Pilot salespeople placed on leave, CEO ending manual rebate calculations

In an attempt to end the now-embattled manual rebate calculation, Pilot Flying J CEO Jimmy Haslam says he has ordered his staff to place all of its customers on electronically calculated rebate system. The manual calculation, according to a federal affidavit released last week, spurred much of the fraud allegations also unveiled last week, as the company has been accused of intentionally withholding tens of millions of dollars in rebates from carriers based on manual rebate calculation.

Haslam offered a prepared statement to the media April 22 at the company’s headquarters in Knoxville, Tenn., where he also said some of the diesel salespersons have been placed on administrative leave.

Haslam also said the company is taking these five steps moving forward to help ensure it no longer is withholding rebates:

(1) Auditing all 3,300 contracts with trucking company customers and encouraging customers to review findings.

(2) Placing some sales team members on leave.

(3) Converting solely to electronic rebate calculation.

(4) Hiring a Chief Compliance Officer to handle any issues in the future

(5) Hiring an independent special investigator to “oversee and validate all of our internal inquiries related to the federal investigation.