Might be my last week

Sorry to hear about your losses and experience OTR. Hope it gets better, gotta make the right choice for yourself. Good luck.

 

I hear ya FirNaTine, money was low for the newby but it was tolerable for now. My thing was being away from my family especially with my mom in law going through Chemo. Havent seen her since thanksgiving. Its hard on the wife also having lost her dad 4 years agoo as well. I love OTR but I love my family even more, so Im going loacal for awhile w/ a road construction company but still do OTR once a week hauling for their cement company. Better pay also. 18 bucks an hour is hard to beat right now. Good luck.

 

Think about this. You signed a document that stated you will pay back the expense of orientation if you do not stay for six months. I think that amount is $700.00. If you gotta go, you gotta go. Good luck.

 

I actually asked George (Prick number one at orientation) about that before I signed the contract, I just wanted to know how much I was on the hook for before I signed for it, same with the physical and drug screen which you are also on the hook for if you quit in the first 90 days. He told me it was basically about $300 for the orientation costs, and $90 for the whiz quiz and physical. Then he proceeded to write me up in my file for asking about it instead of just signing it. That is pretty much my impression of TMC thus far. It's pretty unethical to try and run everyone through the signatures without at least explaining or even mentioning that by signing they are taking on certain financial liabilities. There wasn't a single person in my class who realized they were assuming potential debt, not that it would have made a difference on whether or not anyone signed, it's just that they shouldn't have tried to sneak it in.

FirNa good luck with whatever you choose, I'm sorry to hear it's not working out for you. It's a tough time to get into trucking.

 

I signed all the same BS stuff in oreintation. One thing I noticed about TMC was that they like to try and intimidate people. My training coordinator threw all types of threats at me when I told him I needed a couple of days after coming in from my over the road training to take care of some stuff. I was kept out the last weekend and they wanted me to drive straight to DesMoines the next morning after getting home so I could do my road test and start driving. I explained I had a few things I had to take care of, mostly an audit from the company my wife owns which wasn't his buisness, and needed a day or two. He told me that they might not even keep me if I did this and I just told him whatever, I've got to have a day or two. Well he gave in and said it was ok. While home I checked with a couple of oil field companies and had three job offers for better money and home every night so that made my mind up about going back to TMC, have to think of my family first and why else are we all working if it's not for the money. When I called my coordinator back and told him I was going to work somewhere else he start throwing the threats again. Stuff like I would owe them $800 for training and they would be holding my check if I left. Again I explained that I had to go where I knew I would be making a decent check. I told him they could do whatever they flet they had to even if that meant keeping my last check but I was going to do what I had to do to support my family. Guess what, I still got my last check. I noticed they like to use scair tatics to get some of the new drivers to do what they want.

FirNaTine you have to do whats right for you. TMC will make it sound like you owe them something but the only person you owe anything to is yourself. Yes TMC gave you a chance but you also gave them a chance. All the money they say it cost them to train us is a big tax write off for them, they really don't lose. My last week there our FM bouced us from Baytown to Dallas on a Wed. The next morning she wanted us to pick a load up in Irvine going to Nabraska. She knew I had already been out two weeks and was sending us on a run that there was no way I would make it home for the weekend. I'm also sure that since we would have been out that weekend that she would have just kept us out the rest of the week instead of sending us home during the week, that would have been three weeks out for me. Two things saved us. First I was scheduled to report to DesMoines the following week to take my driving test, not sure if this really saved us though because they couold have just routed us over there since we would have been in the area. Second, and probably the only thing that got us home that weekend, was just as they started to load us they stopped and said they didn't have enough material to finish our load and it would be Friday afternoon before they could finish our load, no way we could make delivery without being loaded that day. Bottom line is your just a blip on there screen that makes them money. It's that way with just about every company be trucking, oil field or any other, thats how they make their money. If a job is costing you money or family problems then it's just not worth staying. Sometimes though if you stick it out things do get better but you can tell by your gut feeling if it's time to move on. Everytime I have ignored my gut feelings I have paid for it in the end. I wish you luck and keep in touch with me, I'll give you a call this weekend to see how things turned out. I wish I had gotten the numbers of some of the others guys that went through oreintation with us to see how it is going for them. You take it easy man and good luck.

 

Good luck whatever happens

i was wandering the same thing

 

Yes, he'll tell you if he wants to.

 

i hope he pops back in soon, he is a wealth of information