W.N. Morehouse Truck Line, Omaha, NE, has settled a $146,000 dispute with Pilot Flying J over fuel discounts the carrier claims it was due but were not discounted at the pump over a five-year period.
Morehouse office manager Curt Morehouse told the World-Herald his company bought fuel from Pilot under a discount program and he realized the rate looked off. Morehouse said he emailed the truck stop operator last year to tell them his records indicated the error went back five years and added up to $146,000.
Pilot acknowledged the problem but said it was unintended, went back only three years and added up to only $88,000. Morehouse was not satisfied, and Pilot agreed last May to give the company an increased discount at the pump.
However, after the recent raid on Pilot Flying J headquarters, Morehouse said that Pilot CEO Jimmy Haslam called him and that the two have talked about five times. He said the conversations have given him the impression that Haslam is “trying to do what’s right.”
“I don’t know if that’s because he’s guilty of something or he’s a good guy,” Morehouse told the World-Herald. “I hope it comes out that he had no part in it.”
The trucking company received a recent wire transfer of money from Pilot. Morehouse said the company has recovered the $146,000 lost and considers the issue settled.
“We’re settled. We’re good,” he said. “I wish it wouldn’t have happened, but we’re happy going forward.”
According to the World-Herald, a recorded conversation about the trucking company was one piece of evidence that led to the raid on the headquarters of Pilot Flying J.
The Nov. 28 conversation included Pilot regional sales manager Kevin Clark of Lee’s Summit, MO, recounting how managers of Morehouse had failed to keep track of how much money was due in rebates.
“The dumb (expletive) never checked, I guess,” Clark was recorded as saying. “I felt like sayin’, ‘Well you’re the moron that didn’t check it!’
