Maverick Specialised

Tinbender, Your name should be changed to truthbender. You sound like a recruiter for this place. I recently left maverick specialized, along with the scores of others that are regularly leaving. This helps explain the incredible surplus of trucks sitting in the laurenburg yard. EVERYTHING that Ollie list on his website is absoulutley accurate. I came to specialized with an open mind and disregarded negative mentions, much to my disadvantage. What an individual can expect: Typically you get a 34 hour restart at home every 10-12 days, and it will be no more then 36 hours, because you have to leave to make the delivery time. If you sit for 8 hours waiting for a load, Dispatch doesnt want you to include that 8 hours on your log. Put down as 30 minutes. Its gonna be a late drive, to make your delivery time because dispatch does not include that 8 hour wait, and guess what? All the rest areas and truck stops will be filled, so where are you going to park? This happend WEEKLY. And forget about the 10 hour break. Forced dispatch after reaching your 70 was the norm. Some people dont mind exceeding the 70 and some do. I do. Because I dont like sitting and going and changing a weeks worth of logs so I can move on to the next load after reaching 70. And $20 dollars to break down a trailer (A Frames) is a rip off. Good luck getting the rusty bolts loose without tearing a tenden or fractuing something. Its the hardest work Ive ever done for $20. It can take 3 hours. But hey, now Im ready to drive baby! Taking the tarps off is not bad though, that is a good point. Make sure you only show it took you 30 mins to break down trailer, not 3-4 hours. Dispatch frowns on this. Be ready to spend hundreds of dollars of your own money when going to Canada for fuel, Otherwise you will have to drive far out of route, usually 50-100 miles to an authorized maverick fuel stop. This will cut into your time greatly, because all of this takes place in the NORTHEAST. YEAH BABY! You will also have to purchase or supply tools at your own expense, Skill saw, Socket and rachet set, etc. About $250 worth. They will tell you this in orientation. Most trailers are in horrible condition. Be ready to purchase tail or side lights that went out or fell out as you were driving. You will average 2200 miles a week. Ask the drivers around the terminal, they're right. It seems to me that most of the people that were "happy" there did not have many other driving options. Maverick Specialized will take people with poor driving as well as criminal histories. And with starting at .37 a mile, they think they are rich. In the end, the cost far outweigh the benefits. The glass is very dangerous and drivers are not paid enough for this. The trailers that the glass are pulled on make it incredilbly dangerous. And worse, the screw ups that are hauling the glass. There are much better options out there for a new driver. In the end you will not make more money then you would pulling a dry van at most companies. And if anyone thinks Im bluffing about these things, go there and try it. Who knows, it might be for you. MAVERICK SPECIALIZED. THE WORK HARDER, TAKE HOME LESS, BE HOME LESS CARRIER.

 

Thanks Cressler. You lend credibility to my original post. For anyone who missed it under Maverick Specialized in the DAC Report section, you can check out my blog by googling "Maverick in the Rear View". (Don't have enough posts to include a link here)

Now that's about the best laugh Maverick ever gave me. :smt023


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I can't say much about the spec side, but I am well pleased with the flat side. I am not a newbie. I started trucking back in the 80's. I have nothing bad at all to say about maverick's US Div. In fact they are my 5th company and by far the best. I don't know what your exp with them has been, but to me they are a very up front company that cares about their drivers. They do expect their drivers to be top shelf and that is the kind of company that I want to work for. I do not want to drive for a company that will take just anyone. They are the most organized, honest company I have ever seen. No company is perfect. All have something that a driver won't care for, but I have not had any problems at all. I drive nice equipment with all the safety features. I make decent money with them and I am home almost every weekend. They treat me well, so what else could I ask for?

 

I was passing by a Bass Pro Shop a week or two ago and noticed a flatbed glass trailer being pulled by a very clean and polished Schneider orange truck. I pulled up to the truck to get a closer look because it's rare seeing a clean, nice looking Schneider truck. Then I saw "Maverick" on the door.

I thought Maverick had maroon trucks. Regardless, it was very nice looking.

 

It kind of makes it a hard decision, you hear good and bad, like flipping a coin. I know from my factory experience that you cant make everyone happy, there is a lot of winers a lazy a's out there, but I will keep all of your comments in mind and try to figure out whats true and whats exagerated, by the way, what companies to you all recommend for a newby, KLLM?, Schneider? maybe others? thanks for all your comments.

 

Heres a second witness for you, I have been wit Maverick for about three months and my experience is this:
Maverick is up front with you when you start their training they tell you everything they feel is important, find out how you feel and ask what you expect and you talk about it! I have been solo for three momths, I did the yard training when it was 115 deg. heat index and if your a sissy then don't do it. You will learn the right way to load, secure, and tarp glass loads. You will be tested extensively and you need to pass. I didn't find anyone lied to me at all. I questioned other drivers while I was in training and they were honest with me. I even ran into Ollieo who has negative comments on this site and I was not impressed with his demeanor, I think some people cause their own grief.
Maverick does only pay house hold movers miles, that stinks, but you will get the miles if you want them! Their are some delays with the shippers and with consignees, but not always. I have been paid as expected, re-imbersed too. Yes, as with any company, you might kick out 8.50 for scale fees, and if you get sent to Canada you will pay bridge fees and border crossing fees. If you aren't a slouchand turn them in in a timely manor in the post-paid envelopes they give you, you will get it back within reasonable time. No matter who you work for, make them accountable, keep track of miles earned, fees paid and paystub details. Companies loose good payroll personnel and loose track too. maverick had lost a couple while I was first starting, no ones perfect, (except God of course). Like the other guy said, Maverick is a year into the glass takeover of the great punkin. They have weeded out most of the equipment Schnieder neglected.
They ordered 40 new glass trailers and have recieved some to date. I have hauled both glass, steel and lumber. I got paid for tarping the flatbed loads and tearing down A-frames. They will let you know the perks that are extra, every little bit helps. I took my job with Maverick for these reasons, highest orientation pay I could find, highest training pay I could find, highest starting pay too .37 a mi and then .40 or .41 # six months along with my $500 sign on bonus at that time! You will work, that is what flatbed and glass are all about, I took this job because I didn't want to sit in front of a dryvan and get fat. No offense to those who are!
Their trucks are mostlt automatics, you can shift them manually or let them work for you, I have not found any quirks in the trannys yet. I have ran through the mountains and the Jake brakes are great if you know how to use them.
I have drove as little as 1800 mi in a week and as much as 2400, I am working up to more, It isn't easy until you get acclimated to all the aspects of driving, trip planning, delivery efficiency as much as possible, knowing somewhat of your shippers and consignees. To get 3000 miles you either have to have some steady long runs of 1000 to 2700 in one shot and efficient securing techniques, efficient shippers and so on. Good luck on that one with any compny.
You will clear as little as $500. net a week to $850 or $950 or more, depends on how stressed you want to be and how pushed you want to feel.
Maverick does stress running legal logs, but their are many who waver and will sooner or later get caught! You are the final accountability. They will let you make mistakes in logging until you either get caught by DOT or the auditors and then you will either clean up your act or get fired, it's your choice.
I have sat by the road because a trailer broke down, down time was as short as 2 hrs and as long as 6, depends on the problems found. At least Maverick has a road service network they try to work with. They service their trucks every 20K miles and the trailer that happens to be behind it at the time. As far as the others, I don't know. I have worked pretty har sometimes tarpping, and tearing down A-frames. I have pnumatic tools now and it's much easier. The smarter you are, the smarter you'll try to work! Over all, Maverick does care about everything, I have been home consistently when I was supposed to. They will give you the opportunity to get extra miles if you want to stay out longer too. They have not forced anything on me and in fact my FM has asked me if my assignments are ok. Know matter who you work for, if you don't stand up for yourself from the beginning and keep the situations in check and upright, you will feel irritated or neglected or used. Just make sure communication is clear, document the crucial ones on the qualcomm and keep proof of pay extras and receipts.

 

Thanks for the info, did you have to get a passport for Canada? Did Maverick help you get it? Is it really a pain finding fuel in Canada? just some more concerns, thanks.

 

I had mine already, from other travels. U have to get your own. Fuel can be a problem if you don't play it right. The secret is to not go into Canada further than your fill up just outside the country will take you. Otherwise, yes, it's a big pain in the ##$%.

 

Hey 'Roid

Good to see you're still at it. Hauling glass is quite a challenge, huh. It seems things are going better for you than they were for me. Perhaps the advice I gave you is helping. Perhaps Maverick is stepping up to the plate. For me it was like pulling abscessed teeth to get them to do quality work. Perhaps it was the standard I had set due to excellent companies I had worked for. Lockheed Martin, Bechtel, Bragg Crane, just to name drop a few. With these companies I have both commendations and records. Even some world records. Some of these jobs were performed under the most difficult of conditions. Though I must admit doing tarp training in Laurinburg with the thermometer staring back 108 degrees was a little stressful for my hypertension. But only a little. This 50 year old man has seen worst. Once to set a record dismantle with a nuclear steam turbine we took off the ice pack vests issued to combat the 140 degrees external shell heat because they slowed us down.

But I digress. I will be the first to admit I wasn't in the best frame of mind when we talked in L'Burg - I had just returned from my on-the-job injury. A struggle to return to work, then required to not only go through a fitness-for-duty test, but required to have another DOT physical, when my DOT physical was still current. My four-month struggle to keep my job is detailed in my blog.

Remember when we talked in L'burg I said I was not the best person to reference due to the difficulties I had with my on-the-job injury, back surgery, recovery and the struggle to prevent termination for same. At the time I was hoping Maverick had made some progress during those four months. I tried not to bad mouth Maverick - I can see from your post that I failed at hiding my frustrations. I tried to not discourage you from your goals of truck driving and being a glass hauler - I had the same goals. I chose Maverick by reputation. I chose Glass Hauler because it puckered me up wondering if I could do it. You know the "Le Challenge" thing. What I tried to communicate to you was the extra effort you personally would have put forth to have a successful experience. In reading your response I see that you took to heart my advice. You keep records of Qualcoms, you don't trust them to "let you make mistakes on your log", you keep a heads up on reimbursements, you keep an eye on your FM(STL). You depend upon yourself to improve the situations on the road, etc. This is good.

This is what is not good: You have had two trailer breakdowns in three months. I doubt this is an industry standard. If my personal vehicle broke down OTR twice in three months, I don't think it would be around much longer. Maverick is buying 40 new trailers. This is bad! You have been in business for yourself. You run the numbers. If you had 400 hundred pieces of equipment and replaced them at 40 pieces a year, how long would it take to lifecycle them? In the business I was in, the lifecycle was 5 years (4 on lease, 1 on own). I knew my equipment was to be run hard and I needed high quality performance (sound familiar). Maverick lifecycles their trucks at 30 to 36 months. Can you imagine what their company would be like if they lifecycled them at ten years. It would be difficult to haul glass with 1,000,000+ mile trucks. I know, my first truck glass hauling had 800,000+ miles. Look at the other glass hauler's trailers. Any of them in as poor of shape?

Maverick has the resources to be an excellent company. What I tried to do was give them feedback from a drivers point of view on how these resources are not being applied at street level - and why there were so many trucks sitting unused in the L'Burg yard. Before leaving Maverick, I sent all information and photos to management at Maverick Specialized, with no response. Before going public with the blog, I sent the link to upper-level management at Maverick, and asked for their comments - I received none. I finally posted the link here in response to several questions from newbies about the Specialized Division.

I attempted to keep all emotion out of the blog - only posting the facts. The program OG wrote for me supplied the data. There are some quality people at Maverick. Steve Swain in Logistics-Gary, whose office I ended up in by mistake, was excellent. Wayne in training in L,Brg - 5 star. Bruce, well he rides a Harley so you can't expect much there (LOL). I'm kidding. The OSR-L'Burg set up is awesome. They truly are there for you 24/7.

There are things I kept out of the blog that were more of personal opinion. The L'brg yard is one. I hated going there. Not only because of the wait times, but because of its condition. Their major glass yard is dirty and dusty in the summer and in the winter full of potholes. They said they couldn't afford to fix it. My opinion was they couldn't afford not to. They even stopped the dust control water truck from running during the longest drought in years. Your truck would be all clean and after an hour there... Did any other glass customers have unpaved access? At least as a driver I got to leave after a while (I usually went to Wal-mart for the night). I felt for the mechanics that had to work in those conditions day after day and try to do repairs and keep stuff clean.

Anyway, blah, blah, blah.

I encouraged you to keep a journal and records (cause as a techno-geek I know you can), knowing you could give a different point of view. Perhaps someone at Maverick will listen and as Steve Williams said, "Informed people will make better decisions".

In my blog I admitted that my opinion of Maverick had soured by the time I returned from Worker Comp leave, but since I believe communication is important, I attempted to communicate my concerns and frustrations to upper management, rather than quit. "In the Rearview" is a public presentation of those communications. After those communications my situation seemed to degrade. Perhaps not enough time was allowed to remedy. After 10 weeks back and upon my 1 year anniversary self-inflicted evaluation, I decided my energy was best expended elsewhere. I like progress.

It has been my experience that those who fail to communicate and subjugate constructive criticism are the ones that could use it the most. And believe it or not I do have a lot of experience. I kept my cards close to my chest while at Maverick, and never talked about my background: I have 3 degrees, journeyman pins in 4 crafts, etc, etc, besides the other stuff I shared with you at L'Burg. I have always wanted to drive OTR since growing up on Route 550 in New Mexico. I learned to drive on Route 666 near Shiprock. Google it sometime. I had to go OTR it at this stage in my life before my HBP bumped me.

At present I am helping OG with her business, building a wine cellar, and may return to trucking first of year. Despite everything, I love the driving! Once I get the credit card I ran up collecting fine wine in CA paid off, maybe OG will finance me a Peterbilt LOL.. Not really, I think I would do a flattop Freightshaker. They are much more cost effective.

'Roid - good to hear from you. Thanks for the feedback. None of the other newbies at Maverick Specialized (except TinBender) are posting.

Canada: Have you figured out a fuel solution for Riviere du Loup, QC yet?

OLLIE