Avoid Marten Transport LTD.

I don't think being treated with respect is too much to ask. I don't think that thinking of my time as valuable is wrong. I don't think expecting to get paid for working is bad. I don't think requiring a dispatch to leave the house rather than enabling them to waste three of your days at a terminal is bad. But, I guess that's just me.[/quote]
I AGREE WITH YOU DRIVER CAUSE I USED TO WORK FOR MARTEN AND THEY DO EXPECTED YOU TO WORK FOR FREE AND CUT YOUR PAY AND DONT EVEN CALLED IT A PAY CUT.

 

Don't get a final warning, if you do, you're screwed. ANYTHING happens in 12 months, you're GONE.

Even though I was fired by them, there ARE some good things about them. If u don't get home on the day requested, you get $50 a day til u do. They have APU's on their trucks so idling is not an issue. Payroll never intentionally screwed me out of any money (which puts them WAY ahead of ALL other companies), and when I did find discrepancies, they were willing to go through everything with me and straighten things out if they were wrong (ONCE in 3 yrs, 27 wks).

You might not get enough miles, but you'll get PAID for the work you DID do, and NOT get ripped off ontop of sitting forever.

One piece of advice... take good care of the equipment they assign you.

Finally, when I worked there, you could only idle your truck if it was going to be colder than neg. 10. If your idle was over 5% you'd BETTER have a dang good reason, or you're fired. Super cold, or equipment failure were the only viable excuses.

 

Ooh yelllll

 

To greaterbaatezu,
Regarding your colitis, just FYI it is often misdiagnosed when Celiac disease is the real problem (such was the case with me). So anytime I hear of a colitis diagnosis, I like to encourage you to LINK HERE for some info on Celiac. You have my sympathy for your bad Marten experience.

 

Not only SSI, but you will qualify for much less Workers Comp if you get injured on the job. Same for less Unemployment Compensation. But Marten has done some serious downsizing, and may do some more, so I expect that their better strategy would be for drivers to quit as opposed to being laid off, so as to reduce unemployment insurance payouts. Regarding the downsizing, Marten claimed approx. 3400 power units when I viewed their website June 2008, but at present show exactly 2542 power units at the SafeStat website LINK HERE. As an interesting aside, at the same link you will see that Marten drivers are failing driver inspections 58% of the time, and the Marten equipment inspections are failing at the rate of 35%.

 

Marten drivers should note that Marten hires a company in Ohio as experts to represent Marten in unemployment appeals. One of the tactics of said company is to FedEx documents to the appeals court and to you so as to arrive one or two days before the hearing. This gives you no time to request opposing documents or expert witnesses for your argument against, unless you can talk the appeals judge into an extension. In my state (I did not ask for an extension to respond to the ambush) the whole process took 3 months from the time I first filed for unemployment until the time I finally received the first check. Luckily I could afford this wait (just barely), though I did get behind on some payments and had to pay late fees and deal with collection phone calls.

 

Could you add anything about what you went through to get unemployment thanks to Marten... Where did you hear about this company they hire for appeals.. thanks

 

UPDATE: As promised, I am updating to my quote above. Having checked with 2 Oregon based lawyers who specialize in labor law, one of which does a great deal of litigation representing teamsters, and having checked with the Oregon Bureau of Labor, there is no requirement by Oregon that an employer get you home if they fire you away from home. This is not to say that this will apply in your particular state. Oregon is a state that is poor on protections and rights for workers. So just because Oregon is a loser doesn't mean this will apply in all states. Some, such as California, are much more progressive in the protections of workers. As an interesting aside, I did learn from the above experts that if you have a case of discrimination, maybe you have a case where you were fired and you feel that discrimination was a factor, then you should by all means talk to a lawyer. It is my personal opinion that one would probably be better served by a lawyer that specializes in labor law for the worker. I got a reference to one by calling the Teamsters. Good luck and God bless to all of you.

 

Wow. Just love the stories about marten. Me an randy we were laughing about them. Lmao

 

And that is the reason they are going in the toilet right there! They don't care about the drivers only the company and it starts at the top.