TMC Transportation, Inc. - Des Moines, Ia.

Discussion in 'Report A BAD Trucking Company Here' started by TurboTrucker, Apr 23, 2006.

  1. Rawlco

    Rawlco Medium Load Member

    384
    200
    Aug 13, 2006
    Central Maine
    0
    The only large problem that I have had with TMC is them getting me home. Since I was the first TMC employee from this part of Maine I knew it would be a learning curve for them on where to set me up to get home from. Now that they have learned to just bounce me home empty from up to 250 miles away I am satisfied. On the longhaul division we get one day at home for every week out so I stay out 3 weeks to get a long weekend at home. It seems like all I do is sleep the first day anyway. :lol:

    As for minor problems there have been a few and they have always been handled to my satisfaction. TMC is a largish company and sometimes finding the person with the authority to fix the problem can be half of the battle. The nice thing is that my trainer has connections higher up in the company since he has been here for a while. If I have a question a quick call to my trainer and he tells me how to aproach something. If it is a question of who do I need to talk to about a certain issue he lists off people in the chain of command who can get results. These are things that possibly even some trainers don't know. If one person at TMC will not get results for you then you need to get someone who can.


    I have made good money with TMC. I live in the Northeast so the freight rates when going home or leaving home are really low. Most weeks I make $900 to $1100, before taxes of course. On the weeks I am at home until Tuesday I make much less, but that is to be expected.

    On the subject of Trainers: I had two great trainers. The first had to take some personal time off in the middle of my training period so they hooked me up with a different trainer rather than extending my training period by a week. I have heard the complaints of poor trainers and hope that ALL trainees who have a bad trainer experience do not rest until they are satisfied and have that trainer removed from the training program. There are some bad trainers at TMC and I hope that they get weeded out soon. That seems to be one of the main gripes on Internet forums. My second trainer was not a company man on some things. His method of load securement was more geared towards personal safety then load claims, like not using edge protectors on shingles and things like that. Other than that I had no problems. He did grate on me at first but after a few days we got along great.

    Cdr: At any company you will have people who are completely satisfied and people who are ready to quit. I believe that TMC has many more satisfied drivers than quitters. In three months with the company I have only talked in person with TWO drivers who were on the verge of quitting. Now of these two drivers one wouldn't give me a real reason other than being tired of the company, the second I gather had changed fleet managers so he wouldn't have to run so hard and was complaining about not making money. Hmmm, you make money by delivering freight, so if you don't work as hard you don't make as much money. . . :roll:

    I am completely satisfied with TMC so far. The only thing that I am tired of is being away from home. With any OTR job at ANY company you will only be home for a few days per month. Eventually there will be things at home that need taking care of, like home repairs, etc, and I may want to give up OTR, but until then I will be staying with TMC.
     
  2. Truckers Report Jobs

    Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds

    Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.

  3. truckinbiker

    truckinbiker Bobtail Member

    44
    5
    May 6, 2006
    northern michigan
    0
    I put in 110%, got 97, on there road test, a perfect 100, on load securement test, and was booted out of the truck with trainer early. I did my part very well and was honest thru the whole episode. Soon as I got into my own truck, the ######## started. Wheres the respect that they demanded from us?
     
  4. cdr

    cdr Light Load Member

    84
    2
    Jan 1, 2007
    west va.
    0
    what kind of ##### started?:sad1:
     
  5. sting77

    sting77 Bobtail Member

    6
    2
    Feb 7, 2007
    0
    i dont know what to tell you sir. i dont know why things would have sent so far south once you got into your own truck. i wish i had all the answers but dont. good luck to you in your future ventures.
     
  6. truckinbiker

    truckinbiker Bobtail Member

    44
    5
    May 6, 2006
    northern michigan
    0
    Thru out the orientation, they kept telling us that they would on our 1st load run us buy our home to get our belongings, things we all need in the truck, that did not happen, we were told that our 1st 30 days our loads would be monitored, like no coil rolls, no mountainous driving, just keeping things simple, till we get our feet a little wet, my 1st load takes to Wash State, from Iowa, right thru the mountains, of Montana, and Idaho and Wash state, I had to call my trainer 3 times, trucks flying by me, I was doing the speed limit. It was 5 weeks before i got thru to my house, for food and clothes, sleeping gear. Then on way back from there, still not able to run by the house, I had a group of kids in a mini van pull dead out in front of me on a 2 lane road, my right side mirror was smashed from the signs on the side of the road. I got the truck stopped, no one got hurt except the 30 more gray hairs I got from that. I did the right thing, but it rattled me pretty bad. I will never get the look of those kids faces looking out the side window of the mini van seeing a big rig pass them on the right. I was more scared than they were. Now thats not TMC fault . So after that I called my dispatcher in Idaho, and explained to him what happened, and I wanted to get home, just to recharge and take a deep breath. No way Jose, Just keep truckin thru to CONN. I got lost in In, and that was the straw that broke the camels back. And I had a sick kid at home. I took their truck to Indy and got out for 3 weeks. I feel they did not keep up their side of this deal, and maybe management dont know how we are being treated out there.
     
  7. Anomeley

    Anomeley Bobtail Member

    32
    2
    Feb 1, 2007
    0
    You have to consider the negative posts are from guys that did not make the cut and are no longer here. They did not measure up either by their own standards or ours. Bottom line they were culled. I could go through every post and pick them apart section by section but I am not here to make enemies only clear the air. The post above for example suggests he did not eat for five weeks. Puhlease. We do monitor loads on new drivers but you have to understand, YOUR TRAINER KNOWS HOW TO DO IT! That does not mean you are not exposed to mountains, etc in training because you are! Your IT (in truck) date starts the "watch" on what you pull, etc. Have some common sense please when you post. That is the single biggest thing I see lacking in new drivers today. COMMON FREAKING SENSE!
     
  8. cdr

    cdr Light Load Member

    84
    2
    Jan 1, 2007
    west va.
    0
    i'm due to start with tmc monday and personally, i'm looking forward to it.handling mountains is part of the job as is different kinds of loads. seems to me if you drive safely and responsibly you'll be fine. if you are that fearful you shouldn't be in a truck. respect of the truck is one thing, but when you are constantly afraid, you're in trouble. as my istructors told me, you are the one in control of that truck, not your dispatcher.
     
  9. truckinbiker

    truckinbiker Bobtail Member

    44
    5
    May 6, 2006
    northern michigan
    0
    Who said I did not eat for weeks? idiot, deny,deny,deny. Everbody is wrong except for tmc, They can't be honest, never needed to be. This poster proves the lack of integrity within tmc.
     
  10. TurboTrucker

    TurboTrucker Road Train Member

    861
    276
    Feb 23, 2005
    Rossville, Georgia
    0
    It's not funny. TMC has some issues, and their are numbers that substantiate the complaints.

    Looking at their latest MCS-150 filing, Their ISS-2 rating is hovering at 97, which is WAY up there. TMC drivers are amassing too many moving violations, and are involved in more than their fair share of accidents. The company is not on top of their safety program, and thus getting a handle on the problem.

    When a motor carrier slips into the upper end of the ISS-2 spectrum, it is very hard to place full blame on the drivers. The company has complicity as well, because they are not taking action to drive the safety managment factors down into acceptable percentages.

    And thank goodness for that. When a company has extreme turnover involving the people that DO come there, and commentary is offered all over the place that explains why it is happening, it's a little hard to ignore.

    Translation: Come here and do as you are told to do, follow the rules that you are told to follow, log as you are instructed to do, and don't dare grow a brain, and you can make it at TMC.

    I dare to differ. I work for one, and you can read about it in several places. I assure you that I am not treated any other way than as a member of a family, never asked to do ANYTHING illegal or for that matter that I don't want to do, made to log legal at ALL times and strictly monitored for compliance, and treated like the professional I am every day of the week.

    TMC does more than that. There are more than a few complaints that indicate that the customer comes first at TMC. The driver falls down the list a notch or two. That translates into unreasonable demands, or penalties of several sorts if the customer is not served as demanded.

    This is your public warning. No recruiting will be tolerated on this site, without paying for the privilege to do so. One more comment seeking private communications, or any solicitation of any member on this site will be met with your immediate banning from all access to these forums.
     
  11. TurboTrucker

    TurboTrucker Road Train Member

    861
    276
    Feb 23, 2005
    Rossville, Georgia
    0
    There's a flip side to that record you are spinning. The negative posts can be coming from people that are simply not poised to be treated like crap for doing the best of their ability.

    How quaint. The way I see it, TMC is not really invoking many standards. They are certainly screening for the minimums, but not much else. If they did, and if they were truly what you assert, then their safety numbers would reflect such standards.

    No Sir, that's not the bottom line at all.

    Good for you. That's my goal as well.

    I didn't read that. You're clearing the air is not off to a very good start.

    How to do what? Skirt the rules and regulations. Yep. How many times has that been offered across the web? Trainers at TMC will show a newbie how to move a truck with no securement in place, fail to report such an accident to the company, lose a fuel card, argue on the cell phone with his wife, speed to make up lost time, and more. Yep...that's the kind of guy I want training drivers.

    New drivers are not going to have common sense when it comes to operating at truck Why? BECAUSE THEY ARE NEW. They haven't the experience to know how to do it all, and using the kind of common sense they may have when operating a car is no good when they get into a truck. The physics are as different as night and day.

    CDL training at most schools is at a bare minimum, and only intended to get them past a road test. TMC and many other companies will make any driver a trainer who desires to be one. No screening is performed to discover whether or not they are qualified to train a driver, and most lack a decent safety record themselves.

    But lets lay all of this aside for a moment. The REAL problem at TMC and so many others is the absolutely irrefutable fact that if they were so worth working for and without any problems that makes people quit in droves, they wouldn't be attempting to bring in newbies in the first place. Experienced drivers would be hired, and they would stay.

    I can document the fact that any charges that TMC either encourages or turns a blind eye when it comes to safety issues, because the statistics bear that out clearly. They are constantly in need of new drivers because people quit. The fact that they advertise all the time and all over the place indicates that fact.

    And when you read a negative comment or two, those can be overlooked. When you read a thousand or more, who can overlook that?

    Not I.

    So please don't paint a picture of pure utopia in here, because while I appreciate good art, I am rather critical of the brush strokes that I see.
     
  • Truckers Report Jobs

    Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds

    Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.