Melton or US Xpress

i have been wondering the same thing

 

i would go with melton hands down. much nicer equipment with apu's and much better pay. its harder work but from what ive read about both of these places and from what ive seen on the road i would take melton no questions asked

 

US Xpress has been on the brink of bankruptcy for the last 3 years. This reflects in the way they run the company, ie maximum profit on minimum outlay which means they will do everything on the cheap. Example, no APU on the truck so you must idle for power, heat and cooling. However the trucks are setup for 5 minute idle time max. If the outside temperature is below 27 or above 70 the idle restriction is lifted. I ran for USX for 8 years and made very good money. We left because the penny pinching got out of control and placed way too many restrictions on us. Another example, no OTR maintenance to be done outside the terminals. You need to go to a terminal for an oil change. Not so bad you think, but then you find there are 20 trucks ahead of you and you will be down for 3 days. Once we had to wait a week for an oil change. We started to offer to pay for the truck PM out of our own pockets because it cost less than the lost income sitting in a terminal. They refused that offer.

USX calculates that the average driver, especially new ones, will stay with them no longer than 3 to 6 months and they treat you accordingly. Their driver turnover rate is huge.

If you don't mind tarping I would run with Melton. More so because I think they are a more stable company.

We enjoyed our time with USX otherwise we wouldn't have stayed with them so long. It was a totally different company back then to what it is now. We now are O/O and are leased on with Landstar.

Best of luck.

 

No question; go Melton Truck Lines. You'll make much better money. It's a real pro company and isn't a starter company.

 

Melton runs strictly legal, e-logs in most trucks (I think only some of the older trucks have paper logs). Average miles run 1,800 to 2,500, lower right now though some ppl I know are still getting close to 2,500. Guy we talked to the other day had 2,600 the last 3 weeks, we are getting much less, but to be fair we have been stopped at least one or two days due to weather related road conditions. Some of that is just bad luck on the runs we got.

The trucks are well mantained KW's, and if you have a problem they get you to repair quickly. . . Which is where we spent the last two days. ECM leak. The truck was done yesterday morning after being in the shop for 2 & 1/2 days ( KW repair was Busy) we are sitting at a truck stop now waiting on a load. Won't get alot of miles this week either, but we will get layover pay.

No BS they are a safe company, you would learn safe securement practices, some will say Melton over does it. Perhaps, but better safe than dead. The trucks are well maintained. You can get the miles, Nov and Dec we averaged 2,200 a week for both months, Jan is a different story, 1,500, but we have managed to hit every bleeping ice/snow storm it was possible to hit. Ice storm in Mississippi, yep their, Va oh yeah stuck in WV because they closed the roads, NC over 200 wrecks one night, yep their, white out in the Dakotas, in the middle of that. Purely luck of the draw. Could happen with any company.

The majority of drivers will help you if you need it, there are bad apples in every bunch though, we have run into a few. If you can't get help from that rotten apple call load securement and they will walk you through what needs to be done. You get a driver mentor that you can call and ask questions.

I don't know what else to add, I really think the company is good over all. The negatives that we have may just be shear bad luck or our perspective.

 

Depends on what you want really.
USX is mostly (if not all team) and also Dry Van.

Melton does Flatbeds.

 

My experience with usx is this...they're extremely unorganized and don't know what the left from the right is doing!!...they're really great at double dispatching loads and dispatching phantom loads just to screw you out of layover pay by saying that you're under load so your time resets.

you're making an excellent choice choosing melton.

 

Does Melton require experience?