the end with melton

I left in December and came back in March after breaking up with my Fiance in Tulsa...my miles were crap at first but I picked up a 53' trailer and didn't sit still for three weeks straight! I just left again last month because of my depression and being out on the road didn't help me. I got a local job driving a concrete mixer but I would go back to Melton if I needed to.

 

yeah overall i liked them a lot. I was always treated right and never had any major problems.

 

Does Melton run any teams? Just curious...

 

When I was there a year ago they had a few (and I mean few) teams. They had 0 miles then, 0 miles now, and will have 0 miles next year. I'm not sure what they are doing to not have freight but people have said "It'll pick up" for about 18 months now and it still hasn't so I would steer clear of them period.

I went local and haven't looked back, I run for 2 different people with whoever has the work for the week so I may be hauling a rockbucket to road construction one week and a 53ft lowboy full of hay the next week but my work is fairly steady and when I don't work at all I still make more money than I did baby sitting a truck for melton.

 

I went through the same sh&t with TMC I averaged 1200-1300 miles a week, sometimes less. In 8 months I had 2-4 checks $500+ the rest of the time was $300 or less some under $200. Like you said about them questioning everything, TMC had the nerve to tell me I had to haul more loads or I was gone. I begged for more loads but never got them. A few times I was stuck out over the weekend and hadnt been given a load. I called night dispatch at midnight and they informed me I had a load. WTF? my FM hadnt sent me the load info which I had been given 8 hours before.

 

Seem's like skate boarding is falling hard and getting worse. ####, I thought we refeer driver's had it bad.

 

In my hours of reading through threads I have noticed that no matter how horrible the stories are about bad companies there is always a trucker saying the other guy's are all just whiners and lazy. I read Billsgirl's day by day chronicle in which she seemed very truthfull and was even on the truck herself for several weeks, meaning she had firsthand info. Bill by no means seemed lazy or a whiner, why would he be with such a loving woman backing him up? Yet he still got treated pretty dang crappy. Tell me why is it so horrible to be complaining about risking your life and giving up family time to only be rewarded with pennies? Why is it wrong to put these companies on blast for thier deliberate LIES and misleadings? Could it be that these men really arent whiners? Maybe the companies just really are that uncaring and unfair. Today who can really survive off of a check that pays less than a burger job? You all deserve more, you deserve fair compensation and good old fashioned courtesy from these DM's. Im not a driver because there's no way I could ever be cut out for it, just another woman passenger, and behind the scenes waiting for my man to come home. But, Im just saying as an outsider looking in... Im just saying. Maybe these good men really did do everything they were supposed to and still got screwed. There doesn't seem to be much honor and decency in this field.

 

I go into Canada two time a week never had a problem. They went through my truck and left it the same condition I had it in. You better have your paper work in order because they WILL NOT baby you, they will turn you around and send you back to the States. And I am glad when the US Customs Xray my van and ask to see whats inside. I want to make sure they are trying to protect the USA from crazy #### getting in.

 

I'm working on ending my fist pay period with Melton. Right around 4,000 miles. I know this isn't going to be typical, but so far, I can't complain!

 

I worked for Melton about 3 years ago now and left because of my own stupidity (long story), but in my year and a half with them they kept me moving 90% of the time. Granted I run hard and had a great dispatcher. The one thing I noticed out there, some people just work harder than others (not implying anyone here didn't work hard).

I remember another driver I ran into down in Mississippi one weekend. We picked up a load at the same place (he got loaded first) and pulled up to tarp his load. By the time I got loaded and came out (which was about 45 - 50 minutes after him), he had his tarp laid across the top of his load and a few tie downs laid out. When I finished doing my load he had finally gotten back out of his truck to start tarping and I went to help. The entire time he #####ed and moaned about not getting miles and his dispatch was a B****. Funny thing was, he had the same dispatcher as me. When I called in the next day and was talking to her, she hinted at a "problem driver" she had just been dealing with (guess who it was?).

So as I firmly believe, it's all in what you make of it. I've only been with 2 companies and now my current local gig and if you work hard and show them you can work hard, the work will come. As always, this is just my $.02 and many times it's not worth that much. Oh and if I had a chance, I'd go back to Melton in a heartbeat. They treated me very well and hell, I got home almost every weekend (under a load) but still got home.

Have a great weekend everyone and be safe!