TMC Transportation, Inc. - Des Moines, Ia.

Discussion in 'Report A BAD Trucking Company Here' started by TurboTrucker, Apr 23, 2006.

  1. Buzzdog

    Buzzdog Bobtail Member

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    Mar 18, 2007
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    No offence drivers wife, but in a previous post you stated that your husband had been making over $1000 a week. Now you bring the numbers down to $700-900. Fact is these are substandard wages, especially for flatbedding. Your comment about tarp pay is really suspect. I would almost be willing to think that you are in fact another AHI employee. I am not disputing that tarping is "part of the job", but to use that as an exscuse as to the compensation that they give to do it? Here is a fact, this is from the AHI rate and tarif guide, tarp pay is $80.

    The best example of what TMC / AHI thinks that the work their drivers are worth is what they pay to haul "company" loads. Has your "husband" told you about that? It is a huge $0.20/mile. Thats right, TWENTY CENTS a mile.

    This experience has words from my father ringing in my ears, " You can't eat a chrome bumper. "

    Smokeeater, tmc tells their drivers that everything is based on HHG short miles. If you are interested in a good read, P.M. me and send your email address. I have a very interesting PDF file that you would like to read that will prove what I have said. As far as what they say a load pays, 99.9% of the time the BOL will not have the rate on it, so the drivers have to take the word of the company.
     
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  3. Smokeeater

    Smokeeater Light Load Member

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    Feb 24, 2007
    Oklahoma
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    So buzzdog if I understand correctly, TMC bills the shipper $80.00 for a tarped load, and of that the driver gets $10.00 ,interesting !!
     
  4. Brickman

    Brickman Trucker Forum STAFF Staff Member

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    Paying the driver $10 is nonsense, but on the other hand if the driver wants the whole $80 then the driver must provide the tarps too. It only makes sense.
    If I had drivers I would not pay them the whole tarp fee unless they provided the tarps. Actually that would be a really good idea because that would put a stop to some of the really shoddy tarp jobs you see where the tarp gets torn to shreds and the driver doesn't seem to care.
    A good set of tarps can top $1000. Plenty can be had for less than that too.
     
  5. kc8vje

    kc8vje Light Load Member

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    Jan 8, 2007
    East Point, KY 41216
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    Flatbed fred emailed me a couple of weeks ago... His email said that he had received my application and was reviewing it, but he wasn't a recruiter. But, if you read his website, he sells TMC like he's a used car salesman. Very Cheezy!

    I fed him a bunch of bogus info, and he replied that TMC wouldn't be a good fit for me.

    Funny indeed...
     
  6. Buzzdog

    Buzzdog Bobtail Member

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    Mar 18, 2007
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    Brickman,

    I completly aggree with you that the driver should not be paid the entire ammount for the tarp job. But being paid the the drivers % of the tarp fee would be more then fair. There is a considerable cost in purchasing and maintaining tarps and bungees. There is also a good ammount of time that is invloved in tarping the loads. On average it takes me anywhere from 45 minutes up to 2 or more hours depending on what the load is. The $10 that TMC pays is for tarping and untarping. So the 30 minutes or more it takes to untarp and roll them back up is covered in this $10 also. So when you take the total time that you have wrapped up (no pun intended) you are looking at sub minimum wage for the compensation. I would quickly overlook this if I was making up the difference in the line haul fee, but has I have already stated, I have only pulled cheap freight.

    Another point to ponder with this company. I really wish I had a recorder going when we had our "log" class in Des Moines. The "log" girl told us that we had to log all of line 3 activites as they happen because the trucks are tracked. That we have to maintain legal logs. Then she tells us how to log time spent at customers. She said to immediately go to line 2 when we arrive and do nothing more in the book. Once we were either completely loaded/secured/tarped/ready to roll or unloaded and sent our next dispatch ready to roll, we would then drop down to line 4 for 30 minutes only and show the rest of the time at the customer at line 2. This policy is confirmed by prior posts by TMC employees stating that the "Iowa DOT" informed them that only 30 minutes be shown on line 4 at customers. So it is a little hypocritical that it is sanctioned by the company to falsify your logs when it concerns time at the customer and line 4, but you better not fudge a single bit when it comes to line 3.


    As a driver I have always viewed any time that was logged on line 4 as "free" time because it usually involved job activities that I was not being compensated for directly ( PTI, Fuel, DOT inspections, Random Drug Test, Unloading, Loading, etc ). Line 3 is the revenue line for drivers.
     
  7. Brickman

    Brickman Trucker Forum STAFF Staff Member

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    I pull a flat, I know all about those 5 hr load and tarps. The thing for me is I'm O/O so I don't have to take a tarp load if I don't want to.


    As for the logging, some day a TMC driver will run into a DOT man that knows his stuff and some body will get a fine for falsifying their log on the load time. They know it takes more than thirty mins to load and tarp. I was doing similar when I was hauling cars, I had a DOT man tell me he knew I was lieing and if I wanted to insist that I wasn't he would make me unload the cars in the lot and show to him that I could load in 30 mins. I wasn't about to argue with him.
     
  8. Driver'sWife

    Driver'sWife Bobtail Member

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    Feb 14, 2007
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    My husband has been with TMC since December 2006. I'm not positive but I think his % is after TMC takes their %. The miles are household miles.

    My husband brings home $700 - $900 a week after taxes, child support, and all that fun stuff that comes out of his pay. He makes over a $1000 a week before any deductions.
    I do NOT work for TMC/AHI. I'm a housewife in south Texas. I don't know how to prove that but I know there are people on here who can trace where I'm posting from so feel free to do so.
    I still stand by my statement that securing and tarping loads is part of driving flatbed. My husband agrees. Paying $10 for tarping is low, considering all the time and energy put into doing it, but so what? It's a job requirement, getting paid anything extra for it is just that, extra. The company doesn't have to pass any of that fee onto the driver.
    And I don't understand what you're saying about the $.20 thing. Are you talking about mileage pay because it's a lot higher than that. Or are you talking about the loads of company items such as hoods, bumpers, etc?
     
  9. Buzzdog

    Buzzdog Bobtail Member

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    Mar 18, 2007
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    driverswife,


    The $0.20/mile I am refering to is company loads, that would be the hoods, trailers etc., anything that TMC is not getting paid for directly from a customer.


    I am sorry to disagree with you as reagard to the pay you claim. But according to what you are saying, your husband is consistantly outperforming over 99% of the entire TMC fleet. Take a look at the recent company magazine where they list the "Best of the Best". If you take the bottom, the 50th highest revenue generator, take his average revenue, divide it by 23% you will see that they averaged approximately $3700 a week revenue to the truck. Even if your husband is capped at 32% I can not see how he can be taking home what you claim after all of the witholdings that you said he has. He would have to be in the top 5 of the total feet to have paychecks that you claim. The top of the list are consistantly the Specialized Division, they are drivers that have been with the company for several years. So while not impossible that your husband could be making what you claim, I find it highly improbable based on the numbers that I have done and those that have been published by AHI in their publication Black and Chrome.
     
  10. Driver'sWife

    Driver'sWife Bobtail Member

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    Feb 14, 2007
    Texas
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    I don't really care what numbers you've done, the only numbers I care about are on my husband's pay check. Do you get copies of my husband's pay check stubs? Do handle our finances? Since the obvious answer is no, and the answer for me is yes, why are you arguing with me? He brought home $900+ last week. The week before it was barely over $700, week before that was $697, close enough to the $700 for me to round it up. Week before that it was $800+. Since I'm the one that handles the finances and gets his weekly pay report, I'm pretty sure I know more about what he makes than you. And oddly enough, he makes less than some the guys at TMC that he knows. So do what you will with the numbers, makes no difference to me.
     
  11. Buzzdog

    Buzzdog Bobtail Member

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    Mar 18, 2007
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    drivers wife,

    I guess I owe you an apology. It is obvious that your husband must be an incredible driver that has found a way to outperform over 99% of the rest of the drivers at TMC in less then 3 months at the company.

    These numbers are from the " Best of the Best " published in Black and Chrome, the AHI/TMC company newsletter.

    December #1 $1359.12 , #50 $835.39
    January #1 $3586.92 , #50 $854.18

    Ok to translate these numbers. These numbers are the "average revenue" that are used to determine a drivers certification snapshot. This is used to determine a drivers % along with out of route, fuel milage, and other things. To determine the revenue you take the total revenue that the driver has generated for the truck during a week, then you multiply it by 23%. So it is an easy process to find out what the real revenue had been by dividing the numbers published on the Best of the Best list by 23%.

    Doing this would show that on the bottom of the best of the best we had

    December $3632.13
    January $3713.83

    These are the average that the 50th highest driver generated for the respective months. This is out of a fleet that is now at approximately 3100 trucks with the aquisition of TDT out of Lake City FL. At the cap of 32% a driver would gross from revenue,

    December $1162.28
    January $1188.42

    I doubt that your husband has capped at 32 yet, more then likely he is either still at 27% or maybe a point or 2 higher. I apolgize for not taking you for your word. As you can see that based off of the numbers that I have shown above how I could be suspect of your claims. It is obvious though that your husband has found a way to intergrate within the system of TMC and outperform 99% of all the drivers, including those that have been at the company for several years that are driving on the specialized division hauling dedicated John Deer and Oversized loads. I can see why you and him should be happy with your situation.

    Unfortuneatly for me, I have seemed to have fallen more in line with what would be considered average revenue in the fleet. I am in the long haul division. I have been in my truck for 8 1/2 weeks now. I have only been home for 3 days, by choice, so I could stay out and make more money. But I guess that is just not a posibility for me.

    Good luck to you and your husband. I truely wish you the best. I just ask you to please consider before you make a post here that you are doing a disservice to readers that have no experience in the industry that are trying to make an informed and educated decision on which company will be best for them. You give an example of earnings of an experienced driver in tour husband. This would not be a practical expectation for a new driver just entering the industry during their first year.

    With the above I am dropping the subject with you unless you want to try and discredit what I have shown. I will take you for your word what you said your husband has made. I have shown you why I questioned it based off of numbers that TMC has published.
     
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