Tips for tmc prospects.

Bear with me as I am writing this on my phone. In this thread, I will attempt to give whoever wants to read this tips on how not to get pissed of with TMC. Source: current employee.

Basic rules:
1. Recruiters lie. Of course they do right? Just take it with a grain of salt. Your first weeks to months won't make you too much money. But as you get in the swing of things you can earn more.
2. Don't let your trainer use you to make him money. If, right away, you seem to be doing all the work, get a different trainer. Trainers have been known to just user recruits for a fatter check. A good trainer will stay the work with you.
3. Your dispatcher is your paycheck. Give the person a little time to do right by you, but if it's not working out, don't waste time.

When you get your own truck
1. Keep a log of how many miles you drive that trip, afterwards right down how many gallons you put In the tank. This Will help you know what your avg mpg.
one of the biggest things to affect your paycheck is mpg. I run hills in my area every day and am constantly told I need to get better mpg. How? Not sure. But it is what it is.
2. Second thing to affect your pay is out of route. Out of route is essentially driving more miles then the trip plan they give you states. So say the plan they give you says 420 loaded miles. In reality it is 452 miles. They say they give you a 10% window to go over. I claim ########. If it was true, my out of route would be very small as I go from a to b and find fuel stops along the way. So, every time you see that your run, bounce or loaded, is more then what the plan says, even by one mile, tell your dispatcher that. So you don't get screwed like I did.
3. Drive cam. If you have a camera in your truck, had mine since the beginning, don't let them lie to you and tell you it only turns on during critical events. That is completely false. I have had mine turn on in cruise on the highway at 10 pm with absolutely not a single other soul around going on a very straight and level highway. I've also had it turn on while parked in a truck stop with the truck off. They are trying to catch you doing things so they have an excuse to lower your pay. The cameras face in and out.

All I have time for now, but I will check on this post frequently in case anyone has questions. I will answer honestly and to the best of my ability

 

10% is fair, but it doesn't seem like they honor it to me. From day 1 of getting my truck, I plot my course from a to b and find fuel stops along the way. Very rarely I go off the path for a fuel stop. So I definitely should be within my 10% but my pay was affected by too much out of route. How can I possibly go above 10% if I drive from shipper to receiver straight. As for the idling, those drivers will probably feel it when it comes to their check. Tmc has told me they want to get the company average of idle time to, if I remember correct, 20ish percent.

 

To be honest, tmc is a good company for fresh out of school drivers like I was. I learned a lot about the industry so far. Whether someone like me will move on to greener pastures is for the future to decide.

 

Some do some dont. If you do a lot of stuff like hard brakes, always late, turning to sharply for your speed. They might put one in your truck. Just all depends. There has also been talk about putting cameras in all tmc trucks.