Complaint about Maverick Transportation LLC hiring Practices, opinions please

The other thought I had is that once you leave with your truck...you are mostly by yourself....Maybe he considers that cruel and unusual....even hostile...to make him spend so much time with himself....just guessing!

 

Where's this 57% turnover rate coming from? When I was in class it was 65% the first three months and 40% of the remaining in the next 3 months.

Even then, simple math would tell you that if you average 20 students (assumption, of course, I don't have actuals and suspect it's higher) a week, you have 1000 students a year rolling through. There's less than 1200 drivers working for Maverick. At 1200, that's an estimated 83.3% turnover rate leaving out remaining factors that would most likely change the rate less than 5 percent.

That means that 21% of new hires survive past the first 6 months. Round that down to 200 drivers surviving the first six months and use that as the starting point for calculating turnover. Take the estimated 400 student trucks out of the equation and you have 800 full time employees remaining. 200 of them are leaving this year. That's a 25% turnover rate on full time employees. Not bad for a trucking company. An absolute failure in nearly every industry elsewise. But that's the nature of the beast.

In the end, does it even matter? Do you choose a company based on statistics? Did your personal experience suddenly become terrible because of a calculator? How does this statistician spun data have any impact at all daily on our lives? Only as much as we ALLOW it to.

Disclaimer: no factual data was used in the calcuations. Only estimations and best guesses. I would be interested in the real data (not the funny math numbers, just hard core data that I could use to maintain unspun output). I'm a bit of a numbers geek.

 

That was for 2010. You have to remember trucking is about the only industry that if you're a good driver. You always have places to go to work. Compared to other industries say you work at the mill. Can you get just upsetting your boss and get a job at the mill down the street tomorrow. understand my point about trucking.

 

Mavericks turnover rate is exceptional compared to other companies that hire first time drivers. Maverick spends a lot of time money and energy trying to find the right people. Last year they had 16,000 applicants. Only 1,200 were invited to training. I have no proof of this but I'm willing to bet the majority that drop out from Maverick in the first year quit driving all together. That's way different than loosing drivers to other companies. This is one tough dam job with a lot of personal sacrifice. You can hear that from everyone around you and it never sinks in until you are out there on your own. Just my two cents for what it's worth.

 

That's the way it is for virtually all starter companies.
Way too many people come into this industry with misconceptions as to what's involved and the commitment needed to be successful.
Trucking is brutal. And it gives no quarter.
Most people just aren't cut out for it and until the government quits paying the training companies for each soul they run thru the training program, it won't change.
why should it? They get paid after completion of the training, whether the person stays in the business or not.

 

Maverick is not a starter company....they just have a training division.:...

 

I've been all through this forum in the last couple of weeks. If there is one thing that I've learned, it's that all the drivers out there bashing a company, no longer work for them. Or they were never accepted to work for said company.

It always sounds something like this: "They treated me like crap! I mean, so I did exactly what they told me not to do. I hit a few things, wrecked some equipment, got tickets, chewed out my DM. Does that give them the right to fire me? Also, they put all the things that I did wrong on my DAC!"

You never hear anyone that is currently employed with Mav. bashing them. That tells me that all the 'used to be-or-tried/wished to be' drivers are just bitter because they screwed up a good job and Mav. had the balls to call them out on it.

Jim-- you are correct on Maverick not being a starter company. How many other companies do you know of that do all the checks before they offer a chance to orientation. If they were just looking to fill the trucks with warm bodies, they would let anyone and everyone head to NLR. I like the fact that they expect their drivers to do it "the Maverick way".

 

The last thing I want to do is bash, but I definitely would like to know who I ticked off and how I did it. I've been home on only one normal weekend since I've gotten this truck in mid October. That one day and Thanksgiving. For many different reasons, of course. The day I got the truck I had to tell them it was broke. It broke leaving the yard and got fixed at another terminal where they couldn't fix it and I took it to Troy. My first 7 days in the truck I didn't even have a pro# waiting on repairs.

Week two. Same transmission problem renders the truck useless and it had to be towed TWO states away WITHOUT the trailer.

Week three. Shipper would not correct a very badly loaded stack. It was hanging 6 inches over the side of the truck. Of course I lost the load and the replacement load took me 600 miles out of route.

Week four. Home with a nice 1100 mile load from KS to PA.

Week five. MO to TX. I live in Illinois. That's called hung out soaking wet.

Week six. Thanksgiving. Thankfully didn't slip through the cracks again.

Week seven. 750 mile trip. 950 if I went home. Asked and got an emphatic "No".

Next week I've asked for time off. Since I've gotten nearly zero responses on the qualcomm since I've started I wonder if I'll even have an answer before next week. I'll keep sending messages and waiting for a reply though.

I'm not bashing Maverick, I'm just saying stuff happens sometimes and I'm hanging in there for better days to come. They either come or they don't. I was hoping I could find a company to have some kind of faith in, but I've yet to be inspired through personal experience. My hope comes from believing that I'm not having a typical experience. We'll see what the future holds.

 

Without talking in person to get very detailed I can offer little advice Sparkn. However breakdowns unfortunately happen. How you react to them will dictate how Mav will react to you. Though I would think after the first week down that when it looked like another week down your fm might have been better lookin for a different truck. However that is without me knowing all the details. What do you consider a "normal" weekend? Normal for me is between 34 and 48hrs,usually somewhere in the middle. Have you asked about swapping loads to get home when you get something like a Mo to Tx? Do you deliver friday morning? There are many variables and if I ever see you at a terminal I could help pin down possible problems. Most any Maverick thats been here a while should be able to help. Communication is a major help but the right communication,not complaining or whining. Being able to go with the flow and realize things happen will go along way toward getting a better response from your fm than a bad attitude. Feel free to shoot me a pm. Ive been here 8+ years so I may be able to help you figure this out. I hate to see someone leave when just a few minor changes could fix the situation.

 

I'm pretty convinced its just the season and luck of the draw. My fm just got back from vacation and we talked for a bit this morning. Aside from him telling me that he would have gotten me home on this load, it's all good. It should all smooth out after the first of the year. I just wanted to put out that things can't always be rosyand you have to take it all in stride. I spent ten years in the Navy. Six and a half at sea. This is laughable in comparison.