Wash bay at DSM

a Gypsum Express driver approached me and gave a perfectly planned sales presentation at a Pilot yesterday...

"when you gonna work for a real company?"

I said "when you gonna get real equipment?"

working here has turned me into a bit of a snob... but seriously, I am not going to drive a Freighliner with a 36" sleeper.

only company I've seen with equipment even close to TMC's is Paul Transportation in Oklahoma, nice big red Petes.

 

I am new to the trucking thing. and will be going to school in Oct. for tranning. Even with all the stuff getting taking away I still have TMC on the top of my list . 1) I dont what it is like to drive 70 in a Rig . 2) ezpass perpass never use it . 3) I have been looking around and all the Comp. are doing the samething. I feel tmc is one of the better comp to start with. This is just My 2 cents.

 

???

wait until you are standing on the step on the side of your truck putting $1 bills in the change machine so you can throw $2.50 in quarters into the automatic tollbooth on 66 in PA. or if you happen to have enough quarters to throw into the toolbooth on 294 in Chicago, you still don't get a receipt to turn in.

prepass likely would have saved me a real headache at a weigh station in Kansas last week.

 

I am Sorry, what I trying to say was that I have never used them so I will not know what I am missing.

 

LOL When you gonna get real equipment. I feel the exact same way about being snobby.. I take pride in my equipment, even if it isn't really mine.. But it's hard to take pride in a freightliner.. With a truck like that, it doesn't matter what you do to it.. it'll still be a freightliner.

I know guys say that real men drive whatever will pay the bills, and they are in fact 100% right. I feel the same way too, i just can't bring myself to do it. =(

 

Yeah. Guys like you who are coming in to the current situation may do fine.. Because you will be trained around it, however guys like Carter and I who know what it used to be like will be unhappy, and pull out our hair every time we're doing something tedious knowing that it could be much easier and less stressful on us like it used to be.

The biggest worry i'd have as a trainee right now is the fact that TMC took away it's trainer bonuses recently. What did that bonus entail? If your apprentice made it 6 months in their own truck, accident and incodent free, the trainer would get a 750.00 bonus.. Now that that's gone, where is the incentive to train anybody the right way? I mean, hell, even when they were giving the bonuses i was watching trainer's practice crappy training practices, i can only imagine how bad it's going to be now.

You see, you ONLY got that money if the trainee made it 6 months, so it was about more than just safety to me.. it was about teaching my apprentices how to be successful, and make money, how to use the system to their advantage, deal with their fleet manager, deal with the ins-and-outs, and most importantly just generally how to play the game. If a driver isn't making any money, whether through their fault, or the fault of the company, they aren't likely to stick around... I cared about my apprentices personal lives, and their success, i still keep most of them as friends to this day.. But many trainers that i've dealt with do not.. and now with the recent strip of any real reason to care about an apprentices success, where is that going to leave things?

I don't know...

Also Carter, BTI has nice petes, they're out of Des Moines as well.

 

can't find anything on BTI pay... trucks look pretty...

Paul starts at 30CPM... lol, seriously? I'm getting 39 now.

I used to have ties to Cheeseman/Zumstein in western OH... 45CPM on practical miles, automatic Prostars... those guys got it made.

 

Yeah i was JUST looking at Paul, .30 per mile for flatbed is a freakin' joke. I couldn't believe it. As far as pay goes, BTI unfortunately tops out at 27%, which is also less than TMC pays, but they haul less junk, too, so i think it evens out.

 

Ecks, Carter..., et. al., I'm a new driver, having started w/TMC. Got 14 months in so far. Why is a Freightliner so hard to take pride in? I don't mean to be naive, but I am. So there it is! How about helping out a newbie?

Thanks for your help.

 

Because they are throw away trucks that are cheaply made, and because of this they don't have anywhere near the resale value of most hoods.

Not saying that they aren't good trucks, but i wouldn't buy one.. I just don't like them... Notice that there are more on the roads, and that more fleets buy them? That is why, for the most part.

They do get better fuel economy than hoods do, though, due to their shape and weight but it's the semi-truck equiv. to a ford escort. =P