Thinking About start with TMC.

DesMoines, IA I presume.

 

Yea, dispatch types it as dsm all the time to save characters on the qualcome.

 

Alright thank you all. I have had a friend that worked for TMC in the past, and he ran % pay. i never understood how that worked, is a % pf the load weight or load cost that the customer pays TMC?

 

As said when your out with a trainer you could be out for 2-3 weeks at a time. When I was there my trainer we were out for 2 weeks once. Afterwards I was only out 2 weeks a few times, once because I wanted to the others because I couldn't get a load that got me home.

Not to scare you but being a OTR trucker is a not just a career/job change it is a lifestyle change. Some thrive in it some don't. As said you will miss lots of those special moments with family. Plus if a emergency comes up it will be hard to handle it or get home fast if you need to if it all. Home problems are difficult to handle when your hundreds or thousand miles away. Your wife will need to be strong and independent as you will be gone all week.

I only worked at TMC for less than 6 months for few reasons, pay being one of them and personal problems with being away from family. I liked working for TMC and enjoyed the work but being away for that time sucked, it wasn't for me. I'm lucky that a local flatbed company took a chance on me a few years ago with little experience in tractor trailer driving. Now I'm making more than I did with TMC and home every night. Although I drive a crappy FreightShaker instead of a nice Pete.

My advice would be to try it out at least. Get a good laptop with a good data connection card and Skype (webcam) with your family during your downtime as I think it would make it easier for everyone. If you can do it for a few years and get experience then try for a local gig.

 

Does TMC pay for E-Z Pass, PrePass, and Pike Pass? Also, do they provide the safety vest and hard hat?

 

Every load has a value. This value is what TMC gets paid by the customer - fuel surcharge, toll surcharge, etc. You make a % of this number. Higher weight freight may pay you more if the customer is paying more for it, but the weight does not directly affect what you make. Some insulation loads pay pretty good and they are the lightest loads we haul.

a load going into north east will pay more per mile to tmc and thus more per mile to you. The load going out of the north east may pay less. It all averages around .48/mile to you. Some loads pay .20/mile. others pay you 1.20/mile. it all averages out though. Now, if freght rates go up, your pay does to. You basically automatically get raises as inflation goes up and they charge more to move freight. TMC % is pay is better then others since they have pretty high freight rates compared to others. Customers pay us more for our quality service. Most drivers maintain 28% and will sometimes hit 29%. As a trainer you should be at 31-32%. Your % at tmc varries from 27-32% depending on your performance.

 

TMC pays for expass, although there are a few unauthorized road that may charge you. (rt 80 IL and oh) If under a year of experience there are no restrictions. They pay for and provide prepass as well. They dont have pike pass, although they will reimburse you for all tolls not covered by expass and not on an unautherized rd.

Unatherized are rt 80 oh/il. Florida beeline, njtpk south of exit 6. and i think thats it. No restriction on any of these for drivers with less then a year although they may need to notify fleet mge when travling on them. TMC does provide safty glasses, hard hat and vest although i recommend getting your own glasses and vest since theres suck. Their hard hat is pretty nice tho.

 

when you get done with your trainer you will have
over 10000 miles

 

So whats an alternative route for I80 if your heading east coming from the south? US30?

 

You should have 10k...but, if you get a lot of short loads you may have trouble getting enough miles. I had one trainee that only got 8500 and i didn't even drive the last 3 weeks. We had a lot of shorter runs that paid really good. He was a good enough driver that we didnt need to keep him an additional week. Another trainee got 12500 and would have graduated in only 4 weeks, ecept he needed to work on backing.