Melton Truck Lines

Discussion in 'Motor Carrier Questions - The Inside Scoop' started by cnjrollin, Oct 15, 2007.

  1. rookietrucker

    rookietrucker Trucker Forum STAFF Staff Member

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    Jul 15, 2007
    TEXAS
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    Birmingham must be the spot were they fire everyone. I know a few other drivers that was relieved of there truck in Birmingham. When all of these drivers were hired in Tulsa. :biggrin_2554:
     
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  3. slodsm

    slodsm Light Load Member

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    Jan 19, 2008
    Tyler TX
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    That is a big plus......... I can't believe Melton has such a health kick going they won't even let you buy junk food out of the junk machine. Hell my truck was issued to me with a bottle of water, a pack of peanuts, and a granola bar, SERIOUSLY lol.

    I have had a good week with them this week though. We will see, maybe you just had a jerkoff for a DM? Who knows, a fleet manager/driver manager can make or break a company for you. Mine seems pretty good and a hell of a lot better than the holier than thou prick I had at my last company.
     
  4. moujick

    moujick Light Load Member

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    Aug 8, 2007
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    appreciated your comeback if i have any question i ask, thanks again
     
  5. ybfjax

    ybfjax Light Load Member

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    Jun 30, 2007
    GA
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    Wow, I was just recently on the cb with a melton driver who was talking all kinds of good things with melton. I wanted to confirm or deny these things here:

    1) he was making 48/mi. he's been there about a year, but had previous 6 years driving.

    2) $40 to tarp (20 to tarp, 20 to untarp). u'll do a lot of tarping at melton.

    3) u do have to request to be home, but u get to go as often as u want. he stays out for a month at a time, then takes a week off. but u could be home every wknd if u wanted.

    4) u can set up trucks how u want. they come with 2500w inverters. Soon they will come with apu's. now if the truck doesnt come with inverter, u can get one.

    5) u can get the miles if u want them.

    6) detention pay is 12/hr after the first 2 hours. and they do pay.

    7) they only take experienced drivers. 3 months experience.

    million milers get to customize their paint job, and get better treatment for loads and even get an option to purchase a truck.

    Can u confirm these things? any additional info u would like to add?

    what DONT u like about melton?

    I thought about looking into them (melton), but for now I will be with builders for at least till the end of this year. But I was looking to do either

    1) specialized/heavy haul
    2) doubles

    But i would stick with flatbed it the pay is there. I may consider being a trainer at that time.
     
  6. cnjrollin

    cnjrollin Bobtail Member

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    Feb 21, 2007
    Mesquite, TX
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    WOW, well...some true and some not..heres the breakdown.

    1) he was making 48/mi. he's been there about a year, but had previous 6 years driving.

    NO. Max at Melton is about 45-46 and that's for million milers. (1.2 million miles I believe)
    You will start at 39 cents with 1-3 years verifiable OTR experience...with a raise to 41 after 120,000 miles

    2) $40 to tarp (20 to tarp, 20 to untarp). u'll do a lot of tarping at melton.

    YES. $40 is correct, however, when you repower or do multi drops you will not be paid extra to untarp and retarp. There's about 50% tarping at melton.

    3) u do have to request to be home, but u get to go as often as u want. he stays out for a month at a time, then takes a week off. but u could be home every wknd if u wanted.

    Yes 2 days for every 2 weeks, with a minimum of 14 days out. Prior notice of 7 days is required so they can route you, and it's unpaid dead head miles when you go home. They are pretty good about getting you home, as long as they can find you a load. They will not dead head you home however if it is more than 200 miles. (you will wait for a load to get you closer)

    4) u can set up trucks how u want. they come with 2500w inverters. Soon they will come with apu's. now if the truck doesnt come with inverter, u can get one.

    NO. Set up trucks how you want? If no inverter is present in your truck, they can put one in for you if you buy one. Some trucks have 1500w inverters. The newer KWs come with APUs and I heard they are outfitting the rest of the fleet with APUs one at a time. Trucks come with 1500w inverters, and are governed at 62/63. Don't expect a new KW or an APU, all of that is done based on senority and the age of your previously assigned truck. They offer KW T-600 and Freight Liners...and they have a handful of new KWs...newer models with the same room, just outfitted with APUs.

    5) u can get the miles if u want them.

    Melton runs you when you first start out, then the miles tend to dwindle down or begin to vary...depending on the freight. All depends on how you run, personally I think melton caps miles, they run you but of course it depends on the freight and they have lease purchase trucks, so they have to divide the miles between all the drivers. Of course the million milers get to choose loads and get more priority. Melton will tell you their average length of haul is 800 miles, but dont take that to the bank. That's based on a yearly average...so 400 mile dispatches are not uncommon, and 2300 mile loads are not unheard of! All depends on your location and position on their load board. They use a board system which places you in line with other drivers once you complete your delivery. It's not unusual to be number 14 in line...remember melton has about 1,000 trucks running.

    You can expect to average about 2000 miles per week. (solo) If you get dispatched on friday you will not have to sit over the weekend...otherwise find a good truck stop.

    6) detention pay is 12/hr after the first 2 hours. and they do pay.

    NO. You do a 2 hours warning via qualcomm, then on the 3rd hour you send in another macro to request layover. It's about $10 per hour. Melton will pay, but the macros must be sent in and your DM must remember to inform payroll of the detention or layover.

    7) they only take experienced drivers. 3 months experience minimum.

    Yes. They recently lowered their standards to 3 months experience.
    That's OTR experience, they will train you in flatbed and securement.
    Newbies can expect to start off at 35 cents per mile for less than 6 months OTR experience.

    8) million milers get to customize their paint job, and get better treatment for loads and even get an option to purchase a truck.

    YES. Million milers get to choose what color paint job they want on their trucks...they pick between about 4-5 colors. They can choose a special paint job...or to receive a second exhaust stack on their truck..I've also heard something about a special headache rack or something..not sure on that though.
    Thats 1 million Melton miles! Which will take you about 5-7 years to achieve.

    Melton probably can offer you more than BTC - I'm not crazy about the trucks you guys run...and I'm not sure what your tarp pay is...I know western express was paying $15 per tarp at one time...that's just absurd!
    Seems like I remember Melton being better than BTC back when I was researching different flatbed companies.

    Good Luck!
     
    Last edited: Jun 30, 2008
  7. slodsm

    slodsm Light Load Member

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    Jan 19, 2008
    Tyler TX
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    CNJ pretty much covered it.

    The only thing I noticed that my experience has been different is if you repower a tarped load, you get the 20 to untarp it and the guy who you took the load from got the 20 to tarp it.

    One thing that is cool, you get the 40 buck (or at least I do) even if it's just a smoke tarp.


    Not a bad place, everything has their ins and outs but I have a killer DM so it makes it nice for me. I take "crappy" runs during the week (200 mile DH, 300 mile load) to run 4-500 a day during the week or so but she always gets me something good for the weekend to keep me rolling as long as I get unloaded friday at a decent time.

    I have no complaints, every company has their problems but Meltons are good enough for me.
     
  8. LJT

    LJT Bobtail Member

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    Jul 1, 2008
    FRANKLIN KY
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    JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW MY HUSBAND WENT TO WORK FOR MELTON AND I ROAD WITH HIM AN IT WAS THE BIGGEST MISTAKE OF OUR LIVES, THE ONLY GOOD THING THAT CAME OUT OF IT WAS WE MADE SO GOOD FRIENDS,IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO KNOW ANYTHING I WOULD BE HAPPY TO HELP.
     
  9. LJT

    LJT Bobtail Member

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    Jul 1, 2008
    FRANKLIN KY
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    Dont Feel Bad The Same Thing Happend To My Husband He Was Out Of Hours An They Gave Him A Load An He Told Them He Wasnt Taking It An They Called Us To Dalles , They Tell You If Your Out Of Hours An Cant Make A Load To Let Them Know An It Dont Go Against You Thats A Lie,the Bad Part About It Is We Were Good Friends With Every One In Al An Lrd Tx An They Said It Wasnt Right , But They Also Screwed My Husbands Dac Up In The Mean Time An He Had Know Idea Until He Applied With Another Comp.i Also Made Sure Bob Knew How Much Of A Sorry ##*comp He Had When We Left.
     
  10. cnjrollin

    cnjrollin Bobtail Member

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    Feb 21, 2007
    Mesquite, TX
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    I guess its possible with the tarping thing, we ran into alot of junk when it came to repowers -- the repowers usually offered low miles so tarping was not even worth it...I mean retarping a load just to go like 2-300 miles? bleck! most drivers did not want to exchange tarps, which meant we had to retarp it....there were times when we did not receive the tarp pay...and almost always if we did exchange tarps we got the crappiest tarps on earth in return! Got to the point where we just stopped patching them. I remember they would say the load was going to be a coil and it'd be piping..or Melton would say tarp it and the paperwork would say NO TARP. Rusted rebar doesnt need to be tarped -- so we skipped out on that one. lol Alot of errors in our favor I guess you could say.

    Lets remember though melton uses lumber tarps with huge drops - not those light steel tarps. I guess you could get a 3 piece from them -- most of the million milers had 3 piece tarps...or their own personal tarps.
    It just sucked using a huge lumber tarp to tarp a single coil, when eveyone else is using either coil tarps or a steel tarp.
     
  11. cnjrollin

    cnjrollin Bobtail Member

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    Feb 21, 2007
    Mesquite, TX
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    hmmm wonder if you were the couple we saw at birmingham, al terminal, trying to figure out how you were going to get to laredo, tx after being fired by melton???
     
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