01/21/10 Update on good and bad at Marten

The end of another week with Marten Transport, and again, they fail. This company is ridiculous. After another week of not coming close to getting the advertised miles for the upper Midwest region, I found it necessary, or should I say my DM found it necessary for me, to talk to Dan Blair, again, about the lack of miles I was being given. Dan Blair's answer was as follows, I am of course paraphrasing, but you'll get the idea: "You need to motivate us, as managers, to get you the miles you're supposed to be getting. You need to be on that phone, blazing up the quaalcom and sending redundant messages. You need to push us, here in the office."
All I can say is Bull$h1t! It is not my job to motivate any manager to do his job, ever! I don't receive motivation pay. Dan, you are arrogant, narcissistic, patronizing, deflective, irresponsible, defensive, obtuse and lack genuine leadership capacity. Marten's macro's are very detail oriented and it is the managers and load planners job to decipher that information and dispatch drivers according to the information that is put into the quaalcom system; that's why it's so detailed, stupid! The fact that you used a lack of redundancy as an excuse for me not getting the miles I am supposed to receive, shows your lack of effective management and training of your staff, not to mention the overwhelming inefficiency and lack of concern you have for any of your driving staff. You stated that you have 20yrs in this industry. Wow, no wonder it's going to hell in a hand basket. Open your mind, stop defending laziness, correct the problem and earn your pay, for once. You have a responsibility to all your drivers and to your office personnel and you're neglecting it by taking the easy way out. Be accountable for your failures, stop defending them, it's weak!
Let's address your solution to the problem Dan; redundancy on the quaalcom and use of the phone. In theory, both wonderful ideas, but here's the facts, I wait, often for hours, to get responses on the quaalcom, I have a limited time that I can work each day, as do all drivers, and it is not my responsibility to do managements job, ever, just like it's not your responsibility to navigate the road ways in a safe, legal and timely manner. Use of the phone; again, great in theory, however, Marten's management is notorious for not returning phone calls, not answering the phones when they see it is a driver and not responding to emails or voice mails. So, why don't you just train your staff to do their job's, you do your job and stop laying all the responsibility of your incompetence on the drivers. YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF AND YOUR LACK OF ETHICS AND DEDICATION TO THE PEOPLE YOU'RE BEING PAYED TO LEAD! YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO SET THE EXAMPLE FOR YOUR SUBORDINATES, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!

 

I dare you to send this over the qualcomm.

 

that would certanly get thier attention.

River Sirrius 147.and xm 171 .. dont be surprise to hear the same callers call in all day long every day.

 

No, unfortunately, it wouldn't get their attention, other than to put me in an insubordinate light. They wouldn't focus on the message, they'd focus on the insults, lol. Even if I cleaned it up, made it corporate, they'd still give it little mind. They have a system that they don't want to admit is failing it's drivers. They're salaried, that's all they care about; keeping their checks coming in. They are the corporate obtuse, it's typical of modern trucking. We, as drivers, are an expendable commodity. They can replace us with anyone, just by lowering their hiring standards, slightly. The company has a terrible rating with the DOT, because they don't want to embrace the realities of the modern system. The safety department has no real teeth or say in the way freight is found, scheduled or delivered. They are a necessary evil that the company needs to keep the DOT happy. Any company with a DOT rating above 40 is probably cutting a lot of corners and coaxing their drivers to take bad risks. Safety needs to play a much bigger role in the way business is done, especially in negotiating load size and enforcing a genuine safety culture. The culture here is a joke and is dangerous. They want you to try and get away with as much as possible. They refuse to embrace the reality of a genuine safety culture; they are unprofessional.
They will get their profit by any means possible; the easiest way is to cut the largest portion of their workforce's pay, visa vie, the fair pay schedule and forcing per diem. Forcing per diem, alone, saves the company over 25% in their state and federal tax liabilities and genuinely does the driver no long term favors. It's short sided economics, they aren't looking long term, they're looking relatively short term, in order to provide dividend for their investors. The fair pay schedule is a very "liberal" approach to pay. It punishes experience and dishonors the sacrifice experienced drivers have made to the industry that has provided their corporate success. This company has no interest in "honoring" any of it's claims to drivers, it's only commitment is to making money, by whatever means possible and regardless of the situation it causes for the majority of it's employees.
Marten is not atypical of a publicly owned company, they are completely typical. Their primary objective is not quality of service, safety, security for it's employees or any form of accountability, it's money, dividends and bonuses for the executive level. They're very good at spinning information, in order to shed themselves in a more positive light. To get the genuine truth, you have to dig deep and call them on the carpet every time they omit information. They will not own up to it and you will eventually be fired and slammed on your DAC for a company policy violation; it's the corporate way.
In a nutshell, I'm leaving Marten as quickly as I can. They have no honor and they have no commitment to the words they publish; they are duplicitous.

 

very well put !

 

I am new to this trucking business and so I am not fully sure how this per diem works. What it the problem with it? My only driving job didn't require it so they didn't really explain it to much.

 

Short version, they only tax your earnings so much.
Then at the end of the year, you the employee has to pay what payroll taxes that weren't paid by the company.

Oh sure Marten says take more home, but they FAIL to tell you you end up paying taxes and chances are you wont get a refund.



For some people it does work, but most others it doesn't

 

Saienga,

First I would like to apologize for taking so long to respond to your post. Secondly, I would like to thank you for responding to mine. Your answer was concise, well thought out and intelligent. It's refreshing to see posts/responses that are logical and practical in structure and presentation. I appreciate that greatly and thank you for it.

Marten has been an OVERWHELMING disappointment to me and to my family. My family has seen, first hand, the stress it has put on me and our budget. Most of the drivers I've talked to, that are getting their miles on this board, are running illegal; mainly by using off duty driving on their e-logs or just not logging their activities if on paper. This company has put me in a major bind in regard to ethics. I'm used to running a legal log book. I shouldn't have to do it any other way. However, I can't make the living I deserve and was told I would have with this company, unless I manipulate the lines of legality. If the DOT knew how Marten was actually operating, a 98k fine would be cheap. I know they have the miles, I know they have them legally, I know this because I've had a week of over 3k miles and ran them all legal. The lack of consistency, objectivity and genuineness by management is appalling, at best. They, for some reason, are more concerned about corporate policy than they are about anything else. They all claim to just be following orders. It's very irresponsible and most drivers play into it. The drivers feel they have to, in order to make a living, it's a vicious cycle created by a system that is not good at adopting to the changing times.
This company, even amongst it's most senior drivers, in my experience and conversations with them, does not inspire loyalty, but rather a sense of servitude and quiet discontent. This attitude shows itself amongst management as well. The turnover rate amongst dm's is very high. I know they aren't trained well, most can't even do the math involved with a log book. I'm going to have to stop taking my days off during weekends, it's hard to apply for new employment on Saturday or Sunday.

To be completely honest, I've reached the point, because of the lack of accountability of management with Marten, that I don't care if I reach my million miles; I'm 150k short of that mark, presently. The emotional, financial and physical stresses put on me by their lack of objectivity and accountability, is the most discouraging I've encountered in the 8 years I've been driving. I was not placed on this earth to be a corporate number or to suckle the corporate "tit", in order to eek out a less than reasonable living. The choice between running legal and being dirt poor, or running illegal and getting the money THEY stated I'd make, is an easy one for me. It's time to find a different employer, one with a greater sense of ethics and responsibility to it's drivers; Marten is not that employer!

 

I read earlier by a post from "River", that the company has a bad rating with the DOT..., well when "CSA-2010" goes into effect..., won't that hurt the company???

 

The reason they went with eletronic logs is because of csa 2010. They need to do more to keep the good, experienced drivers they have now. a revolving door of inexperienced drivers is gonna mess up there csa 2010 scores. If they didn't force per diem, and paid practical miles, i think they could keep more of there drivers, and have a better company in the end.