My Experinces At May Trucking

MGASSEL,

I remember on one of your replies on 6/6/07 complaining about Watkins/Shepard's 10 day training class that you said, "you wouldn't work for free for 10 days to attend the class". I'll bet this looks pretty good right now as you would be out solo with W/S making money and not still in training.

Hope all goes well for you with May.

 

MGASSEL, Sounds like things are going fine so far except for the problem with the trainers truck. But then you were in training and will still get paid more then on breakdown pay. I wonder why the trainer was not more forceful or diligent in getting a different truck if you were going to be shut down more then 72hrs? maybe he wanted a break perhaps?

All the Volvo's and 379's are being fazed out so you won't have one long and might be able to switch trucks like others do when at another terminal then the one issuing it to you. I know a guy who went from a long nose to a short nose to a 387 in a space of about a month. Just make sure you check the truck out real good and write down any damage even minor on your first log book after being issued a truck and put it on the qualcom also.

They tried to give me a 379 Pete when I started in April but I said no can do I drive only Frt shakers because I do alot of store deliveries with a couple of docks and I want the extra turn radius that the Pete does not have. I watch enough drivers in those Pete's struggling to get into the tight docks to know it's not for me. If I was not regional I would take a long nose since it is a better riding truck over long distances and you aren't backing as much, but for my lane the less hood the better.

If you are in the refer division make sure your first purchase is a good pair of jumper cables. I have jump started to refer drivers refers who did not have them.

Good luck!

 

B-rad, What you failed to mention is what you are paid coming out of that un-paid training program at W/S. .28 a mile and .30 after 6 months.

At May this new driver will be making .34 a mile by then and will start out at .32 and since he is running refer 48 states he will have no problem with getting miles if he keeps dispatch informed of eta's and hours to drive. He won't unload anything himself either or very rarely, at least I haven't in the 4 months I have been with May. Sure cents per mile is not everything, but low pay stripped down Volvo trucks and driver unloads are and after reading posts from your fellow drivers it seems there is plenty of that going on at W/S.

Anytime a company lists anything but mileage pay in their calculation of your overall pay for the year their honesty is suspect. W/S shows low miles pay but then tries to beef it up with all this extra pay you MIGHT get to make it look better. A-huh

 

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I don't drive for W/S so I don't have any fellow drivers from there. It just seems like MGASSEL has been in training for longer than usual and thats why I asked him the question. Lets hope he passes his next test and gets a truck of his own.

 

What are the May trucks geared out at? Are the 387's wired for refigerator's and microwaves? Do you have to have the haz-met endorsement right away? I'm graduating this Thursday from school and have all the other endorsements but no haz-met and money is too tight to get one at this time. I've already been prequalified for Interstate and set up for orientation on Sept 3, but the May pay scale looks a lot better. I would rather drive a pete than freightshaker or volvo in a heartbeat.

 

Also on the May website it says that training depends on exprience. Have you any knowledge where a driver was able to accelerate thru the $500/wk training to get his own truck in a shorter period of time. Also do they hire husband/wife teams and if so what is the pay scale. My wife will probably get through her schooling by the end of October. Would she have to be out with a trainer or would I be able to be the trainer if I had my own truck by then which I'm positive I would.

 

I heard they lowered the pay per mile. Hopefully their website reflects that.
I don't think you can speed up the training process except if you do well, feel confident, and are ready to take the test after spending your first two weeks with a trainer then that should be all you need. Unless you have experience. I guess if that's the case they should be able to go by that. ?? Do you have previous experience? Aren't you just out of school?

If you get a trainer that would rather drive most of the time, rather than giving you the experience it might take another week at least. Good luck! My spouse said that Jason is a good trainer. I don't know his last name.

 

I do have previous experience but it is 30 years ago. I spent about 7 years otr in refer, flatbed, bull hauling. I feel confident enough that I am going to get 100% on my cdl test. My instructor's at school have said as much.