Avoid Marten Transport LTD.

Yup there are two Martins/Martens, actually three if you want to count the little 2-3 truck one thats related to the one in Tomah Wi. they are fueding cousins or something like that.
You got a red one and a blue one.

 

I am an owner operator leased to Marten 7-25-07 to date and was a company driver for them august 2001 until I got my own truck.
In my opinion they have been more than fair with me on everything. I was hired straight out of a CDL school. I had to graduate top in my class before I got a shot with Marten.I had to pass a road test in modovi,do a skid pad exercise,then drive with a trainer for 30 days.They very rarely hire students anymore but It depends on the applicant. If they do hire a student you must attend a CDL training site that is aproved by Marten as they will be paying the tuition payments.

3 types of truckers,truckers that have a peterbilt,truckers that want a peterbilt and truckers who are in denial.

 

Well Ive been over the road for about 27 yrs.. And Monday I start with Marten.. The economy drove my other job (A&R) of 10 yrs in the ground..Ive researched this company online,in truckstops with thier drivers...and looked at thier public financial records.. Im thinking I might enjoy it...albeit the electronics..But I guess you've got to learn sometime..Be seein you down the road

 

I just got approved to bring my truck over there.Now I have to find load back to Ca so I can drop my step deck and shed the extra wieght of my headache rack and other flatbed equip seeing that the platform stuff has all but died.

 

FIRED : After 40 years of driving, with 14 years of that driving class 8 trucks for 4 different companies (all glowing references), and with no accidents in a lifetime and no moving violations for 7 years, I was fired for too many points on the Marten point system (they double your points for the first year on the job). Deemed a preventable accident, off road, only involving my tractor and trailer, approx. 2 to 3 thousand in damage, no injuries. It exceeded their 'point system'. Their point system doubles points for your first year, so it won't take much to get fired, so keep that in mind if you work for Marten. After my accident I was still dispatched and hauled some more but come monday afternoon I got fired with 2 hours notice to clean out my truck. I was told that my benefits would stop immediately; luckily I have a healthy family. No empty boxes were available at the terminal, so I hurriedly put all my stuff out on the ground, with storm clouds looming (so keep some flattened boxes under your mattress if you drive for Marten). Marten said they would give me a taxi ride to the bus stop, but that was all. They said they could buy my bus ticket but would take it out of my final pay. I declined, I had too much stuff to bring on a bus as baggage. I was 2000 miles from home, with no idea how to get all my stuff home, because Greyhound will only allow one checked luggage of 50lbs or less. I was shocked by this, as if a driver abandons a truck then your DAC is shot, but if a carrier abandons a driver then it's ok? Moral? Legal? I will be finding out.

If it can happen to me with my good driving and work record, it could happen to any of you. Those of you who have smugly posted glowing posts on this thread about Marten, you will be changing your song if you have an accident, and this is a very real possibility, unless you are perfect, and my info is that there has only ever been one person on this earth that was perfect. Only one. And it isn't me, and it isn't you.

I used their taxi ride to go to a motel so I would have time to figure out how to get home with my stuff. I checked the cost of a bus ($214, one checked bag allowed), car rental (approx. $1000), and airline ($270 with 2 bags). I then rented a car to run errands for boxes and to take my stuff to ship via FedEx, and then dropped the car at the airport and took the cheap red eye flight.

So ABANDONMENT is why I am posting a bad DAC here for Marten Transport of Mondovi, WI. While I am on the stump here, since I am writing anyway, l might as well point out some other things about Marten.

Recruiting told me Marten doesn't haul anything dangerous, and they NEVER haul class 1 (explosives) or class 3 (flammable). The reality is I did haul class 3 placarded flammable.

No matter which of the 5 terminals you hire out of, you will be paying income tax to Wisconsin (main terminal) This is important to any of you who live in states with no income tax, such as Texas and Washington, as you will take a pretty good hit on your paycheck for WI taxes.

I hired out of a west coast terminal, and when I would dispatch out after home time I would always have a good long haul out to the eastern side. Then Marten would mostly Keep me in the eastern area. Trucking companies that specialize in this eastern area, that hire in the eastern area, offer another nickel per mile more than Marten to get the help they need (the nickel helps compensate for the slow going with hills, congestion, 2-lane roads, scarce overnight parking. Marten's pay is a nickel shy of the going rate for east side drivers, good for Marten, great strategy for Marten.

Marten is a short to medium haul company. I did personally see the memo on the wall of a terminal that explains to the effect that Marten deems the competition on rates as too competitive for the long hauls, so Marten would let the competion have the long hauls and just concentrate on the medium and short hauls. I went over my records for the first 4 months on the job, and my average length of haul was 800 miles. Just FYI.

Marten says you can take your truck home if there isn't a terminal near where you live. The reality is the requirements for an approved place to park it are near impossible to comply with. If you can park the entire combo on your own property within view from your house, fine. Otherwise, it's tough. You cannot park it at a truck stop while on home time. You cannot disconnect the tractor from the trailer ever anywhere, except if it has to go in the shop. So I paid for outdoor storage at a place that caters to about 6 other trucks. It is fenced and the sign says they have video, and the owner's home is where he can see the trucks from his front living room window, but I could never get Marten to approve this. I spent half my first day off hassling with frantic qualcomms and answering and waiting for approval only to get more questions. I thought I was finally cleared to leave it there and I went on home time. When I came back to work I had messages waiting chewing me out and sternly telling me next time I would have to go through an approval process, blah, blah, blah. I didn't ever try taking the truck home again; I would just leave it at the terminal and take my 4wheeler 150 miles each way for hometime. An expense I hadn't factored in when I decided to work for Marten. Just FYI.

In orientation you will be told that all the trailers have air scales, and so Marten only reimburses for scales if the dispatch wt. is 42,000 or more. In reality, in my experience, over 90% of the air scales are so inaccurate that they are useless. I got 2 overweight tickets in my first month, one for approx. 1400 lbs over-axle when the air scale was reading 32,000 axle. The other was 900 lbs over on a different trailer with an air scale reading 32,000. The guages seem to max out at 32,000 even if heavier. Other drivers advised me to pay for CAT scales out of my own pocket to keep my driving record clean, and this is what I did. Since you are doing short to medium hauls, you will need to weigh often. Plan on spending about $40 to $60 per month of your own money on scales that don't qualify for reimbursement. There will be loads where the paperwork might show well over 42,000, but the dispatch will show under 42,000, so dispatch will deny you scale reimbursement because approval is contingent upon dispatched weight, not shippers paperwork or CAT scales. You can appeal up the chain of command, but it is a hassle typing the same explanation and request over and over and you may not be approved, but you might if you keep after it.

You get paid HCC miles, not practical miles. I lost about 10% on this arrangement. I got a lot of West Virginia and Virginia and you really lose a lot in these states and others on the difference between HCC and practical. I'm just sayin'.

After my first 4 or 5 months with Marten, the economic downturn started impacting, so in Nov. 08 I and other drivers I talked to were observing that the people in the office suddenly started acting short and rude with us, and it seemed they were walking on egg shells. Everyone seemed to be suddenly afraid for their jobs. Moral went down. Hold times for road service and payroll went up drastically. Shop employees told me about this time that Marten had started firing a higher number of drivers than usual, and for flimsy reasons. I talked to drivers that I seen cleaning out their trucks and they were indeed being fired for flimsy reasons.

My miles were over 2500 per week until beginning Feb. 09 when I began getting a lot of layover. Marten pays $25 per day layover for the first 2 days. The loads were now dispatched with an extra day on it before delivery so that's like another day of layover, so 3 days to run a 1000 mile haul, for example, and then 2 days of layover,and so forth. So my miles went down to approx. 1300 per week. The frustrating part of this is that I verified that Marten was still hiring the usual weekly quota of around 40 drivers per week even though there wasn't enough work for those of us already on board.

Marten fuels with Pilot, longer lines, less parking, no restaurants, only fast food, no lounge. Some might say this is a minor point, but not to me.

In summary, Marten abandoned this driver over 2000 miles from home, so I am giving them a bad DAC here; that's what Marten would do to me if I abandoned their truck, so turnaround is fair play, eh? If I liked Marten I would be looking forward to the day when I could requalify so I could apply again, but I never will. I really think I can do better.

"There ain't never been anything got that wasn't went out after". Finley Hays, logger, SW Washington, 1918-2008, R.I.P.

 

Sorry to hear you lost your job. But if this was your first year with Marten and you got into an accident, it is no little secret that they will fire you! They told us that in orientation... it was LOUD and CLEAR too!

I am in no way defending Marten. Just stating the facts. Marten is very strict about accidents. However, I do know of two drivers who got into a preventable accident still have their jobs. One has been working for them for maybe 4 years and the other 15 years. They got points and put on probation for a year. Marten says that they don't want their new drivers getting into an accident. That they are likely to do it again. I'm not sure about that because people do learn and don't repeat the same mistakes. The double points in the first year does suck but that is how they do things anyways!

I must agree about the air scales on the trailers. They are not always accurate! Though you can get a good feel for it if you watch the gauge on the truck. My hubby has it marked and anything over that is overweight. We had the tandems scale show 33,000 when it really was 34,400. We'd rather lose money on reimbursements than losing a job.

We have been reimbursed for ALL scales but TWO. The first two was because we were new and didn't know that we had to get PO for reimbursements. Right now we have a 41k load and got a PO# after we scaled.

Now, I totally don't agree about abandonment of any way. I don't think any company should do it but they do. Marten isn't the only one.

When you speak of the office staff walking on eggshells, I'm not sure what you are talking about there. Our dispatch is a pain in the rear ever since we started with them. Every driver who dispatch under him say that he's been like that for years! lol.... So I don't think anything changed, at least, at our home terminal.

Marten has us dropping off our trailer at a dropyard 30 miles from home. And we bobtail home. No problems with that however.

We get a lot of long straight shots from LA to Seattle. Even got several loads to TN out of LA. And yes they do some shorter hauls but our sliding scale will pay us higher if this occurs. No problem with it as we get our miles in most of the time. Also, most of those short loads are usually spots. At least in our experience.

 

'No matter which of the 5 terminals you hire out of, you will be paying income tax to Wisconsin (main terminal) This is important to any of you who live in states with no income tax, such as Texas and Washington, as you will take a pretty good hit on your paycheck for WI taxes.'

I beg to differ.
I live in a state that has no state income tax. And i have every single check stub and settlement. No where is it listed that i paid any income tax to the state of Wisconson.


Scales. I scale no matter what over 40,000. What i don;t get back from the company, i turn in with my taxes at the end of the year. Granted the air scales on the trailers suck. Always out of calbration. Evry one i pickup, i check, and will send in a note informing the shop that trailer ##### has a bad air scale.

I live in a western state. Running east and spending most of my time in the midwest area sometimes the east coast doesn't bother me. Because i know, that when it's time to go home, i will get great miles that week. In the mean time, i accept every load that i can leagly do.
Yes it's slow out here, for everyone.



I live 200 miles from the nearest drop yard, and have to bobtail each way.
Last time home, dispatch let me park the trailer ata secured fenced in lot of a local wrecking company.

I have never had problems with the people in the office. Other than a foul up on where to send my W-2 this year. But got that straightened out.

I had a acciedent in my first 3 weeks with the company, i'm still here.
Yes i lost all but 4 points.

 

Whoa there dukeofearl,sounds like your all fired up.
You lost control of the truck and ran off the road?.That's 8 points,all points double if it's within first year of employment = Automatic trip home on the old grey dog.
You start out with 12 points.Most minor accidents are 4 points i.e. backed into another truck,side swiped a car or rear ended one. It's all in the drivers handbook and discussed when your hired. Additional points are added depending on how much $ it cost to repair everything.
A miner accident your 1st year will NOT get you fired.. but all you get is 1.Losing control of the truck,roll over,theft of truck + cargo or a major jackknife is grounds for termination during 1st year of employment. All points taken are given back 1 year from date of accident.After your probation period is up you also get 1 point extra every year you don't have a wreck. A driver that has been here 4 years with no accidents has 16 points. After your 1st year here you have 13 points.You could bang up alot of things before you burn up those 13 points.
It was on a Monday because they had to get safety,your dispatcher,claims, Risk and road service together to look at your accident to determine if it was preventable or not.If it was determined preventable how many points to charge and what the cost of damages were.They were trying to be fair about it and not fire you if possible.Running off the road is 4 points,8 if during probation.Some drivers would say if you ran off the road because of a deer it's never your fault. WRONG.That's a lost control of the truck deal,8 points or during probation it's 16 and your done. It's safer for you, cheaper for the company and NOT your fault at all if you stay up on the road,get on the binders and slow down as much as you can and hope it moves . I've hit 2 deer during my employment with Marten with no points taken from me at all. When I called it in both times they only wanted to know if I was ok. After they asked if I was ok about 5 times then they asked about the truck and the load. That's a good employer in my book.
It sounds like they charged you with "lost control of truck" =8 points. That would be like if you fell asleep at the wheel or maybe reaching for a cold drink or something and ran off the road causing damage.Maybe driving to fast for weather conditions and ran off into the pucker brush? Something along those lines. If it's not tore up and only needs a tow out that's only 2 points. You had in your estimate $2000-$3000 worth of damage.
They want to keep safe drivers. Marten used to have one of the lowest driver turnover rates in the industry for years. I'm sad to say that is no more. Due partly because of drivers job jumping from place to place taking the hire on bonus and leaving whenever they don't get coddled by the company.
It's ALWAYS slower in the winter months pulling a fridge. Not to mention the pickle our country is in now. Over 3600 trucking companies have gone under taking an estimated 137,000 truck out of service. You notice it's easier finding parking now? Most places are cutting down on the payroll by getting rid of drivers that are costing them money.Idling,not being on time,not getting MPG you should be or in your case wrecking the trucks. The best performers will stay.
You lost control of the truck.Running off the road and causing damage to both truck and trailer to the tune of $2,000 or $3,000.You didn't do it on purpose,your a safe driver.Years of no accidents until that day says that you are. Sometimes bad things happen to good GOD fearing folks too.
Marten does set a higher standard of safety than most. But they are up front and honest about it.
I wouldn't say they abandoned you at all. They offered to get you a taxi and the old grey dog home. Yes you have to pay for the ticket home if your fired. It's not like you lost your gig through no fault of your own.You were fired because you ran off the road.Getting more than 50lbs of your gear home is their problem is it? Really? You can take extra weight on greyhound but you have to pay for it.
You were upset they didn't have boxes? They don't keep boxes the shop gets parts in.They recycle them.
Any company that has a stack of boxes handy for the freshly fired is not a good place to be.
You could and did get your own boxes. They will store them at a terminal.UPS will pick it up and send it to your front door.
I helped a driver recently get his stuff from the terminal that had been there over a month up in the loft (no charge for storage).He didn't want to pay for UPS.He got fired for driving the company truck 50 miles round trip while on home time.He and his wife needed to pick up a rental car after theirs was T-boned by a drunk driver while they were grocery shopping. They fired him for unauthorized use of the big truck. He knew it was not allowed without permission and they told him at orientation and in the handbook that it was a big no no for doing things of that sort but didn't think he'd get caught.Now if I understood him right he and his wife have no family,friends,neighbors nor anyone or anyway to get them to the rental car.He took the company truck.No rider pass, just put the wife in the truck and went.Burning fuel he didn't pay for with no rider pass or insurance on her.He got caught, could not understand why Marten fired him.He'd been driving truck for Marten for almost 8 years with 12 years total driving big trucks with no accidents,never late or nothing. Now they did tell him when he hired on that using the company big truck for personal use was not allowed.They told him he needed a rider pass to let anyone ride in the truck with him that wasn't an employee.They made it crystal clear that breaking these rules would get you fired in a heart beat. He still felt like they did him wrong! They should have overlooked it because he was a good driver,he'd been here 8 years!
Anyhow I am glad your ok and able to drive. With 14yrs and 1 accident, no tickets in last 7yrs you will have no problem getting another gig I'm sure.
It comes down to this. It's the company that sets the rules. Just because you don't agree with those rules does not mean you don't have to abide by them.
The point system that Marten uses as far as accidents go was developed along with drivers input. The 1 year probation period where points taken are doubled was our idea. We thought 12 points was a lot to start out new hires with.
Marten posted profits in every quarter except 1 I'm pretty sure since it went public like 20 years ago.They are not "walking on egg shells" or "in fear of their job" up in Mondovi Wisconsin,California,Indiana,Oregon,georgia or Texas terminals.
Marten made 2.9 cents net profit per gross dollar during 2008 and they billed a whole lot of dollars.Marten market value as of 3/13/09 was $371,110,000.That's a lot of zeros there.Marten stock closed up at $17 per share up .03% with .83 cents earnings per share. It's been a strong company since 1946 when Roger Marten started it and it's not in a bit of trouble now.
My paid miles for 2008 were 4% lower than actual hub miles but that's normal in trucking.Nothing new or hidden there.You can find a lot of places out there that brag about paying Practical miles.Trust me when I tell you they do NOT bill the shippers practical miles. For some reason shippers don't want to pay more $$ for practical miles. Some may pay drivers practical miles but they will get that 4 or 5% back one way or another. Same way with companies that pay for scales and the like. It's all smoke and mirrors my friend. In the end your pay is just a percentage of gross profit. It's a cost. Just like truck payments and fuel.
I never have asked for Marten to pay for a scale ticket because it's a tax write off. Some of our customers have scales we can use for free if you ask. I only scale 4 or 5 loads a month anyway. I don't bother with getting a po# for it but that's my call. If I start seeing an increase in the numbers of loads I have to scale I'll get it reimburst.
Again I am sorry about your luck having an accident that cost you a job here at Marten. Sometimes the good ones get tossed out with the knuckle heads.
Keep it greasy side down and remember to still have some fun out here and drive safe.

 

Thunderdog51
Well put Driver!

 

Well got Orientation out of the way..1st load delivered..From Indy to San Antonio..Not a bad start..Other than a yard jockey backing into the RHS mirror in San Antonio..Sent the message over QC.. Got an Ok call us when you can give us the details...Its a 389 Pete..And all he did was scratch the paint..called night dispatch.. took down the details..said shouldnt be a problem..
Everyone so far has been professional.. They dispatch ya and as long as you do your daily check calls,, apparently they leave you alone..sent for a t-check for lumper... had it in 5 minutes..
Unloading took awhile..grocery whse,go figure...filed for detention..Will update onn that..So far-So good...sumwrnusa