need a job to pay my bills and self-employed people can't collect unemployment (so Its hard to have time to look for another job). I understand this is pretty much the standard for this type of operation, but I'd say there's probably better choices for work. It's possible to make a decent living if you are well aware of the associated costs related to your vehicle and lifestyle, but you have to really want to do it to make it worth while.
P.S. don't be fooled darling I worked for the company just another division and a LOT LOT of IC's qualified for unemployment; you just have to appeal it when you are denied. And again I mean a lot of IC's received unemployment.
I used to work for Meditflett but I gave them my best but it was not good is went to work sick I call my dispatcher and he set me up and got me fired saying I did not call now show
But there is god and he knows I was never wrong he set me up to get fired for my dispatcher cover his but like that he don't look like an fool he place the blame on me but wait to they catch up to there money schem and there I lot of people are goin to get fired o and to top it of there they have a click of drug user that they got them under they wing and cover them cuz they got so much dirt on one and other
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They screw me big time
