TMC

Good luck finding a pilot that has a place for truckers to "sit down for coffee"...

 

Good luck finding a pilot that has a place for truckers to "sit down for coffee"...

 

theres a Dennys attached??

 

Who says he has to sit, I'll stand outside my truck, heck I'll even invite you in
if you really want to now how I feel, the free coffee or coke is a plus.

 

fixed.

they SUCK lately. been having a real problem with their short miles scam and the resulting out of route.

 

true, true.

better keep an eye out on the oor, as your fm would tell you.

 

Yep, TMC is a starter company; a pretty decent one from what I've seen & heard. I'm not trying to build them up, but I've looked around a fair bit, and so far, I've not found a better deal for a driver w/less than 2 years experience, however... I AM still looking.

I'm not sure I'd agree w/that 1st statement above (about logs) these days. In the past, yes they seemed to be watching logs very closely. These last 3-4 months have shown they are NOT monitoring them like they once were, at least in my situation/experience.

I'm a rookie and wanted to run mostly legal logs to start with, so that (TMC's recent reputation for doing things legally) is one of the reasons I went w/TMC.

These days... well... perhaps... it's a little different. They still expect things to "look" legal, but in fact there are those admittedly somewhat rare occasions when we are expected to "get the load there, ON TIME & do whatever you need to do to make that happen".

I'm not a big fan of this, but I gotta do what I gotta do to keep my job. I do get the job done, on time, when I can (mostly legally). There have been times that I couldn't due to extended shipper delays.

Detention pay... Ha... that's funny! 13 months w/TMC. Been detained many times. Only got detention pay ONE time. Sad story, that ONE time that I was paid. I can tell it... if anyone is interested... but, it is a sad one.

Anyway... point is... I do not think TMC has quite as high of a standard as they "once upon a time" did.

 

Yeah, well about that... I have a train of thought... and it includes (but is not limited to) equipping our trucks with LARGE propellers so we can rise above the fray and fly to our destination. This would eliminate many of our headaches, including those LOUSY directions they send out on the qualcomm.

 

I haven't had under 11% OOR in I can't remember how long. something changed, the miles are simply not accurate. they weren't accurate before, but now they're really not accurate. when I get a load screen, the bounce and loaded miles are a lie. they don't exist in the real world. it's like they take the short miles and knock 8% off of that. I still do a trip plan, usually have to go out of route for fuel, occasionally to wash, but still... look at this week:

Buchanan, NY to Albany, NY: 62% OOR. I forget the actual miles. consignee was northwest of Albany, not in the city. had to go east on I84 and back to I87 to fuel. figured I'd go 5mi further down the road and wash or they'd be on me for not washing this week. FM sends message saying he can only adjust miles for unexpected things like breakdowns.

Albany, NY right back to Buchanan, NY. load screen says 104 miles. did a good trip plan. suggested route includes US6, which is a parkway west of the Hudson river. can't take a truck on a parkway, expressways only in the northeast. took 87 to NY32 or NY36 or something, to US202 and crossed the bear mountain bridge and took US9 into Buchanan. that's not even a safe truck route! windy mountain road with tight curves. surprise! 145 miles. 28% OOR on the bounce alone.

Council Bluffs, IA to 2 stops in northern NJ: almost 17% OOR. there's ONE INTERSTATE that goes between the shipper and the first stop, 80! I park my truck 3.5 miles from 80, so there's 7 miles to go home real quick on Saturday. only time I diverted from 80 was to take US30 across IN to 71 in OH because I don't get reimbursed for those toll roads and can't afford $60 to knock some miles off. for a while this was their suggested route across these two states anyways.

can someone tell me any more practical way to drive in a straight line, due east, across 6 states? I am discussing this run and my route with my FM next week because we have a serious problem.

I CAN'T WIN. it's bad enough I let them pay me based on short miles, which is a scam, I took an $.01 pay cut sometime in the last 6 weeks, must be their new pay scale. short miles are a scam. I can't believe I let them pay me, and evaluate my job performance based on this system. scam scam scam. I am being scammed working here.

regarding logs, they still watch, I got a message from Rubbo after 11 hours, right at 637 miles for the day. I suppose if I tried to get away with if often enough I'd get in trouble. my truck goes 60MPH. not 62. says it's going 62. not that long ago when it went 65 I drove from home to Atlanta nonstop, 700 miles. ran 800 miles a couple times and never heard a thing about it. now I can barely log over 600 miles in a day. they used to run illegal as hell to the point that it killed a driver, and only started running legal because IA DOT threatened to shut them down in 2006. they would run their trucks 24/7 if they could get away with it. Richard Zeiglar (not sure if that's the correct spelling) was killed 5 miles from my house in 2005 after he fell asleep at the wheel on his 3rd load for the day, rearended a truck in a construction zone and his load of lumber ended up in the truck in front of him. pictures are on the wall in the safety office in Indy. pretty trippy seeing your local fire department at the scene in the pictures.

the number one reason I am so bitter and angry is because when I contact my FM, fully aware there is a problem, I get a canned response like "do a good trip plan" or "manage your numbers" I am trying to act like a professional and solve problems as they arise, and it's like talking to a wall.