Have to start somewhere

Daytona

I would keep my CDL for a while, maybe a box or tanks would be more up your alley than a flat bed. this is a hard business, and you are not the first driver to go through this. I about went belly up with some of the co's I've been with and the old timers told me the same things
Good luck in your decision stay in touch with your freinds here.You will alway a be a driver you had your lesson.

 

Hey, bump was going to call you awhile back, but your number was not in my new phone. Got your number from your wife and went to put it in and it was there. I hate this new phone! Good advise about the CDL. I never got mine when they came out. I was getting out of a truck anyway. I had the chauffeurs license and never grandfathered. Had to go to a school to get back in. Always keep that CDL current! Like me most get out, but always come back...

 

Well said! In this industry you have to look out for number 1. It's up to you to decide whose number 1.

 

Daytona - Thanks for all you were willing and able to share openly and unselfishly with so many others this past year. Sorry it didn't turn out differently for you, but sure not for lack of trying on your part. You're in much better shape than many in that you paid your own way and don't owe anything to anyone. That bit of wisdom has been a real influence. So, wishing the best to you for whatever you tackle next.

 

Well Daytona, I am sorry you feel that way. As all co's mav does read this site, but I don't worry about it, because I post what I know about them because they have been good to me. I am not in fear of losing my job as a matter of fact I have been offered 2 stay at home jobs. If mav lets me go today no problem. I have a year recent OTR with a solid work history since I was 16 years old. I have never been layed off or fired from any job. I never married any job, just my wife. The reason I am still with mav is because they are the best co I have ever been with. They dead headed me home for thanksgiving. I was in MI and live in KY. They have gotten me home almost every weekend and when I got home with a water leak they sent someone to my house to get my load and brought me an empty so I could stay at home for a week and tear out my floor. When my daughter needed surgery (I was in TX) they got me home for it.

I know what trucking companies are like as this is my 5th one. I know what it is like to drive for an ate up outfit and I know a good one when I work for one. As far as a FM's go I would rather have your FM than mine. I know the difference between a good company and a bad one. You could have done a lot worse, but you have to have something to compare it to to know the difference. I have not sugar coated anything on here. Is mav perfect? Hardly, but the reason why I am still there is because they are a good fit for me. Again I can go to work this monday here at home if I want. So I have no fear of what mav reads on this site. I wish you the best my friend, but trucking is like no other job. I would venture to say that you will more than likely return to it some day. Good luck! Why don't you stay around on here? You don't have to be an active driver to be here. Many of us enjoy having you on the site. Take care. notarps.

 

There is something to be said here. Mav does need to reimburse his money and if I was him I would call like clock work until they got tired of hearing from me. I had to get fuel out of pocket once and was repaid in that pay period. Now the issue with points is another deal. You newbies that think that mav is so terrible need to do something. Go to an ate company and see how bad it can be and then come to mav or start with mav and go to greener pastures and find out what you thought was bad was good. mav runs on a point system. I think it is 6 points in a year and you can be cut loose. You can go in and take a class to drop 2 points or you can ride it out a year and they will drop.

I think you can only drop 4 points a year tho with classes. I myself had 5 points and just went and took a class last week to drop 2. They treat all of us the same. Everyone is under the same set of rules. I just had a buddy of mine from the same town I live in fired a couple weeks ago for racking up to many points. He got put out of service by DOT and they let him go. He has been with them over a year. The statement daytona made about he thought that mav wanted someone in his truck to make more money by running illegal is just not right. I imagine that this is displaced anger with him and it makes it seem justified as why he was let go. Truth is they make more money paying a newbie to run cheaper than a more exp hand. Think about it. Would you rather pay someone $300 to run the same load or pay someone $200?

They do not force you to run illegal. When I sent my empty call in conroe TX with my available hours, by the time I got dispatched got there and got loaded I could not make my drop on time. I sent them a message and told them need to move this appt back a day. They did. No squabbles it has to be there crap. In fact I have had them ask me can you get this load there on time? I said yes and they said it has to be legally. I got 2 points for getting put OOS last summer on a level 2 DOT inspection. Now does that sound like I have been forced to run illegal? If you are then call safety and talk to them.

Point is I like daytona and my buddy here in town, but if you are doing things that is costing a company money, damage, OOR miles, too much idling with fuel the way it is how long do you think a company can keep you? You rack up to many points and they will look hard at you. I am no different. If I rack up to many points I am gone as well. No sense in saying well I think this is the real reason they let me go......

 

I wasn't going to go on with this but I'll make the effort because you've spoken up, notarps. My comments were based on what happened to Daytona. He used his money and wasn't reimbursed. You mention he should call repeatedly. What I'm saying is he shouldn't HAVE to call. He's already let the company know weeks ago about this and received no attention or concern about it from them. You've very graciously pointed out that it is wrong. I'd ask you to stick to that - don't tell others that a company is better than most when it makes the same mistakes. Fewer mistakes? I don't doubt it notarps. Not one bit. I've heard many good things about Mav - from people I've talked to - not something entered into a forum.

My point of view is MY point of view - not yours or Daytona's or Mav's. If I see something that is clearly wrong & unfair I feel I have a right to point it out. Some people might view Daytona's reluctance to pursue Mav for his money as just "one side of the story". I don't think Daytona is exaggerating here & you very nicely pointed that out as well.

I was also trying to give Daytona some reassurance. Sometimes working for a big company is rather daunting. People don't always stand up for themselves aggressively for fear of being seen as a troublemaker. I felt sure Daytona had to be proactive & tried to support him to that end. I know he can stand up for himself. But I just wanted to let him hear another view - it's hard to know what to think sometimes when you're in the middle of it. ESPECIALLY when you may need the job.

I don't know if Mav TOLD him to push the HOS or whatever. But Daytona's thread never struck me as one-sided or biased. Sometimes your posts do look that way to me notarps, but I can't say exactly what Daytona was told about his HOS. But again - I don't think he's exaggerating. Maybe his dispatcher isn't as careful as yours. These things can happen. But if Daytona says there was pressure or whatever to run too many hours - then that's good enough for me. I have to believe somebody sometime. I also believe you DON'T have that problem with Mav. I would never consider simply second-guessing you because I don't always agree with you. I hope you'll do the same for me.

I read in notarps post that Mav would rather have a newer driver in the seat than someone with seniority. I think that's just strange! I would think a company would do everything possible to keep more experienced drivers. But if that's Mav's business model - then I feel I'm justified in saying Mav is only good for a year or two & then most should start looking for another job. But we all know most people don't want to jump from job to job. This is information most people considering Mav or ANY company would like to know about up front.

Notarps, you also mentioned Mav is the best of 5 other companies you've worked for. It sounds like you had a few unfortunate experiences with at least one or two - or you wouldn't have left. Wouldn't you have appreciated being able to hear the good & bad about those first few companies BEFORE hiring on & having to change jobs? I know I would & that's why I'm reading all this. You mentioned I'm not even a truck driver so how could I know anything? Honestly, if this forum is full of useless info then please tell us all now! I don't need to be a currently employed driver to know what looks good or bad about a company. For what it's worth, I probably found out more about what's dishonest & unscrupulous about trucking sooner than most here. I drove Int'l Transtars & Intl conventional daycabs in CDL school at Ryder in 1973. Ryder was just a sleazy cdl mill & was sued later in a huge class action suit. I drove intrastate after that because I was too young to drive over the road. And the top of my head still hurts from bouncing off the roof of that POS cab over. I've seen people fall flat on their faces in the middle of the road climbing out of them. I now two guys who were killed by passing cars while climbing down out of that junk (sorry cab over fans - but your legs get rubbery sitting in those things all day & when you go to climb down - sometimes your legs just aren't there anymore). At any rate - I know a little bit more about the dishonesty in this industry than some.

If I were to look for employees to hire - number one on my list would be honesty. Not safety point games or anything else. I want someone honest. I can teach them the rest but I can't change their basic character. Daytona struck me as a very honest guy who went into this hoping for the best - and yes - NEEDING a good job and NEEDING a paycheck & HOPING for a company to give him a little bit of credit. I have been there too. I doubt anyone will disagree that rules & regulations that have no exceptions are NOT effective rules & regs - when it comes to corporate employee policy. DOT is another story - although I have even found DOT (ICC in my youth) willing to bend a rule once in a while.

I think Mav could have sat down with Daytona & worked this out. This is not the Marine Corp. Do some safety training. Drive with an instructor for a month. I'll bet notarps would have volunteered to do it for Daytona for nothing - right notarps? Close to nothing anyway! But to handle this the way they did - and act as though Mav had no faults when they still had Daytona's money in their pockets as well .................I just couldn't sit back & leave Daytona with no backup here. If you think I'm wrong for feeling some dissatisfaction with Mav & saying so - help yourself. But whether I drive a truck or not has nothing to do with it. Whether Mav is somewhat better or even a LOT better than most companies - I will NEVER feel good about how this all transpired. Stating that is my right as a subscriber to Daytona's thread - I've done that - I appreciate notarps' position but respectfully disagree with him. And I think the points I've made are valid & could apply to ALL jobs & ALL businesses.

There is a significant shortage of skilled labor in this country today - and a severe work ethic problem. I know more about that in my current business than trucking - but the entire transportation industry is facing major problems right now. Treating HONEST people who are making a real effort- to learn & succeed- like crap is one of the main reasons the trans industry is in trouble. Start treating your subcontractors & employees with respect & dignity - they will start to think of themselves as professionals instead of just 'truck drivers', train operators or boat crew.

In my opinion Mav failed the test this time. They may have other reasons we don't know about - but I think Daytona could have been treated better - I would have hoped for & even expected that had I been in his shoes. After all Maverick TRAINED him & invested in him. They have lots of other employees & maybe this is an isolated incident. But company policy was driving their decision-making. That's what convinces me Mav is not for me. Maybe someone at Maverick will read this & consider making the effort to adjust company policy in this area. Nobody is right about everything all the time. Not even notarps! Not even me.

 

I never said it was mav's policy to keep a new driver over a old hand. Daytona's FM is my Fm's back up manager and my manager misses a lot of work, so I deal with him as much as mine. What I said is he was a new driver that made a lot of newbie mistakes. He went in and took classes, but he was pointed out and they did not feel that he could last any longer without gaining more points. Nothing wrong with being new, but some of the things that hung him was going to the wrong drop 1st on a multi stop load (some of our multi stops are in different states) Truck fuel mpg 4 miles. (they want 6.7) High OOR (they want 10 % or less) Hitting things with the trailer.
All of these things add up. My point was saying that they should have paid him what they owed him, but to come on here and say I bet the real reason I was let go is because they wanted a driver in the seat to run illegal was just wrong. Again if I point out I am gone. It is co policy. He also said he hurt his shoulder, but had a shoulder problem prior to this job. Is is right to shift the blame and make it sound like it was the co's fault?

Now what happens if a newbie reads that and thinks well, I am not going with that ate up outfit, so they go spend 6 grand and go to an ate up outfit and go belly up. How much help is that to the newbie? Some co's are not good fits for certain drivers, but it helps to know a good co from an ate up co. Exp is the key in this field. Believe what you want post what you want. I don't care if you believe me or not, but when I leave mav on my own or them telling me it is time to go I will still be telling newbies this a great place to start because it is. I have no intentions to leave, but have never married any job. When I leave I won't be saying well I bet they wanted me to run illegal. I know the company. They stress safety more than any other co I have ever been with.

 

??? walking in late... but dang???? 4mpg !!! that'll get ya canned in a hurry anywhere... that's like $60,000.00 a year in additional fuel expense...

wait let me do the math again... nope it is like 60K a year...