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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Thomas Cook, a 178-year-old British travel company and airline, declared bankruptcy early Monday morning, suspending operations and leaving hundreds of thousands of tourists stranded around the world.
The travel company operates its own airline, with a fleet of nearly 50 medium- and long-range jets, and owns several smaller airlines and subsidiaries, including the German carrier Condor. Thomas Cook still had several flights in the air as of Sunday night but was expected to cease operations once they landed at their destinations.
Condor posted a message to its site late Sunday night saying that it was still operating but that it was unclear whether that would change. Condor's scheduled Monday-morning flights appeared to be operating normally.
About 600,000 Thomas Cook customers were traveling at the time of the collapse, of whom 150,000 were British, the company told CNN.
The British Department for Transport and Civil Aviation Authority prepared plans, under the code name "Operation Matterhorn," to repatriate stranded British passengers. According to the British aviation authority, those rescue flights would take place until October 6, leading to the possibility that travelers could be delayed for up to two weeks.
Initial rescue flights seemed poised to begin immediately, with stranded passengers posting on Twitter that they were being delayed only a few hours as they awaited chartered flights.
The scale of the task has reports calling it the largest peacetime repatriation effort in British history, including the operation the government carried out when Monarch Airlines collapsed in 2017.
Costs of the flights were expected to be covered by the ATOL, or Air Travel Organiser's License, protection plan, a fund that provides for repatriation of British travelers if an airline ceases operations.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Pslytely Psycho on Tuesday September 24 2019, @01:08AM (7 children)
Well then, this bit of personal anecdote might bring a smile to your face after scowling about a piece of shit who pulled something similar here.
First, the shitty, scowley part.
I was a truck driver at the time Tulsa, Oklahoma based Arrow Trucking abruptly shut down days before Christmas in 2009, leaving its drivers without pay or a way to get home. Many of Arrow’s 1400 drivers only learned about the shut down after they filled up their rigs and discovered that their fuel cards didn’t work anymore. Others found out through word of mouth, the radio, or the internet. It was only through the kindness of fellow truckers that many of these stranded and unemployed drivers made it home for Christmas. Arrow took pick up orders all the way up to the minute the owner walked into the office and told everyone to leave with no notice whatsoever. No drivers were notified, no customers were notified, just shut down your computer and go home. Oh and by the way, you're not getting paid either.
We (I was a trainer so we were a team truck) took two drivers from a Missouri Petro and got each of them to within a hundred miles of home where someone met them. So we had four people in our rig, technically unsafely crowded and normally not allowed but our company was trying to help out so we were given permission. The DOT just kind of looked the other way as they knew what was going on and only checked to make sure we were rescuing drivers and not something else when we got inspected.
One guy abandoned his truck and load at the Petro, the other had his rig impounded for a $600 fuel bill when his card was turned off during fueling. That's how shitty the situation was. The drivers had no choice other than to abandon their trucks and loads and the rest of the community did what they could to help out. I took an eastbound run instead of a homeward bound one just to get those two drivers as close to home as possible and was five days late getting home for Christmas myself. A lot of us did the same thing with or without permission of our respective companies.
Now for the smiley face part.
On the bright side, former Arrow CEO James Douglas “Doug” Pielsticker pled guilty to conspiracy charges for his participation in a $25 million scheme to defraud the IRS and a Utah bank. He got Seven and a half years four years ago and as far as I know is still in jail.
So this shit can happen anywhere, at least that bastard got some time for it.
On the rare occasions when it occurs, it warms my heart to see a piece of fellatious shit like this get at least some of what he deserved.
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday September 24 2019, @01:50AM (3 children)
Sorry for your Christmas experience, mine in no way compares, but is still similar.
Our little company had a paid week of vacation from Christmas to New Year, and one particular year, as usual the sales didn't meet expectations, so leadership gathered the troops a couple of days before the Christmas break to inform us all that the entire company is laid off, immediately, zero notice, zero severance, and that week of paid vacation that is coming up - welp, it ain't paid and never will be paid back. Check back in the New Year, we _might_ have jobs for some of you, probably at cut rates of pay.
Again, not as shitty as sticking a truck driver with a fuel bill and no way home, but... went on vacation as planned, but with no paychecks coming for the forseeable future, filed for unemployment from an iPad on the hotel WiFi, and good god damned luck finding a replacement job starting with notice on December 20th of any year. I finally got one by moving to another town in March - and moving like that, owning two houses simultaneously, keeping the kids in their schools in the old town until June, etc. is like another 3-6 months financial ding again.
My shop went down hard for a bogus lawsuit from a competitor - I say bogus, I only read about it in the papers and most of the claims stated in the news story were of the "deceptive sales practices" nature which simply wasn't the case when I was there - sure, you would wish the product would do everything on the spec sheet, all at the same time, but we made it very clear to every customer, and even in the fine print of the sales brochures, that the product performance was ala carte, it can do this, it can do that, it can do them for almost an hour at a time - in ideal conditions, but if you're trying this and that and the other thing all at once, performance will be significantly less - and anyone with two functioning nerve cells should be able to figure that out without being told. Anyway, couldn't have happened to a more deserving bunch of employee and investor abusers, just kinda sad that both of our cunts at the C level didn't get sunk for the shitty things they did to the employees.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Pslytely Psycho on Tuesday September 24 2019, @06:42AM (2 children)
You know, it actually was one of the most fulfilling Christmas's I've ever had.
When I took the eastbound load, specifically to get those drivers home, I knew my Christmas would be delayed. My company paid for approximately 250 out of route miles in order to get them close enough for friends and family to rendezvous without undo stress. Normally that many out of route miles would not only be unpaid, but would likely get you a seat in front of the driver manager to explain yourself unless you were an owner-operator, in which case you already were the one paying for fuel and wear and tear. I was a company driver, subject to far more stringent rules.
I rarely have felt better about a decision. By delaying Christmas for my student and me, (I dropped him off on the return trip only a day late, as he lived in the central part of the country and I live in the PNW) we rescued two people stranded by one of the shittiest maneuvers by a corporation I had ever personally witnessed.
That maneuver impacted many beyond just their drivers. By abandoning loads and trucks all over the country, they brought financial strain to corporations large and small on both the shipping and receiving end of the contracted loads. Along with over a thousand vehicles, many with full loads and a percentage of those loads being hazmat or heavy equipment requiring specialized handling or storage, that had to be towed somewhere before being returned to leasing companies with the accompanying storage charges and fines accrued from being abandoned while the mess sorted itself out.
The driver whose truck was impounded for non-payment of his fuel bill had only just picked up his load less than two hours before, and that load had been contracted out only a few hours earlier than that. They fucked so many peoples lives during a time period of already high stress beyond just their drivers and those of us who stepped up to help out in the aftermath.
Many of us donated money directly to drivers who couldn't find a ride to get bus fares and food while taking as many as we could to various points around the country.
Of course, technically it was a minority of drivers who helped out, while the majority just ignored the situation and went on with their routines, but enough of us did volunteer time and/or money to get (as far as I know or ever found out) all of their drivers home within a few days of the holiday. A real case of people helping people without reservation.
In some ways it was the best Christmas ever, we stepped up to help our fellow man in his time of need. What better celebration of the holiday could there be?
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday September 24 2019, @02:36PM
Thanks for sharing that story!
This sig for rent.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 24 2019, @02:37PM
Good sir!
I have an ex-friend who was a local commercial driver, a retired long-haul trucker, and a friend who just completed their CDL on their way to becoming a long haul trucker, so I've had a little background on various companies and background on operations both local and cross-country. Most people don't realize just how critical you all are to the smooth operation of this country and take for granted the same day or few day shipping that has become the norm thanks to logistics management companies and the hard work you drivers put in getting it there on-schedule. That sort of shittiness shown by Arrow is becoming far too common and accepted in modern America and corporate culture, but it's those human moments where you take care of your fellow tradesmen, even if they are/were competitors, or just your fellow man with a random act of kindness that shows the best humanity has to offer. Perhaps someday we will get to a point where those in charge will show the kind of self sacrifice and altruism towards their fellow man so that situations like that don't have to happen very often.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday September 24 2019, @03:45AM (2 children)
This is why a judge has to immediately send the marshals into the front office to countermand the boss's orders and make sure all scheduled payments are made to get everybody home (with two weeks severance) until *It is safe to turn off their computers*. You don't wait weeks or months to stop a robbery in progress. When the boss pulls this crap, the employees need to set off the regular alarm and stay put until the cops arrive.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Tuesday September 24 2019, @07:33AM (1 child)
Yeah that sounds nice, but the entire closure of the company took less than an hour and there was no money with which to make payments. Also severance pay is unknown in the logistics business to start with. The money helped fund Pielsticker’s lavish lifestyle, including Bentley and Maserati automobiles, jewelry, a mansion and a wedding. According to rumor, a whole lot of blow as well.
They did arrest him, a few months later, but it took five years to indict him on 23 counts of bank fraud, tax fraud and tax evasion. After all, unlike a bank robbery in progress, you have to assume innocence until the investigation unravels the gazillions of loose ends, mountains of paperwork and other evidence. He was basically untouchable until they could establish that there even was an actual crime.
He faced 30 years, unfortunately he only got 7 1/2.
So no, unfortunately that would and will forever be an unworkable solution in such a case, at least until we go full dictator.
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday September 24 2019, @04:31PM
Yeah that sounds nice, but the entire closure of the company took less than an hour
That's why the alarm is needed. Businesses like this, that can cause this much harm, have to be under strict control at all times. We can't let people shut them down just like that. It is paramount to stop the heist.
But you are probably right. We will never elect a government to protect us like that.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..