01/21/10 Update on good and bad at Marten

great that sounds like i'm going to have a blast

 

Blade, I would rethink coming to Marten. My miles have picked up, but their communication is still ####. I've heard mixed reviews on the Tx. regional board. I know the upper midwest region is not what i expected. They just don't seem to give a #### in the office. There are better companies to drive for in your area. I'd keep searching if I were you!

 

Animals in Zoo have more room to move than the training closet or the drivers 'lounge' Btw, no shower there. Also not even a candy machine. And a unisex bathroom.So women beware lock that door.

The lot we have there is mostly filled up with unassinged trucks. Today when i arrived with an mty, there was no room, had to go 30 miles out of route to drop it at our other and much better drop yrd in Saginaw. Then bobtail back to Irving for service.

They keep saying they are building a new much larger termianl, but as of 6/27 they haven't broke ground.

 

I wouldn't expect a new one there for while. They're just finishing up the new one in the Atlanta area (Tucker). I agree though...that Irving yard really is sad.

 

Well river U seem to be the only person that comes on here that has done regional for marten. I've looked at what i thought were the majority of companies in this area i've been driving local for three years and have only one year otr so i don't have all the options in the world but if u know of any companies in this area plz let me know and can u narrate a lil more on what was wrong with the midwest regional and if its so bad why u haven't left plz i'm just trying to learn all i can as said before when i started driving in 06 i thought marten was the greatest but i didn't have enough exp until last year to even apply so i really need to know why they are so bad now
Thank you for all that reply and i really will listen and consider all opinions

 

I'll chime in: I'm actually moving from OTR to Upper Midwest Regional in the next couple of days.

The communication issues that River complains about are genuine issues. It seems that they've been doing an ENORMOUS amount of shuffling of people at HQ. The end result seems to be the most problematic for drivers, but the communication between all the folks in Mondovi is bad enough that they don't even notice how irked the drivers are.

I don't know how to boil this down without being too glossy. It seems that nobody in the corporate office, except a few very committed fleet managers, will spend one single extra calorie of energy to get you the information you need as a driver. They seem to be very committed to the mentality of "this is my job, that's not my job, let me transfer you to the person whose job that is" and then you get to a voice mail box. The end result is that you, the driver, wind up chasing down real people to get answers to questions that you would think should be able to be answered by a functional dispatch tree.

The primary way that this manifests itself is in the efficiency of dispatch. I've found that the way I can keep my miles up is by constantly lobbing salvos of information into my FM's lap. What's my eta, my hours after mt (all information that's in the daily check call macro, but doesn't get read) and often nudging him in the direction of what needs to happen. Example message:

Should I have to do this? Not if the system they have worked the way it was supposed to. Communication seems to be convoluted by our system as opposed to streamlined. And yeah, it can pretty quickly seem like nobody in the office gives a ####, but I survive it by reminding myself that, unless somebody out and out tells me they don't care, they might just be super busy.

I'm one of 2500, and I have to remind myself of that. I don't want to be one of 2500, but thinking like I am just a number and going out of my way to get noticed and stay ahead of the curve seems to keep my miles up a little higher than others I talk to.

Why am I switching to UMW regional? I figure if there's no way I'm going to see a 3000 mile week more than once every two months, I might as well see my wife and my son a little more often. My miles OTR have been pretty consistently in the 2300-2800 range (if I'm not going on or coming off of home time), and I figure I can get the same mileage rate, mostly the same miles, and be home more than once a month on regional.

I've given up imagining that the system is capable of producing 3k mile weeks. It just doesn't "think" that way.

Am I giving up on it just yet? No. Is it the worst job in the world? Hell no, contrary to what a lot of folks here will say. There are definitely worse companies to work for.

The per mile pay rate here is actually pretty high (even factoring in per diem) compared to other places I've researched, but please, for your sanity, don't expect the moderately high mileage rate to go hand in hand with constant high mileage.

Best advice: Be positive, be proactive, don't take things personally, and know your limits. It can be tough to keep all four of these in sight at once sometimes, but it'll help. You're going to work for a big company that has developed a lot of the blind spots of a big company in the last year or so, and remembering that they're not out to squash you on purpose will help. That way, if you find that it's time to move on eventually, you won't come back to these boards with a chip on your shoulder about Marten Transport Ltd. for the rest of your life.

 

arrived # Laredo terminal on the 1st of July, been sitting here with 30 other company trucks. And 1 onwer op 488 miles for all of last week. I want the f***king Marten Cheerleaders please explain how someone can live on 468 miles?

 

Kabar would explain it,

but I think he bailed !!!!!!!!

 

I'm sure the recruting cheerleader would.

 

You know it just makes no sense how the regional guys get loads out but OTR guys are stuck there til who knows when. I only went there once and I got out the same day but that just sucks to get stuck there that long.