TMC Transportation, Inc. - Des Moines, Ia.

That is a pretty healthy statement from somebody in orientation............Every company will tell you how seriously they take safety and logs. You'll not know the truth until that hot load shows up.

 

Yup, a friend of mine drives for TMC, he told me DOT came in when they had that blitz back in the summer, said they left them with a quarter million in fines for log book violations, they are now on a paperless log system, DOT told them as long as their drivers complied it would be on a vol. basis, but would become mandatory if they did not.

 

TMC wants you to get that load done legally.
First part of that equation is that you should only accept loads that you have the hours to do legally. That is proper load planning. Your fleet manager does not have any idea how many hours you have left in your 11, 14, and 70 unless you tell them. They assume that you have unloaded within the first hour or two of the day unless you tell them otherwise and will give you a run that fits your profile. If you only have 4 hours left on your 70 they won't know that unless you tell them.
Second part is to communicate so that your delivery time can be adjusted. When you arrive 6 hours late without letting them know you will get docked points. Of course you are going to get in trouble when you are two hours late and TMC gets charged for two extra hours of crane time to unload you. If you had let them know when you took that load that they didn't need the crane until 10:00 am instead of 8:00 am you probably would have been all set.
Third is time management. People who spend all their time in a truckstop playing video games will have problems keeping their schedule. Don't blame someone else for your failure to plan and for taking a load that you couldn't do legally.

Logs at TMC are now strictly audited by an outside company and are matched to all receipts, quallcomm records, and bills of lading. TMC realizes that some drivers in the past have done as you describe and turn in a legal looking log that is not accurate at all. That will get you in very deep hot water now.

I will say again: TMC takes safety very seriously. If you choose to lie and cheat on your logs you may not get caught at first, but when you do get caught you can kiss your job goodbye. They also send home anyone who lies on their application since they can't trust them not to lie later on.

 

I done 5 loads in one day with Star Transportation out of Nashville, but add all the miles it was nothing. 200 miles here, 150 there and such. Started off in SC, ended up in Tennessee with loads going to and pick up in NC, Ga and Tn.

Better off with a Company who only expects you to do your best and do your best.

 

I may really show my lack of knowledge here.. But how do you compare TMC, which is probably more company drivers and less experience, to Landstar which is a broker based owner operator based company.

 

I am not claiming that TMC is magically all perfect. They have had some problems and are taking steps to correct that. I am also saying that a lot of the responsibility to operate legally sets squarely on the shoulders of the driver. I also think that possibly TMC policy in the past may have attracted (or at least did not eliminate) the billy big riggers who wanted to run two logbooks. I believe that the attention by DOT has turned TMC into a better company. There have also been many changes in upper management lately.

Another thing to note is that for all of this talk about 5 loads per week the actual average is only 3.5 loads per week. That means that for everyone who actually gets 5 loads someone else may only get 2 that week. Most drivers will get 3 or 4 loads per week.