marten transport

Ive had to swap loads alot of times, and i wasn't always happy about it, but never had to give up a load , and then made to sit. (not yet anyway) I can see where you would be pissed. Hope everything working out for you now.

 

Great post, thanks for sharing. The way I look at it is if the paychecks become a pittance, then one might as well accept trainees wages in a new career outside trucking and get going with a job that will survive a recession better than trucking. Like you, I got along with Marten okay before the crash, although I knew after a couple of months that I didn't want to stay long because the hauls are short for solo drivers and almost all my loads were in the eastern 1/4 of the US; I don't care to run the east side, nor do I care to run Canada. Like you, I saw the same overnight change for the worse. When I started with Marten I looked up their stats at Safestat and as I recall they had approx. 3400 tractors. I looked again after the crash and the count was down to approx. 2400 tractors. I take that as an indication of how bad the economy impacted Marten, and an indication of why the treatment of drivers changed so radically. Best of luck to you buddy, you deserve it.

 

Richri, thanks for clearing that up. I much better understand your position now. Thanks for sharing your experience with us.

 

On my first day with Marten, a team driver shared with me that the best deal with Marten was to be a team driver. It did seem that the teams got the long runs and a whole lot of drop and hook, and I always knew if I loaded a long haul that I would be swapping with a team. I could never sleep in a bouncing truck well enough to be a team driver, but those who can might consider Marten. What say you team drivers???

 

My uncle just retired from Werner, and he didn't like the electronic logs because he said it's hard on drivers because you have to get up at midnight and drive (midnight picks up new hours on the 70 rule). This was to in order to both maximize a driver's production and often had to be done to deliver on time. Do find that you have to do this in order to get good miles or to be on time?

 

I have 25years driving,15 OTR.all these large companies have turned into catle yrds.Bring em in,an move them out.Dont like the obsessive rules,running short runs,sitting alot waiting.Im in the same situation,but after going thru hell,ive gotten a break,im going to run team with an owner opp.He's been in the bussiness 20 years,an will teach me the technical aspects of running your own truck,when he gets deployed(he's a marine)ill drive his truck. An when i have several thousand saved up,when he comes back,I hope he'll help me pick out a good one,with plenty of warrenty left.
Im going this route now,because these companies suck for a company driver.If i want to idel my truck i will(but an APU unit is the way to go)If i want to take my pet,so be it.My truck will be governed at 74mph.An if these companies want my sevices,then they better treat me fairly.

 

I read about martin awhile back,if your a butte kisser and a suck up you'll do well.If you help your dispatcher get his bonus's,he'll be happy.That might get you better runs,But if they do things that hurt you(just keep smiling)
I cant speak for everyone,But when someone is good to me 1st,then Ill show what a good driver I can be for them.
IF THE DOOR DOESNT SWING BOTH WAYS,THEN I SLAM IT SHUT!
I apply that policy to everything.I dont kiss butte,I kick it.( no relation to this new slang)

 

Or, they had Michelle R as a FM. That hag doesn't care. All I got out of her was one 72 hour 700 mile trip after another, ALWAYS with 24-36 hours between every load. To prove a point, I once took one of those trips and got rid of it the same day. It was a live unload, but I convinced the traffic ppl at that Kroger to let me drop it in a door two days early. I sent my drp hook + rls from final macros. Then sent a free form stating I'd be ready for a load in the morning and plz forward msg to Michelle. Night dispatch answered "ok". Michelle sends message "I am not changing your PTA." So I sat, until AFTER the original appointment time. When I tried to talk to Bernie or Bruce about it, both avoided me. I didn't get satisfaction 'til I talked to Bob Smith. But, by doing that, I got labelled as a "trouble maker" by the dispatch floor. When the health problem manifested, then they REALLY stretched to drum something up and get rid of me. Tried to paint me as insubordinate for failing to disobey DOT HOS rules (which btw, they're using paperless logs now). Then they tried to paint me as an "unsatisfactory employee". But they couldn't deny my overall ontime del percentage was over 99.9%, or that I had a GRAND total of 4 service failures in 4 years. They then tried to say I was difficult to get out of the house (not a good enough reason to deny unemployment), but couldn't deny the ten times I sat in Mondovi for three days waiting for my first load out of the house. The judge snickered when I quoted myself: "You want me to leave the house? Then show me the dispatch!" It's pretty bad when the judge at an unemployment hearing is rolling his eyes over things that Marten's representative is saying.

 

Greaterbaatezu, I agree that once you are on your way out with Marten they will be like ants crawling on you looking for anything to label you with that could disqualify you for unemployment. And that is the rub, they have major money at stake as an incentive to try to disqualify you for unemployment. The side effect of all this is a trumped up DAC report that greatly reduces a driver's chances to re-employ, which of course increases the chances the driver will be on unemployment long enough to fight the appeal. Economists teach that people respond to incentives, and in this case it's a corporation responding to incentives. They even hire a "hired gun" out of Ohio to orchestrate their appeal; and the strategy includes FedExing documents timed to deliver to you and the court on the day before or day of the appeal hearing, this way you don't have time to gather or subpoena what you need to counter their documents. You write a good report, thanks for sharing. I'm just sayin'.

 

I especially enjoyed the part of your post where you say, "If the door doesn't swing both ways, then I slam it shut!" I agree. It seems to me that any job should be like a marraige, in that it matters how you treat each other and speak to each other and you both should benefit from it, not just one or the other. And all 4 carriers that I have worked for were very one sided in this, so they didn't generate any particular loyalty or affinity on my part. But I never knew how to put my feelings about it into words until I read what you said. Well said. Thanks for sharing.