Transport Corp. Of America - Eagan, Mn.?

T.A. I got nothin good to say about them! ppl who r sayin there gettin good miles r blowin smoke up ur kiester. I was with them little over a year and never did i get over 2300 miles in a week. i was a owner operater with them and they gave no support to me. they also like to put the full blame for any type of load problems on thier drivers even when its the incompetent morons in dispatch that screwed up. the company execs need to wake up and pull there heads out of u know where because there running it into the ground. swift transport treated me better and ran me harder than these clowns did. if i seem hostile about this company your right and the only good thing i can say about them is its a good company to be from, not at!

 

Demon, I don't know the particulars why you didn't get miles. I am only aware of my experience. I'm not blowing smoke. I keep all my driver scorecards and have records of all my paid miles and I have averaged 3000 mi a week for 8 months.

I do know the timeliness in which you transflo paperwork, the legality of your logs, the amount of loads you refuse, the hours you are willing to work, the frequency and duration of hometime all play a factor in the amount of miles you get. It also helps to be hazmat certified. I believe I also got miles because I sent macro 21 with available hours every day and bugged the snot out of them until they sent me a plan if I had hours left.

There was a woman that started the same time I did. She was not hazmat certified. She had difficulty managing her time and sometimes needed loads recovered and often ran over her hours. After a while she was getting 1500-1800 mi a week while I continued to get 3000. That was her doing not TA's. I'm not saying you ran illegal or refused loads cause I don't know.

My trainer taught me the ins and outs of getting the most miles and what the dispatchers want to see. In addition to what he taught me I learned to use the 8/2 split to maximize my hours and efficiency and used the squeaky wheel principle to keep the planners on their toes.

In 8 months I've had 100% on time performance, perfect safety record, hit idle targets each month,ran hazmat, ran to Canada, ran to NYC, ran at night, ran Fed Ex and 3M with out any hitches. And I never turned down any load that I had available hours to run.

Yes, I am a company slave, but I'm a company slave that gets miles.

 

I had to sit in Orlando earlier this week for about 2 hours due to a change in a back load. That has been it. I have been running since. Don't understand the low miles that Demon is talking about.

 

A comment / question...

someone said .29 cpm sounds cheap... well yes and no...

the question part... how do they figure the mileage? last I heard t/a was going practical miles... which by itself is worth about 5% just in milesge pay.

something I can attest to: t/a didn't like paying the I-80 toll across indianna so they routed me on hwy 30, all other tolls paid with the ezpass.

Most of the customer base I had experience with was pulling the john deere, home depot, and hann accounts with a back haul from wherever.

Most of these locations are right off the interstate. Meaning you aren't habitually cow trailing it...

or saying... miles ain't miles and cpm ain't always cpm...

I'll run the Interstate even at 60 over the endless, middle of nowhere, 40 mph routes.

T/A and no company can really be evaluated off of cpm, mph, or pick a poke... the bottom line will always be how much was actually in your pocket at the end of the year and how hard did you have to work to get it.

To me T/a stands out (no I swear I'm not a recruiter...LMAO!!!) as a pretty darned good company... When its all said and done you'll have some loot in your pocket, some very good training, the hours ain't bad, there is alot of route and fueling freedom, time off freedom, run it hard freedom, if the road isn't safe they don't push you to run and may tell you to shut it down.

this all adds up to a good place to work. Still a job !!! but they just really aren't out to get you and you can make a living...

btw... am loving my new company... They aren't a training company and if you didn't have some experience you'd be screwed... I needed t/a and they were good for me and are on my short list of the majors I'd even look at if I needed a job...

good luck all.

 

Good for you Vols.

You do sit from time to time but if you're doing your part you should average a minimum of 2400 and more often 2700-3200 if you are efficient and stay out a couple weeks at a time.

In June I sat for 12 hrs twice and for 23 hrs once and I took 5 days off at the end of the month and still did 10500 miles for the month. Had I not taken the 5 days off I would've had around 12700 for the month.

Of course much of it depends on the freight lines you run. The midwest is always busy. OH,IN,MI,IL,IA and WI are states that will keep you moving. Much less freight in SE and in New England. In any case if you're doing your part and sending messages on the Qcom that you want to run you will get decent miles if you're an OTR driver.

 

To all of you that think Transport America is a good company... YOU need to think twice! Office people are rude, and give you the run around. Most of the office staff will transfer the calls instead of taking care of the issue stating that it is not their problem. They bad mouth the drivers. They do NOT care if you get home even if you request it 2-3 weeks in advance.

They hold your pay when they can't look at the logs correctly (UNTRAINED MONKEYS), which it turn WILL hold your pay, (PAYROLL DEPT EXTREMELY RUDE J.##*ES) even if you did turn them in on time. I never turned down a load with them just to keep getting miles, but as an O/OP you need to get more then 900 miles a week(this was with taking anything that they had and I still sat 24 hours or more on multiple days in the same week) Tell me how does this pay a truck payment and fuel and still get money home to the family?

They keep the company drivers as a prority instead of who they make money off of. T/A needs to rethink their priorities when it comes to the way they are running the business. They make claims that they will get you miles, and home time but lets face the facts: NO HOME TIME, NO MILES, TREATED LIKE DIRT= NOT WORTH YOUR TIME OF DAY. They do not keep the promises that they make, they say what they want to get you hooked and in the door then BAM your stuck.

They need to get Scott Arves from Schneider out of there along with 90% of the staff and then maybe it would be a good company. They lost what a good trucking company needs and that is DEICATION to they drivers. Good luck to anyone that is daring enough to try them out just do not go O/OP with them you will regret it!!

 

Bay and bay does pay a bit less however I transfered over to them and got GREAT miles and TONS of respect. Benefits are good as well

 

Sorry you were treated badly Demon.

Everything you've stated is foreign to me. Not only did my experience differ from yours, I have talked with many many drivers both company and O/O and while I've heard some griping I have heard nothing like what you're saying.

 

The only untrained monkey flinging poo is you, Demon. You obviously are not telling the whole story. I have NEVER been mistreated or spoken down to by anyone at corporate operations or any of the terminals in the six years I have been at Transport America. I have had my share of disagreements with support staff but they have always treated me with respect. I schedule my home time weeks in advance and always make it home, not always at the exact time I may request, but home none the less.

Regarding logs, they have to be legible, legal and turned in BEFORE the end of the pay period. Frequently the drivers that have the most problems with the log department holding their pay do not follow those three simple rules.

There is absolutely no way you took all loads offered and only got 900 miles a week. Company drivers got the miles you turned down or the loads you were too good for. Your BS story is an obvious attempt to make TA look bad because they did not bend over backward to kiss your O/O butt. In other words, I believe you are just out right lying. I have the driver scorecards, logs and driver notebooks to prove I run an average of 2600-3400 miles a week. My log book errors run about 1-3 every six months, usually I forget to sign the end of day inspection. My on-time delivery has been 100% for the past six years and my working percentage is 98% annually. How much useless crap have you won with all your Cherry Masters points?

I don't know what or why you have something against Scott Arves or Schneider. But you have no idea what your talking about. Schneider has nothing to do with the way Transport is run, Transport America is a privately held company and has no affiliation with Schneider. Arves has increased TA's customer base, expanded commitment to existing customers and reduced corporate waste. Anyone that has been to the Laredo, TX yard this month can tell you there is more freight going into and out of Laredo than anywhere in the TA system. Over the 4th of July weekend there were over 100 loads in the yard. I personally did four local loads, an easy $240 for a couple of hours work, Monday morning before taking my 1520 mile load to Sandusky where another load was already waiting to go back to Laredo as soon as I could get down there. Where were you? Sitting in a truck stop somewhere playing Cherry Masters and complaining that you might have to drive after sun down in order to deliver the load? No doubt, your not a truck driver but, a professional whiner.

In addition I will accept driver unloads/assist, short hauls, long hauls, local cartage, equipment relocation, etc. I don't care what it is I run it, I am not out here to be a professional tourist. I just want to make money, end of story. I believe the key here is, you have to be willing to work in order to actually make money. No one anywhere is willing to just hand you cash for hanging out in a truck stop. If you find such a job hang on to it because you're well suited for that type of work.

Is TA a perfect company? Not by a long shot but, name one company that does not have it's detractions. Do they try to make it better? A resounding YES, especially for the OTR drivers. TA, like all companies, have their good and bad support staff and they have their good and bad drivers. I definitely think Transport America is a much better company now that Demon has decided to take his sour attitude, prima-donna butt and POS truck somewhere else.

Good luck Demon you need it. Rest assured, the company you're with now will not be your last. It will not take long for them to tire of your complaining and then you will be on to the next company. How many places have you worked in the last five years? Three, four, more? Don't worry there are lots of companies that will make the same mistake Transport America did and hire you without checking.

Take care and be safe.

 

No, Transport America is a privately held company. They are not now or have ever been affiliated with any other trucking company.