Avoid Marten Transport LTD.

I am also interested in this as well.. I am posed to go to orientation after christmas, to the WILSONVILLE location after reading every page of this thread im a bit nervous if this is the right company for MY needs..

especially any kind of "point system" none mentions how or IF you can get your points back.. I dont want to go to orientation ask questions and find out a bunch of thing I dont like the sound of, (hearing some things already)
then if i decide its not for me, I get charged for orientation and expences..
WTF is that??

points for thing that arnt your fault or out of your control?

and it would all end with a negative entry on your DAC report while never even setting foot in a truck... is this right? or possible?

thanks for ANY and all info i can get from you all!!


this would be my first "tricking" company as the last 6 years have all been hourly w/ OT with 2 private companies and no complicated / wierd pay structure.
so micromanaged that is broken down to pannies! (like they all seem to be)
where a scratch here or there will not cost you "points" $$$

 

I work for an owner operator here so I don't have to put up with alot of the crap that company drivers here at Marten do but I had to go through the same orientation. They give points for an accident or incident and once you reach a certain amount you are terminated. Bad part is the points are double your first year there and the points fall off one year after they are put on. Any preventable at all your first 3 months is termination. If you leave or get fired within the first 6 months the hotel and transport there has to be reimbursed.

I will be honest freight has slowed down here alot and it is not uncommon to wait a day for a load after you get empty. Glad they keep o/o trucks moving more though so that don't happen to me as much.

 

Whoa! Does the poster of this thread have any idea what a paragraph looks like? Please hit the enter a few times after 5 sentences!

I almost went blind after reading that mess.

On point: Yea. With every company you have your happy drivers and your sad depressed drivers.

I like the way someone put it on here. Was it this thread? (been drinking a little) You have to have DIPLOMACY! Learn how to deal with problems without blaming everyone else for them! You think the world is against you because you're having a bad day!

Learn to deal with the crap!

I make (take home pay) about 1800 every two weeks and I deal with a lot of B/S. I have a helper with me and he always cries and moans.

Example: My helper: "I can't believe I do this (curse word) for this pay. I was making this much money in construction in 1 WEEK! This is bull(curse word)!"

I'm like "Then go back to construction! I would make more money without you! But I'm nice enough to let them PUT YOU on my route so you don't get laid off! Be grateful! I rarely complain!"

And this coming from my helper who has had 3 DUI's! And he wonders why SYGMA won't hire him as a driver when he gets his license back!

If it wasn't for this guy I would be brining home over 2 grand every other week and I'm home 4 days a week! I love my job! Not really, but it pays the bills, plus some!

 

Been with Marten 4 years now, and for most part i have been happy.
First couple of years the dispatcher i had was great. She'd get me the miles, thus in turn i got my bounus for each quarter.
Then i had another dispatcher who moved over from the o s & d dept. Knew nothing how the drivers did the job. She had no clue we only are allowed to work 14 hr days.
Never could get home on time with her for the entire year i 'kept' her around. Fired her, after missing a hometime request (req. 1 month out, co. policy 2 weeks) Had reservations to fly to Maui, on a certain date. She couldn't get me home 12 hrs before i had to fly. ended up missing the trip. To this day, she still has trobles getting her drivers home on time, according to friends still on her board.

Current dispatcher is great. I'm seeing 2,000- 2,800 (things have slowed a bit)miles most of the time. Get's me home on time every time. And has a personality. Called him up one day, he answered the phone, Mcdonalds of Mondovi... there is no micky d's in mondovei lol

Yes, i have had a acceident, completly my fault. Talking with Risk Management, safty, dispatcher,, we were all very polite and professional with one another. No nasty phone call from Randy, as another had stated. Yes i did lose some points.

No i do not brown nose. I take a load, i get it there on time, i let them know when my hours will be to low to take a run, etc. Enroute if there are problems out of my control, i let them know when i can be to where i'm going, and then they either reschedule my appoinment or swap me out if need be.


When i go to a customer , i will wear company clothing, and act professional ( many many drivers both here and at other companys, are SLOBS, tuck that shirt in and pull up your pants, lose the gang banger gear)
If i have a problem at a cust. i'm on the phone in seconds flat with my dispatcher, who will get to the bottom of the problem.

Log as you do, you won't have a problem. It's your log book, don't let the desk jockeys tell you how to log.


ABout my only BIG complaint about them is the terminals and the less than steller shop people they hire.

We have a macro we are suppose to send in for service, yet it seems like it's just a waste of time. Evry time i got to Indy, Mondovi, Forest Park, Ontario, and check in, they tell me it may be a day or two before they can get to me.
Yet when i fill it out for Wislonvile, i check in, and i get a completion time, from the Shop Manager. And every time it's done ahead of the time givin to me. I've called Wilsonvile a couple of time an hour before they are set to close for the day, and ask if they can check something out on the truck, and sure enough, they get me in, and correct the problem. Try that at the other shops, you may be lucky to get out in 2 days.

Best ###### thing the company has done for the driver,,,, installed APU'S ON EVERY TRUCK!!

I haven't had to idle in the year and half i had it on mine, with the exception of a night two weeks ago, the bunk heater gave up the ghost one night at 0300. Called RD serv and they said to idle the rest of the night, and then go to the Thermal King shop in the morning.

Payroll never an problem. Love having Transflow / Tripak scanning. Haven't lost a trip yet.




So take this for what's it worth.
I'm proud to be a bluebird.

 

I have been talking with Debbie and Erin from recruiting, both working on my app. Sounds like a good company,will see what happens. Been Owner Operator for last 7 yrs, sold truck in FEB., been driving local since. It's been awhile since I pulled a reefer but I'm sure it will not be a problem. Looking forward to it and looking forward to not crawling and working on my own truck. See you on the road.

 

im am goin to orentation in forest park the 6th of jan.....looking foward to it. i hope it works out, i am takeing all these (-) post as a grain of salt. cause they aint no 2 drivers the same and, what aint workin for them might work for me. if it dont will try to fix it b4 i give up and put a buch of false info about a good company on a website that is designed to give info to drivers.

 

How do I benefit by giving you false negative info about the company I work for? I am just telling you that miles are terrible right now here but you know better I guess right? The only one who could benefit is the one that gives you false positive info if they get the 500.00 recruiting bonus.

 

nah i wasnt talkin about you big its these other drivers that give these one sided stories as to why the got fired what u said is the truth and thats what we need if u dont like the truth then find another ocupation

 

Ok my fault I thought you meant me sorry.

 

I drive for MTS/ Martin out of Spring Hill Tennessee on a dedicated run. When I was recruited I was told the work was steady and at LEAST 3k a week. After I went to UNPAID orientation in Mich. I drove back bobtail to Indy to pick up a trailer. (so did several other drivers) We were never told by Robin (recruiter) that when you bobtail or deadhead your mileage drops from .35 to .25. We found that out at orientation. We also found out THERE that there will NEVER be a raise, and that the company takes 2 (unpaid) weeks off at July 4th and Christmas/ New Years.

After I got back to TN it was 2 1/2 MONTHS of calling EVERYDAY before I finally got my first dispatch. Even then it was almost 2 more months before I ever made 3k miles a week and even now it is very inconsistant.
I've been sent to Laredo, Tx (since July) 7 times that I have had to sit 2 days for a load. At this point the company is into me for over $500 in the PROMISED detention time, but after countless times of resending the required sheet with detention times and trip numbers, and copies (not required) of my logs for those days, and countless calls to payroll and my dispatcher, and countless times of being told it would be in my next check, I still have not received a penny of detention ALONG WITH NEVER EVEN GETTING PAID THE .25 a mile for the original delivery of their tractor and picking up the trailer in Indy! Not only that, but along with not paying the detention time pay, MTS has never reimbursed me for a SINGLE SCALE TICKET (13) although I've also submitted them many times according to the company requirements. That is my own money they won't pay back!

I don't know whose butt you're kissing to get what you want, but these are the most hateful, lying, uncaring people I have ever worked for. You speak to ANY drivers out of Spring Hill and find out some of the crap they've done to ALL the drivers and you won't think they're so nice.

Not only that, but we can't even get work done on our tractors if it is not an absolute safety issue, and even then it could take several weeks of nagging breakdown to let you get it fixed out on the road because we don't have a shop. I've worn out 2 sets of steer tires because they won't fix my front end, and Carl told me that they knew about the problem when they sent the truck down, but won't fix it because we don't have a shop and it's too expensive at a truckstop.

Don't walk away from MTS/ Martin...run, and don't look back.