Melton: Orientation and beyond...

Back in Kentucky tonight with another coil. He got his securing time down a lot today and felt better about that-also used a smaller tarp? to cover the coil instead of the one that is as "big as a house" according to him. So far since Friday morning he has over 900 miles and it's only Sunday night so that seems pretty ok for his first 3 days out of orientation. Only thing is, he can't remember when the pay period ends so I don't know how many miles will make it onto his first paycheck but they are definitely keeping him busy He also says that he feels better and is starting to get a little more used to the physical work, so that's another good thing. One thing of note, if you look at the Melton website it says that all their trucks come with free XM radio but unfortunately, due to the economy that is one of the perks they did away with. He didn't take the Sirius cuz he thought he would have XM so he is really missing the Sirius right now. Just an FYI for anyone considering Melton....but certainly not a big deal!! Just don't leave your Sirius at home if you have one and you decide to go there

 

Thank you! I am hoping SO much that this time we have found the right fit with Melton.

 

Well last night was interesting. He got a preplan yesterday afternoon but no load info-so he figured he would be going to Ohio from Kentucky. Drove all the way there and parked close by the foundry at a Pilot. While we were on the phone, someone backing in next to him dragged his trailer across the side of Bill's tractor. Great. He hasn't even been driving for them for a week. So he had to take care of all that. Then he called dispatch around 1130 pm and asked why the load info never came over the QC only the preplan? Apparently at Melton you have to commit to preplans as well as load assignments. So he did that and finally got the load info and all that jazz and it turned out he had about 4 hours to sleep. He was less than thrilled but now we know you have to commit to preplans. He likes to say "It's always Something!!" and I am starting to agree with him.

 

I don't think the preplan was much more informative than the ones TransAm sends. TA used to change our preplans ALL the time. They would change our LOADS sometimes while we were on the way to Liberal, not the shipper but the receiver. We would be headed to National Beef to get a load headed to New Jersey then all of a sudden they would send us a new consignee in Alabama instead. Weird. So far Melton is a good fit. It is so strange to me. I tried everything I could do to get him to hold off on them and wait for a dry van or reefer company and he had offers from 3 or 4 of them that he wasn't crazy about; but he could not stand to sit around any longer so away he went. I just kept thinking of all the hard physical work involved in securing loads and that he would hate it but it's almost like a challenge to him and he was proudly telling me today how tight his chains were on the coil so he is definitely taking pride in his work. I know I am proud of him. Thanks for your kind words!!!

 

That is so funny that you are at Prime cuz we just got our a^&%s kicked by their lease! Went from the first week in July to Sept 18 without a paycheck. Sept 18 is the day he handed in his truck. Last night he had a pickup at midnight in Detroit, which I thought was unusual; they told him most of his shippers and consignees would operate during the day but whatever. So he had 2 huge coils and 9 smaller ones. It took him 5 hours to secure. But at least he was inside a warehouse and not out in the cold. I think this load has 2 stops on it, it's tarped so 30 bucks for that, one delivery in Indiana and the final is in Tennessee. I was kinda hoping we were done with the all nighters when he got out of reefer but maybe it doesn't happen all the time. I think he continues to get in better shape cuz he said the chains aren't near as heavy as they were when he started. Also he said some other flatbedders were using bigger chains and he was kinda wishing he had some of those so he could be done faster. I think he is hoping that his next load is something besides steel coils for a change.