May trucking good bad ??

they have strong armed and made they o/o's go paperless and have also made them turn their trucks down to 62 mph.

 

A few I know have given their keys back and told them ...... but all in all the pay is farely decent and some people are still family oriented just got to learn to adjust to new rules and regs. they have had alot of accidents in the past year due to hiring unqualified drivers that they get from the "mills" so the excellent safety rating is going down hill fast so they take it out on all drivers. There have been some numerous pay cuts i.e lay over, detention, breakdown. Also to get money back for scales, tows, hotels , ect .... you need to get your pay stub sent email, that way you know what you got back and can call payroll if it is taken back. Have had alot of problems with that since the turn over last year.... alot of people quit or were fired after a new system went into effect. As for tolls, yes , there is an ez pass/ ipass and if you need to take a draw or worry about paying for things maybe you should check your financial situation.

 

Well, They let me go a few days before christmas in 08 (real nice huh).
They are a small company with few terminals mostly in the west hauling 14' high trailers and governed down to 63-65MPH. The 13'6" trailers are refer's and go east of Denver with thier only Terminal in the east at Pensacola, Fl. The breakdown guys are pretty good about getting the truck fixed if you not near a terminal, and they do not want you to idle the truck as much as possible, otherwise they deduct from your pay. They did keep me moving eventhough I was let go for having too many "Late" deliveries, but they didnt say how many over what amout of time.
If I had known ahead of time more about them I would have gone with someone else.

 

they give you too much time for loads. Never had a late load and never have any violations. If you do your job right, you will never have a late load with this co. If they give you a tight load or one that is impossible, call dm and they will arrange a swap or change time if it is at their fault and not pure laziness by the driver. Never a reason. Usually a day or two early for loads and get upset when they dont get on it to change appointment time. Maybe all the coplaining about companies on here is work ethic of the driver not so much the company. Might want to check yourself before complaining about and blaiming others for you getting fired and look at why you were fired. Not a company man but I wont point a finger at someone else for a mistake(s) I have made due to pure lack of work ethic.

 

They overlooked the fact that I was at the deliveries on time but forgot to hit the qualcom within thier "15 minute prior to appt time". You know how it is with bad delivery info and sending you to the wrong side of the warehouse. On my last delivery I ran 11 hrs and with the weather was 1 hr away from delivery before I had to shut down. I tried to call my Dm on the way but it always went to the voice mail, and he dosent check it or had time to check it often. My last resort was to use the qualcom to send the msg. They did run me as much as I wanted until I asked for time to go home.

 

Now I have my complaints about May but none of them have to do with being late, tight runs I was "forced" to do or office people screwing me over. They always did me right. I did my job and they got me the miles. I always let them know if I could make a run on time or not. If I said I was going to be there at 0800 Monday then that IS when I was there. If something beyond my control happened ( like weather or break down) then I told them asap. Never had a problem with them on that. If you didn't send in your QC messages on time then that IS your fault. It's a late load. Part of your job as a driver with any company is to send in the right message, on time and filled out correctly.

 

yup, alot of tight, forced, but always got it taken care of it. I would rather it be that way... more miles , quicker = $$$. They need someone to atleast pick it up till they find a team to get it there on time. get it rollin anyhow. Have had a few probs lately with the CS like getting dispatched on loads , bobtail 150 - 200 miles to pick it up and being told the load has been canceled or left last week. but what do you do. All these new people need better training before they get behind the comp. but wow. miles miles miles.... lately guess all these newbies are good for us drivers that are toughing it out. We get the tight miles but better at the end of the pay week. So I feel if I tough ot this economic down turn, I am going to be a very happy driver when things start to turn around for us. Just gotta watch and make sure you get paid and make sure to give them accurate ETA's and be there on time. Oh , guess it is just doing your job.... there are always two sides to every story but I say what I think and get it done. I do not hide it if I have or had a prob and let them know so it will be corrected and hopefully not happen too often. Love the runs - usually from east coast to west coast and back ... So I am happy for now, plus we have great equipment. I run the reefer div. and stay away from the 11 western. Stay off of the west coast if you can be on time and show them you can do what ever it takes (with in the rules) to get there and you'll keep on rollin' ......

 

Two sides to every story! Words of wisdom if I ever heard them.

 

Just signed up to this site so I could answer your question. I had worked for May for over ten years, and can tell you this...
They are family owned to date, and proud of this to the point of arrogance. They own/lease about 3,000 trailers and have approximately 1,000 tractors. There are a lot of politics here, and if you don't like drama, don't pitch your tent at May. I don't know how it is everywhere else, but I do know what it's like here.
The trucks...
They are pretty nice, and they usually replace the trucks every three to five years-they were running Pete 387's, and a few Freightliners but have cheapened down to low sleeper Internationals. Most are ISX powered. The truck speed is set at 60mph for dry haul, and 62 for refer(although some may not even do 62 downhill in gear). You are watching the entire world pass you by when sitting on the super slab and 60 is all you've go to go with.
May pulls up truck data regularly over the Qualcomm, and when servicing them. It displays top speed, engine overspeed, what gear you normally run in etc. They have grilled, and even fired drivers (and friends who were good drivers)over this info. The trucks are also set so that cruise will not work when the headlights are on. This is why you see May trucks running at night using only fog lamps(how safe is that?).They have also set the engines so power is cut, and you have limited RPM's when empty. This means they govern out and you must shift at 1,200.
They also have a crazy fuel policy which comes and goes, and many drivers have quit over it. At times they only let you take on enough fuel(70-80 gallons at a time) to be able to haul more weight. This makes you waste time fueling when you could be rolling. There have been many times where the trucks run out of fuel when climbing/descending a mountain, as the fuel all goes to the end of the tanks. Americold- one of May's major accounts tends to load everything heavy, and quite often you will scale a couple hundred pounds over GVW when picking up a loaded trailer. Their answer in the company terminals for this is not to have the shipper load trailers less heavy, but instead they pull your tire chains off, and or take the fuel out of your tanks. You are allowed two load locks. If you park in a May yard and have more than two on your truck, they will come take the extras off your truck when it's parked. When your truck is parked at a terminal, they also routinely inspect them, and when you return to work, they will pull you in the safety office to explain every scratch. They will also write you up if you have any trash on the floor.
Make sure before you take a truck, you document every nick and scratch it has. If you don't, when you turn your truck in May will hold you accountable for it.
DO NOT PURCHASE A COMPANY TRUCK FROM MAY to use as an owner op. You are at their mercy for repair disputes, and what they choose to fix, or let go. You also will have an old worn out pile of crap before it's paid off. May owner op policy has a balloon payment at the end of the lease which often is more all by itself than what the truck is even worth at that point. I have seen this play out over and over with owner op's at May and feel sorry for them.
Another thing I've seen over and over is that if you have a dispute at a pick-up/drop-off May will fire you in a heartbeat to keep the customer happy. It doesn't matter how loyal you are to them, as you are nothing but a number on a piece of paper to corporate. I say this from my own experience!
The Trailers...
The refer trailers (about 1,000 of them) are a mixed bag. Most are 5 years old or less Utility's with Carrier refer units. About 150 of these are Trailmobile's with T/K refer units, which are over 10 years old and falling apart. They can't get enough for a trade in on them so they just keep running them.
Dry Vans...
These are mostly old (some dating back to the early '90's), and are pretty torn up. Some have roof leaks, and many of the forklift scuff liners are in really bad shape, with sharp edges that damage loads. Most have been repaired with the magic silver tape just so the shipper will even load them.
The logistics are horrible. Many times you will be sitting in a yard full of dry vans waiting for a refer trailer, and vice versa, with five other drivers waiting for the same thing. I've seen, (and been in the middle of) many red faced arguments over which driver has the most important haul when all five are late on their loads because of no empty trailers in the area.
If you have a marker light out, missing mudflap, bad tire etc. and are within 50 miles of a terminal they will send you there to have it repaired-even at 3 A.M. when no-one is there. They tell you they will call someone in to fix it, but they sometimes don't call anyone(or the shop guys won't admit they just ignored the call), and you sit there until morning. Luck usually has it this occurs when your on a hot load, or you sit there and run out of hours waiting. They then sometimes pull you off your load and give it to another driver.
May is also a company that cries poor mouth all of the time. Raises don't come easy or often. May during driver shortages has even hired newbees off the street for more cents per mile through incentives than drivers with a couple years in at May. Also, many of the shop, and office people at May go years without raises.
If you do everything they ask, and take every load they give you with a smile, you can hope to work up to somewhere about 20,000 miles a month in their busy months if you are one of their favorites, and have all the brownie points. If not, and depending on if your regional/48 you might run as little as 5,000 a month.
I know some of the above is just the lows of the industry, and haven't worked elsewhere to be able to compare, but this is the grass on the May side of the fence.
Hope this helps and puts some perspective on your question.
Take care.