TMC

At TMC you are guaranteed $650 per week for the first 3 months in your own truck. During orientation you receive $300 per week for the two weeks and for 6 weeks with a trainer you get $350 per week.

Daily average is simply take your total earnings for the past 13 weeks divided by all the days you were out in the past 13 weeks. For example if you earned $1000 each week for 13 weeks then your daily average for being out 65 days is $13,000/65 = $200. So you would get paid $200 if you have to wait a day for a load. That beats most other companies layover pay.

To get on line haul (home most weekends) you will have to get the recruiter to like you. There was a guy in my orientation from Ware, MA who got put on long haul, but there is a guy from Keene NH who runs line haul. Don't let the guys who run orientation make you run long haul if you are promised line haul. They see the orange line on the map and make the decision line or long. If they want to put you on long haul have your recruiter give them a call. If that doesn't work let me know. My trainer has connections.

The out of route miles count towards your pay rate. When you need to go out of route for a good reason don't be afraid to ask your dispatcher. For example if you need fuel and to get to an authorized fuel stop takes you 25 miles out of route ask your dispatched to cover that. Also for one weekend we had a delivery at a jobsite on the white sands missile range in NM from Denver. The route that they had us on had no nearby truckstops and we were not going to spend 3 days waiting at the gate to the military base. We got the company to authorize up to 75 miles out of route to go all the way down to Las Cruces NM and then back.

I looked at Roehl but they wouldn't let me run flatbed out of Maine. There are several Maine based companies that have the flatbed market just about locked up and they require experience. You won't make nearly as much money at Roehl as you can at TMC.

I am about to run out of internet access time. I may not get access again until next weekend. Have a good week.

 

Thank you again for taking the time to fill me in on TMC. The info is so important to me in making an informed decision on where to start out as a professional driver. Believing in the company will assist in job satisfaction and it seems from what you sat that TMC is there on several levels.

Be safe out there..I'll catch up you soon

 

Can someone tell me how much time per week is spent tarping loads, average? How much fun is it in the winter and the rain? doesn't really matter I put in my application last week and TMC is where I want to be, just curious questions...

 

Tarping time depends on the load. A nice square load that requires a steel tarp just nicely draped over it and bungee'd down may be doable in 20 minutes. Two tarps may take closer to 35 or 40 minutes. Some odd shaped loads may take longer. Wind may increase your time. So far my average is about 3 tarp jobs out of 5 loads. I haven't put a stopwatch on it but on an average of 30 minutes to tarp and 30 minutes to untarp at 3 times a week for linehaul should work out to about 3 hours. Most of this time is actually spend dealing with bungees, not tarps.

The rain is fun. I recommend a good rainsuit. Most of the time if it is raining you will tarp or untarp inside. Usually you tarp the load to keep it dry so removing the tarp in the rain doesn't make a lot of sense. You will probably have to take off most of your bungees and straps outside so you don't hold up the unloading process.

Snow is also fun. Rolling up a tarp that is covered in ice and snow is more difficult since it is stiff. Probably what you will have to do most of the time is to strap the tarp to the deck of the trailer until you can get some sun to thaw it out. This is not recommended but necessary when the tarp won't fit into the box.

 

Can anyone tell me if TMC or anyother truck co. for that matter issues expences checks for tolls inadvance and /or has something like ez pass on the trucks or does the driver pay and get reimbursed from the company?

Also how do TMC drivers stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer with the tough idling laws, especially in New England..??

I spoke with a recruiter this week she told me to give her a call back when I'm a month from graduating and we could go over my application in detail. My school is 20 weeks long, yes that is 5 months or 480 hours. Anyway she said my application looked good overall and should not have a problems getting on with TMC.

 

And what about fueling, what are the allowed fueling locations at TMS? Ive heard that some trucking companies have designated fuel stop, such as on a T/A's etc.

The tarping issue does not seem all that bad, a bit of work yeah but it will get my butt out of the seat and get me moving once or twice a day. I need the excersice anyway. And the company throws in a couple of bucks to get er done? I'll take that.

 

At TMC you have several choices about tolls.
1) You can take your own money and pay for tolls and turn in an expense envelope. The money will be added to your paycheck in 7 to 10 days.
2) You can get a cash advance for the tolls. This works through the comdata card when you get fuel, you just need to ask your dispatcher for an authorization code. This money will be deducted from your paycheck in a couple of weeks IF the expense envelope is not received by then. If you ask for $50 for tolls and it only comes to $40 the extra will be deducted from your paycheck.
3) You can get a Prepass Plus electronic device. This will electronically charge tolls to the company for any tollbooth that accepts EZ Pass/Fastlane and a few others. This device also allows you to bypass some DOT scales utilizing the weigh in motion technology. Look it up at http://www.prepass.com For this device TMC will charge you $2.50 per week, mostly because it is small enough to lose or throw away so the $2.50 makes you respect the company property. The $2.50 is worth it to me because it allows you not to have to get a time consuming cash advance and not have to stop at every scale.

As for warm I have a good thick sleeping bag and I stay toasty warm most nights. When it is below 15 degrees you are required to idle the truck and you are allotted extra fuel to do this. You could plan your trip not to park in New York or CT if possible. If you are in New York you will probably do what every other truck driver does and idle your truck anyway. I may start the truck and Idle for an hour in the middle of the night to keep the truck warm or cool if I want to. You are not restricted from idling ever by TMC policy, but the fuel consumption does affect your pay rate.

For tarping you get an extra ( I'm gonna get rich) $10 for that load. The other component of that is that loads that require tarping generally pay a better rate per mile so on the percentage plan you will get more for the load that way as well.

TMC has a booklet that lists all of the authorized fuel stops. The majority of them at this time are Pilot locations. There are a few TA and Petro locations as well as a few random independent truckstops. You can form your own conclusion about Pilots. Some people like them and some people don't. They usually have enough fuel lanes and good clean showers but the number of parking spaces leaves something to be desired.

Have you started school yet? You could look into getting your CDL through TMC sponsored school in Iowa. That would only be a few weeks. I think you would have to prove to MA that you can actually drive by taking their road test there also but that may be something to look into.

 

hey rawlco. how phisically demanding is driving a flatbed? reason i ask is :
the school, near my house, i would like to go to has me a loan to go to school and i could work for stevens. OR
i could have a co-signer or 400 dollars and add Stevens to my list of choices.

i had back surgery 3 years ago, and i'm not sure about the physicval requirements of a flatbedder.

 

95% of the job is not very physically demanding in my opinion, Throwing straps and or chains and tightening them down isn't hard. You can work smarter not harder with those items. The OTHER 5% is what may bother you. Taking a 90 to 120 pound tarp and lifting it up about 5 feet may be hard on your already bad back. I do try and work smarter with tarps too but sometimes there is nothing else to do but simply lift them. After dealing with them for a couple of months they are getting easier. I am doing flatbedding while I am young and have a strong healthy back. I wouldn't mess around with a bad back, but you are free to choose whatever suits you.

 

Hey Rawlco,

been awhile since Ive seen you out here..must be working you hard during the week..how have the load been for you recently?..they keeping you busy?

i had to fill out some prehire applications at my school for swift, werner and roehl..the latter of which turned me down because of an accdent i had in 2003, i slid off the road into a rock, so now i'm starting to wonderer if TMC might not be to kken on that either..it's doesnt seem to bother swift or werner