Bolt Goat sees the silver lining. Heads for McLeod.

Precious. Now see? That's what a baby Bolt should look like. What the heck is that little creature she's trying to pass off on him? Just sayin'

 

ok. Here's the deal. I left McLeod after two weeks, but not because they were so bad. In fact, I had gritted my teeth and determined to stay 3 years in order to clean up my crappy job hopping record.

But then, something great happened. My beloved TNI contacted me and told me they opened a terminal in Fort Worth , so now I can get home easily. I was there in a minute. They have not raised the pay, so I've got to figure out how to reduce my bills to make it manageable. But I am so very happy to be back in the best driving job I've ever had. Dont it always seem to go, you don't know what you've got till it's gone.

So no more job changes for me. Let me know if you want me to start a new thread just hanging out with The Goat.

Now for the review on McLeod:
McLeod is a good company. The pay is good and they are very good about accessorial pay. Their orientation pay was an extremely generous $1500 spread out over 3 weeks plus a $1000 bonus spread out over 90 days. Folks are nice and the drivers I talked to are pretty happy.

Downside.
Those cascadias are murder to ride. Hurt me bad. Honestly thought it might do serious damage to my shoulder sockets. Plus, all the collision mitigation crap and the way the cruise works. Aggravating and I'm not kidding, costs a ton of time. Can't maneuver at all, constantly having to back off because of every tom dick and Harry jumping inside extreme following distance.

Their forward facing camera is intrusive and nerve wracking. Guages whether you stop behind a stop sign first. Compares speed with speed limit signs , often read from off ramps and staying stuck at 30 or 40 mph until new sign pops up. Screams about following distance. Red lights, quick stops, sharp turns. Icky. Now I was able to exceed company compliance goals, but it had me stressed out beyond measure.

During orientation, the overzealous safety manager was excitedly telling us he was hoping to put similar ai cameras incab facing. A big fat no-no especially since one of the big draws of the company in their ad was no driver facing cameras.

Also, wanted me to run on rolling 70 because 90% drop and hook, so lots of down time. As I said, pay was good (60 a mile) so that didn't matter pay wise. But even God rested on the 7th day.

Finally, I found the enforced fuel solution restrictive.

Now the above downsides might be ok for some folks, so I feel ok recommending McLeod as long as you know. Not so much for me.

In the end, they were gracious about my quitting and did not punish me in any way. I rented my own car home and subsequently received all pay due to me without incident.

 

Yes. I am. What a wild ride! (TNI) been back 2 1/2 weeks.

 

I dunno. The McLeod thread might be helpful for folks considering going to work for them.

If my pals on TTR are still wanting to keep company I think I'd like to start a new one that goes on forever. Probably call it "Hanging out with The TNI Kid." What do you think?