TransAm Trucking, Inc. - Olathe, Ks.?

I ended up getting one right before the day was over.

 

hey i just talked to a friend of mine who still works for trans am hes in olathe and said mike from training got fired thats amazing and they keep that duche bag ernie

 

I've been driving for them as a company driver for 3 months, and all is going well. I got a few weeks of bad miles(1600 or so) for the first few weeks, but lately they've picked up to the 3000 range. This truck is MUCH nicer than anything I expected to be in with no experience(2009 KW t660 w/ 400k miles, Automatic, APU, inverter, fridge, sat radio, pcmiler gps).

Due to how much they talk up the lease program(and the large amounts of people that do it), getting into a company truck actually got me rolling faster(they just handed me the keys without the tons of lease paperwork).

The leasing program has possibility to make more money than a company driver, but it takes about 5-6 months to get there from what I've been seeing. And while getting there, you're going to be making a fair amount less.

This company is a great place to start out in, but leasing is NOT.

 

Very informative, Chunkywolf. I've been pondering TransAm and what you've written is a pretty good first post. Well done.

 

http://ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/SMS/Data/carrier.aspx?enc=HJ1y+t4bfYTj+nleU6bwuWfQrMqipiDmA2AR4NcDrrY=

 

That CSA score doesn't surprise me much.

Honestly, they give you all the information you need to know to succeed, but it's at a VERY fast rate which not many people can pick up. Especially if you throw business management on top of that. If you WANT to learn truck driving, and if you have the drive to succeed, you'll do just fine here. If you want to be spoon fed, make huge amounts of money, and be "on your own", this company will just process you through like another number, add you to their list on that CSA violation report, and then bill you for the truck lease.

Trucking(specifically in big companies), is no longer what it was. It's not just about getting the load from point A to point B as quickly as possible, you have to constantly be thinking about how to avoid liability. This includes things such as reading the ENTIRE BoL when you get them, weighing the load, and a DECENT pre-trip(no, not everyone is going to pull out a creeper and check their brake adjustment daily, but everything else can be checked daily in just a few minutes).

Most of the equipment violations I'd have to say are driver fault, since last I checked, you had to be able to know the entire pre-trip to get your CDL.

BUT, I do have to say, TransAm could use better training on logging, because that seems to be the other large problem trashing their CSA score.

 

That's too bad Mike was ok. I could always see in Mike that his heart was not into it about pushing people into a lease, which is ALL their training dept is about.

Famous Ernie quotes:
You'll be eating steak and lobster.
You will be rolling in the dough.
Leasers get the better runs.
If you dont like leasing you can go company later.
Leasers make more money.
If you have an accident as a leaser you wont get fired.

 

My opinion is you are very skewed on your perception of TransAm. Not looking to argue but saying equipment violation is the drivers fault is way off. Dispatch had David in safety call me and yell at me for refusing to drive with an equipment violation. He tells everyone "they wont shut you down". Road assist, dispatch, and safety will try everything in their power to make you drive with a violation and so many drivers do. I have pics of the sat of my dm telling me to drive illegal. I didnt and he was reprimanded when i logged a formal complaint with Chris. FLATLY REFUSE TO DRIVE WITH VIOLATIONS, as your violations stay for 3 years and your next carrier will be looking at this. TA says they dont check for that..duh..they hire newbs out of school.

Their CSA is bad because of the lack of training they give and the situations they put their drivers in. I listened to hours and hours of spew about leasing. Yet in 3 weeks of training i got to back the truck exactly twice and in test out week got 1 shot to do 3 backs and they pencil whipped my backing test. One of our fellow rookies took 30 mins to straight back in a hole and yes he was passed too.

My last safety meeting Curtis told us T/A had 25 preventables and 2 bridge hits in the prior 7 days.

My buddy was asked to be a trainer and he had less than 2 months driving experience and training to be a trainer is one day sitting in class.

After 30 days a leaser is responsible for everything on the truck maintenance wise and i mean everything. If you have a truck prone to break downs , especially since all their trucks have APU'S, DPF filters, and automatics, these can be a nightmare with breakdowns you will go down in flames as a leaser paying all that.

Also a company driver makes no money waiting at a meathouse for one day, a leaser makes $-160 waiting the same day since he has a fixed cost of close to 900 a week whether he drives or not. So now he has to make up the difference just to get back to zero.

Leasers will run the trucks ragged because they dont want to pay to fix them and they will not fix trailers due to the down time involved. Its never about doing a decent pretrip..its about either being pushed to go with a violation or about not fixing them because of being under the pressure to make money to break even.

As a trainee i talked to every transam driver i could find in 3 weeks on the road, I walked up to every truck i could find in dodge city, garden city, olathe, rockwall etc and without fail every driver told me not to lease. The only driver who told me to lease was my trainer who i kid you not had not had a paycheck in 3 weeks and was about to get his 4th zero or negative check and was borrowing money from his dad to pay his house payment of 500 dollars. He was a proud leaser of a brand new T700.

I know this is also part rant but if you consider for one minute how many guys have lost their ### with this company you would understand my post and to think it was because they were not smart enough to "succeed" is bs because the deck is stacked against you and if you have any circumstances beyond your control the game goes against you hard.

 

I'm just saying if you want to learn, LEARN, don't jump out of training expecting to start your own business. There is a lot to learn.

Company drivers do get layover($50 per day) for waiting on a load for longer than 24 hours, BUT you need to request it. I've noticed since requesting layover the only 2 times I've been waiting, they've been sending me to less places where I have to wait.

I've been lucky enough to not get bad trailers where I would be getting a violation, but I would not drive with one if I did. I have not given them a refusal to drive, but I have had to fight with them trying to put me on a load I couldn't legally make. I just gave them choices on how to adjust the load's appointment times, and repeated myself till they figured something out.

As I was saying though, The most important thing is avoiding liability, whether it be freight problems, lack of driving hours, equipment problems, or anything else. Sadly, they do not give L/O's a choice but to keep on driving with possible violations. Obviously the alternative is digging yourself into a hole by not running miles.

Anyways, I'm still happy for the most part as a company driver. All I've got to complain about is a broken radio, broken A/C on my APU, and a truck that reeks of smoke.

 

All my trucks reeked of smoke, and had a/c deals too...but interesting i never had a broken radio.
Be safe and good luck on getting your coveted year in...seems we all have to do it with these big carriers. Keep your record clean dont drive with any violations, overweight or bridge. Your next company or broker will be looking at that before they want anything else from you.

I'll be the red 387 O/O passing you in the left lane at 70+ HEHE.