Maverick or BTC??? Mav. told me they're not hiring for flatbed again til mid Jan. of 2009 - do I and/or Should I wait until then - instead of going to the glass division?

BTC post on here seems to have much higher/more positive notes on it.

Maverick seems to get beat up alot. Then again, so does Swift, and I'ma former Swift driver. Swift and Maverick probably are like many co.'s out there.

Personally, I want to be able to provide much better for my family and at the same time enjoy my job (driving for a living) and I want good semi-predictable home time.

There seems to be some discontent here with Maverick, but I would like to know from Current Drivers how they are truely Today. Not former drivers, former employees of ANY company rarely have good things to say about their Former Company they Worked For in The Past.

Enough with what's happened in the past. How about Today... it's truckin' - there's gonna be waits, long days, layovers - Duuhhh! You don't like it, move on. You're gonna find that at every company to some extent or another at some point. and there's gonna be good days and bad days, and there's gonna be good dispatchers and bad ones.

By the way, if a company tries to force me to operate something I feel is unsafe - there's camera photo's and a letter goin' up the ladder as far as it needs to go.
No Load is more important than safety. And if it's truely a valid safety issue then I won't be concerned for my job. Common sense.

Being a former employee of maverick specialized for very good reasons, I would recommend that you go with BTC. There is an individual on here who was keeping a journal of his experiences with BTC and they were very positive. He was actually fired from maverick during his road test for not following their rule of staying 10 mph under ramp exit speed limit. It is very easy to get fired from maverick with their point systems. And it is very easy to get points with the way they expect you to run. And if you think taking pictures and sending them along with documentation to managment is going to make a difference with the specialized side, you apparently have not read the beginning of this thread. Google ollietoo's "maverick in the rear view". You also have to rememeber that many drivers lie about how good a place is. I guess its a form of denial on their part. I believed their lies at first too.

That's funny. Me and plenty other drivers here are happy. I don't do this just to have something to do.

__________________
My childhood dream of becoming a truck driver turned into a nightmare!

Well I'm not crazy about this thread. I got a pre-hire from Maverick specialized glass, and I've seen no other offer or recruiter with a better sounding package for earnings and overall positive reports on this site, at least the other divisions.

I think I'm probably going to take it and all I can say is that you can count on me to give you an honest, unbiased, and dispassionate accounting of the truth as soon as I know what it is.

At minimum this sounds like the marines of the 4 branches. I'm ready to both bust and kick some ###. As long as the earnings are what they say, or close, I'm good. I'm sure I can withstand some torture for at least a year. I figure the possible pitfalls of lower miles, long waits, general BS are fairly the same risk across the board. At least the compensation is here in theory. Plus I intend to go skateboard as O/O within the next couple years.

BTW this is the recruiter summary that is being sent out at the moment:

Date:

Name:

Thank you for your interest in Maverick Transportation! Here is a brief summary of the Specialized Division that we talked about:

Pay
- .45 cpm (with 1 year OTR and at least 6 months glass experience in last 3 years)
- .44 cpm (with 6 + months OTR and less than 6 months glass)
- .41 cpm (with less than 6 month OTR, no glass experience)
- Stop off Pay, $15 after the first stop
- Glass Pay of $20 per load when driver is directed to remove glass racks from flatbed
- Tarp Pay of $20 per load when tarping is required and roller tarp is not used
- Short Mile Pay 350 miles guaranteed
- Reconsignment pay $15 when driver arrives at delivery and is told to deliver to new location
- Layover Pay of $100 paid when driver has available hours of service and is detained over 24 hours
- Over Dimensional Pay, Additional .05 cpm for loads that require permits for over dimensional freight
- Breakdown Pay, $8 per hour with maximum of $88

Home Time
- Out 12-14 Days at a time

Miles
- 2500-2600 miles per week

Running Lanes
- All 48 and some Canada

Benefits
- Full Coverage Health/ Dental and Prescription Card
- 401K and Profit Sharing
- Cancer Insurance
- Life Insurance Policy (paid for by Maverick)

It was good talking to you. Please let me know if you have any questions. Have a great day!

I'm at Laurinburg as I email, in training. Right now freight is a little slow due to several factors. One is the economy, Two is time of year, and Three is glass prices recently went up, which made customers order more to stock up, and they won't need to order as much for a while. As far as new employees, Maverick wants to get al of their employees home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, so being with a trainer right now is a little stretched out. Plus, some of the trainers (and other drivers), will be taking time off for holidays and such (plus they realize it's a slower time of year for freight) and there aren't enough trainers available right now. I considered TMC, but I was told that they do not allow inverters, or dropping you trailer to go home, which were both important to me. Maverick Specialized still has some pumpkinheads, but many Freightliners. Some of the trailers are a little old (just tied one down today that seemed "well worn"), but I'm a rookie and have very little experience. Overall, I'm impressed with the Maverick staff, but have a lot to learn about the Specialized folks.

I'm a former mav. driver and I do have good things to say about them. I also have negative things. I would be of the opionion of believing they proably won't hire until later in the reg. flat division if thats what you were told....economy is tuff, slow season, they just made cuts as it is (for varing believed reasons- insurance-people with points, like me/bad economy?). -Since I don't fall into your 'only negative things to say' former employee catogory then I'll throw out my opionion. Of course I can't awnser how things are currently as you asked, but hopefully a current employee will awnser that for you.
-I'm speaking strickly for the flatbed division-
-pay/benifits are good
-equipment is good
-watch your points- ANY type of incident/accident will hit your DAC report as an accident and Mav. IS NOT nice about there choice of wordage. (ie.- if you hop a curb and bend a tarp box, that will go on your DAC saying somthing like -'non DOT reportabe incident/accient angle collision- and nothing to help it not seem so severe) ----Have a couple incidents at Mav. and as far as your DAC is conserened your next perspective employer will throw your app. in the trash.
-The person saying they're trying to get people home for the holidays...the were always great about that.
-Truly try to get you home on the weekend.
-Get a good fleet manager, and it's pretty nice...Between my rookie manager, the one I had the majority of the time there, and the final one...I only was uncomfortable with the final one (a recent hire from JB Hunt, go figure)....the first two were GREAT, the last wasn't horrible.
-good training/help with securement on the road via phone.
Can't speak for the glass division.
-My final advice, wait a bit if you want, get on, make good money/benifits, don't run to hard to where you have any incidents (when I say incidents, I mean like scraping a bumper), if you have an incident- start looking for a new job while there's only one bad mark on your DAC.
I still say it's a good company, there are some GOOD people working there.

__________________

"Knock the ####### bottom out!"
"Life after DAC."

Everything I've HEARD about specialized has been that they are like another company (which make sense- cause they were), I'd give them time to adjust, I guess, without putting yourself as a driver in a bad position. What I do know from one of my best friends that went from regular flat to glass was that he;
-liked the dedicated route he got, and was home more...NOTE I SAID 'DEDICATED'
-didn't like the orange piece of crap they put him in.
I know that doesn't help much, but it's all I can say from a source I know I can trust. Mav. lost his dedicated route to a railroad company and now he is back to regular flat and a better truck.

__________________

"Knock the ####### bottom out!"
"Life after DAC."

Good for you! Good attitude and approach....be interested in your feedback as you go....
Watch your safety points....if you hear the word 'preventable' then it WILL go on your DAC as a ACCIDENT regardless of how minor. And take it from me, I had the money together to buy a rig outright (financing thru family) and can't get leased on anywhere I'm willing to go.

Now before I make them sound all bad I had 5-incidents in two years (gotta be fare to Mav and tell the whole story)...none involved any damage to anything except Mav property, I made my own mistakes and caused my own 'incidents,' I'm 30- driven legally since 14 and never had an accident on my MVR, I currently have no moving violations either, ran 2 yrs. 200,000 miles as a com. driver for them. They were my first com. drvr job. I was fired for safety points. (just before the slow season, in a bad economy, along with a group of other drivers, possibly because of insurance issues?) When they tell you that, 'We have only accidents and no incidents.' in orientation- that is what they mean, that is how your DAC will look, regardless of what anyone in safety tells you later.

-What does that mean to you? Well thats up to you, but now you have more knowledge then I did, so use it to cover your ###. Don't push yourself to hard to take care of company if it is gonna cause you problems and to make mistakes. Now I ran way to hard the first year, and moved way to many short loads, at my own fault....(by entering to many hours available)....And I've been told by many that I'm to honest (I'll tell them if I screw something up, even if I can get away with it or not. For example; the last 'safety point' that put me in eligability to get terminated, and therefore put me in the group of drivers they canned in the big cut was; -a preventable overweight. I had even made it a point to tell the safety lady that I knew it was over, even when she didn't hear me the first time. (otherwise, it wouldn't have been 'preventable' and I wouldn't have got points for it). Then I told her I took it because I had ran all night, it took hours to get unloaded, took them all day to find me a load, took an obserd amount of time to get reloaded, shipper protocal was to secure-tarp, then weigh, {one driver had been there 2 days- no b.s.- his load got the wrong numbers and it took them that long to get it all fixed-he was even close to home- tho that is on the extreme side}, and I wasn't gonna untarp-unsecure, wait in another line of trucks to get to the crane, to pull off one plate, then resecure and retarp and re-weigh....when it was already the middle of te night and I'd been up for x-amount of hours. By the time I got stopped- all I could think was I gotta get off the road and to bed. These are all facts, not opionions. And before you say, 'why did you take the load? why did you make it a point to tell the truth?' The awnser is, 'I made my own mistakes and if honesty is one of them, then so be it. I made other mistakes also. I'm not gonna stop being honest even when it hurts me. And I'm not here to tell my story to wine or defend myself, my story there is done. I'm telling it to educate guys like you'.
Read, learn, cover your rear before theirs.

-If anything happens, it will proably be ruled 'your fault.'
-Can you run that long without anything happenning?
-How many 'accidents' (regardless of if they really are accidents) can you lease/hire on to another company with on your DAC?
-Again, so much as scrape a bumper (that's all the kind of little crap that got me points)....and all your next possible employer will see is that you had, 'preventable incident/accident- angle collision' ....or something to the effect.
-Is it like that everywhere? Don't know....but I know here and I'm telling anyone it will help.
-Are you gonna have a scraped bumper? I don't know, I ran way to hard...whose fault is that? Mine and only mine. (I'll bet in those 2 years, I never delivered late more than once or twice - it was rare in the first year if I even pushed back an eta, didn't drop first thing, move another short load, get my miles. In the whole 2 yrs., I only remember picking up the phone to push back a delivery once. It went from Laredo to the north east somewhere over 1500 miles....and I was sicker then ####. Delivered one day later). -Who did these things benifit? Not me. Who did working like that bite in the ###? ....Whose fault is that? Mine and only mine. Am I whining? #### no, I'm trying to help you with more information then you have now.

Take it for what it's worth, hear the facts and not the opionions. And most important, weather you can drive your ### off and do it well....make choices that protect YOUR future.

__________________

"Knock the ####### bottom out!"
"Life after DAC."

Im not saying maverick is a bad company. Im only saying myself what a driver can expect. No one should go to maverick specialized because of the high cents per mile. You will have low miles, I promise. You will spend lots of time dealing with the load. For $20.00. There were 2 guys on here a few months ago doubting what Ive said and one guy quit after a week and the other quit after a month, this after I warned them. And one of them was implying I was a "cry baby". After pumping how great it was, after he quit he had his previous post deleted by a moderator. If you have absoulutely no other options, then go to specialized and tough it out. You will be home every two weeks for a 34 hr restart. Maybe longer now since things are so slow. But if you are brand new to driving, you dont know anything right now and you will only have theories. They will insinuate and expect you to run illegal. They usually wont just blantantly tell you. Just rememeber though, when it comes to running illegal, if someone hits you and its not even your fault, when your logs are looked at and your prepass pulled up, the truth will be known, so hope you are legal. Or your "new" driving career will probably be over the way things are now. Exceeding the 11 is an art, but exceeding the 14 is a sin. I talked to a maverick specialized driver who had run 16 hours straight. Idiot.

I've read every post on this thread, and comparing the negatives with the competition, Maverick still seems to come out looking good. I'll definately be applying with them once I finish getting CDL.