a couple weeks in the life of a TMC driver

figured I'd post this for anyone that's interested... I'll usually be posting from a Blackberry so updates might be short, in front of a computer right now. this is all mostly from memory, I'll post actual miles on loads as I get them this week...

let's start last Monday... ended up empty in southern Maine late afternoon after delivering a 3 stop load of pipe. bounced to Canton, MA for a load of rolled roofing that went to Indiana. this shipper rules, they load up until about 9pm, and every time I have loaded there, it has always been a partial load, 5 pallets. 10 minutes to load, 20 minutes to secure and tarp, this place rules! parked for the night, got up and drove home to western PA Tuesday got home about 530pm, parked the truck, went home and had a beer.

left home about 1pm Wednesday, stopped at the Blue Beacon at Hubbard, OH out of habit. oops, TMC cancelled their account. off to the Eagle Truck wash. glad I wasn't in a hurry, my mistake. got washed and hauled ### for Indianapolis, about a 7 hour run. shut down at the Pilot east of town. got woken up to my whole truck shaking at 130am because a KLLM driver decided to back into my trailer about 4 times. rub rails take a lot of abuse, broke a few tarp straps and left a scrape. worst part was having to get all his info half asleep. I was pissed, but this sort of thing happens every day at truckstops all over the country. got woken up again at at 230am by a sheriffs deputy because KLLM requires a police report. never a dull moment in this job.

up at 7am Thursday, had a preplanned load of steel on my qualcomm for Canada, I said sure I'll take it. got a shower and some fuel, and drove about 50mi west of Indy to unload. one steel tarp to roll up, 5 straps to roll up, this load was cake! unloaded in about 10 minutes, caught up my logbook and some other paperwork and drove to our Indy yard, swapped my trailer for one that was preloaded with steel, grabbed some lunch at Hardees, and headed for Ontario. wasted 20 minutes waiting for my Canada paperwork to come through on the fax machine at one truckstop on 75, gave up and drove to the next one where it was waiting for me. got a call that I was cleared to cross the border, nice ride on the 401 for about 50 miles into Ontario, ran out of hours and found a nice Pilot to shut down at. Canadian truckstops are NICE, other than having to deal with Toronto traffic I LOVE going to Canada.

up at 630am Friday, finished up my run to Cambridge, ON, got a preplan to Laredo, TX on my way there. I had previously advised my FM I wanted to run the weekend and make some money. got all exicted and unloaded quick only to find out the load was cancelled. they sent me another load, steel that loaded in Whitby, ON, going to Pittsburgh, PA, that got me home for the weekend, my FM said he was looking for a longer load to split with so I could run, I said forget it, I don't feel like doing a trailer swap, I'll just take this one home. 85 mile bounce there, the 401 SUCKS anywhere near Toronto so it took a little while to get there. got loaded about 15 minutes after arriving, secured, easy tarp job, faxed my paperwork to TMC and gave my FM the fax number to the truckstop at the border, and left. Toronto rush hour traffic was horrendous, but I eventually made it to the border, wasted half an hour with a mixup with my comdata card trying to get an advance for tolls, sailed right through the border and 3 hours home. got home... late... that's all I'm gonna say.

~2350 miles # $0.39/mile = $915, 2 stop offs # $20, 3 tarp jobs # $10 = $985 for the week, not bad for not really running hard at all and getting one night at home. I live right off I80, this happens for some of us, some guys might not see home for a while. ideally when freight is good, I like to run up into New England one Monday and to the midwest the next.

any questions? I am at home with my load of steel that delivers 50 miles from home Monday morning.

 

they count the day you start orientation as your hire date, I have been there since 4/10/08, almost a year and a half.

orientation is basically a mind game meant to weed out those unfit for the job, do what they tell you, don't step on the grass, be polite and professional, yes sir/yes ma'am and so on. they will be watching you. take load securement training seriously, when they ask you to figure out how to chain a coil, or when it comes time to put away all the straps, tarps and chains, be a team player, don't just stand there. again, they will be watching you. the food at the training center is terrible, bring some granola bars. there is breakfast at the hotel and lunch and dinner at the Chrome Cafe in the basement of the main office building.

actual on the road training, depends what your trainer is like, most trainers I have met with this company, and most drivers in general are decent, but I have heard horror stories. my trainer was cool. what can I say, you'll drive and learn how to secure and tarp. though if you're like most drivers, you'll learn everything the hard way once you're on your own. training only gives you a foundation. yes you can become a trainer after 6 months, most trainers have been with the company much longer than that. mine had been there 5 years and knew his stuff.

pay... freight rates are down, but freight volume is picking up. percentage pay was awesome last year when rates were high and freight volume was high. most drivers I have talked to switched to mileage pay due to not being able to maintain any sort of percentage. I was at 26% and kept getting low paying load after low paying load so I switched to mileage. ran almost 700 miles including an unpaid bounce for $100 on percentage. I have made $27,000 8 months into the year, so if this average continues I should make around $40,000 this year. freight rates, freight volume, the economy, and my pay are all related. I have had some awful checks ($200) and some awesome checks ($1200) it's just not consistent. if I were a new guy I'd start out on mileage and run as many miles as possible. to use a recent load from Boston to Chicago as an example, 39% of 1115 miles is a lot nicer than 26% of $856. the pay on some of these loads is just sad sometimes. then again you might get a short run paying $3 or $4 a mile. it's all a game, basically being on mileage pisses me off less and makes me more money. don't know what the load pays, don't care, just give it to me and go.

 

on percentage pay, load screens on the qualcomm show miles and revenue. on mileage pay, load screens show only miles. I suppose you could ask your FM what the load pays. I switched to mileage because I got cheap load after cheap load and not enough good paying loads to offset the cheap loads.

my point was that in general rates are horrendous right now, lots of stuff under a dollar a mile. not knocking percentage, but it only works when the economy is strong and freight rates are acceptable.

 

delivered in Pittsburgh, PA, reloading for SC out of the same customer. 440 mile load just delivered, 570 mile load for tomorrow. they show a 10 mile bounce because one load screen shows Neville Island and the other shows Pittsburgh, lol all I did was drive acros the street from one building to the other. 10 free miles.

 

also my first check in mileage was $530 take home, but that was only on 1600 miles due to sitting a day in Indy getting my AC fixed.