McElroy Truck Lines - Cuba, Al.

his new company is t.m.c we have read good & bad but he just wants to run & make money, and we hear the pay is pretty good.

 

just got w-2 from mcelroy 5months employment he made 6100 sad I will try to put that behind us now !! I thought I had till the w-2 came in the mail sorry oh well he is with new trainer nice guy!!! thank god

 

Thats still strange in my opinion. We all know this is a slow time but my friend came by in his truck Sunday before heading out and he told me he made $3400 in the month of Jan. I know he has no reason to lie.

 

I know it is stange but I dont have reason to lie either we kept waiting for it to get better just got worse!!! they blamed it on dispatch? dont really know & now don't care. I am glad for him but was really bad for us.

 

Hello,

I am a new McElroy Driver and have been in my own truck since October of 2007. I am based out of Pleasant Hill, NC and live I Va. Beach. All I can say is that they have kept me busy and that they will pay me to go home whenever they have no pre-assigned load. It has gotten a bit slow lately. but ALL flatbed work is slow right now. It is winter, the housing market is crap, there is an election coming up, the stock market is down, and it is a wonder that any flatbed truckers have anything running at all!

My average dispatch is to pick up in NC and deliver in PA. Usually 150 miles empty and 300-400 miles loaded. They haven't left me hanging yet, usually by 3:30pm they either give me a new load or pay me to go home. If they send me home, they always have a load the next morning. Also, they do a lot of work for LOWES and those loads have minimum pay requirements, so often times, my average pay per mile works out to be 50 cents even though my base is 38 and I went to work for them straight out of truck school.

My dispatcher is cool, and the few times I have had mechanical problems, they send me to the nearest repair and I am soon on my way. The best part is that they REALLY want you home on the weekends, and I REALLY want to be home on the weekends to be with my wife and kids and to drink a few cold ones

I guess the work load all depends on where you live. A guy I went through orientation with lives in S.C. and when he is slow I am not and vice-versa. Also, it seems trainers get more loads than solo drivers, but that is understandable, as they can tarp and run faster with both working together.

So far McElroy is everything they said they would be to me, but once again, I think it all depends on where you live and the economy as it stands right now.

 

my husband picks his truck up tommorow from TMC he was out 2 weeks with a very good trainer, made more money with a trainer in a week then with mcelroy driving seen several mcelroy drivers there with him at TMC. Things are looking great , will keep ya posted.

 

...but as I said before, I think it all depends on where you live. Everywhere McElroy sends me I see TMC drivers there too. Weyerhauser, GP, Tamko, you name it. All the building supply manufacturers use nearly ALL of the various flatbed trucking companies from what I have seen.

TMC has nice trucks to be sure, but from what I have heard, your husband better not put a scratch on it or let it get dirty. McElroy isn't quite so "uptight" about the small stuff.

 

you are probably right about location 2 other drivers that went to mcelroy with my husband is fixing to turn there trucks in. they just dont seem to get enough miles, they would keep my husband in small circle alabama, mississippi, georgia he just was making bad money I mean real bad, he chose linehaul with tmc & so far they send him all over so that means more money. It has been a good move for him we just had to do somthing couldnt loose our home! And when he quite mcelroy really tried to put the screw to him on his dac they lied big time even called tmc and tmc started not to hire him but decided to listen to his side and beleived him, so that is why I told our story, good luck to you & becareful if you ever quit!!!!!!

 

I went to them for all of 2 weeks. They have a very odd atmosphere at the Cuba, Al term. It was almost like being in a cult or something. I tell you this, dude isn't lieing, you can be canceled at any time and they will. First thing they don't like, you are gone. Ding that yard truck and you are gone quick. Check this though, if you are fired or leave you will be charged for the cost of the motel room. I had a death in the family, and had to go, I was charged for the room. I didn't go back, now there is a mark on my dac from them saying that I violated company policy. WTF!!!

 

...and what you want out of trucking. I found Cuba orientation a bit daunting, but they sent nobody home. They even had guys ding fenders on the practice yard and they weren't fired. The biggest thing McElroy stresses is "TELL US RIGHT AWAY". I bent two tire rims my first week out rubbing the trailer against a low lying brick wall. I called them and told them what happened and they were totally cool about it. Got repaired same day and they paid for it. Have another friend/co-worker who went down a "no-truck" route and hit an old shed with his trailer. He even got a D.O.T. violation and they were cool about it because he was new and he told them right away.

It is true that you run a small region with McElroy. I think I mentioned before that I run VA, NC, PA, and MD 99% of the time. That is so they can get you home on the weekend. Obviously with more experience or a willingness to be out for longer than one week at a time you could make more money, but in the end, from where I live they have been pretty good to me.

As for the Motel Money etc.... I think this has been discussed previously, but you have to be with them 6 months if I recall before you are exempt from paying back orientation expenses when you quit. Also, they deduct $25 per paycheck until they have held back $300. This is like an escrow account if you turn in your truck trashed. If you stay with them for a certain period of time, they retun the money with interest.

Trust me, I would like more miles lately to be sure, but I believe the other veteran McElroy drivers that it will pick up in the Spring. They have many guys that have been with them 5 and 6 years that I have met. Some maybe longer, but I can only speak from what I know.