Magnum ltd - fargo, nd

The brand new truck Millis gave me would read speed limit signs. Which was a real pain in the ### when driving down 65 between Chicago and Indy where there was 45mph construction zone signs, only active when flashing, but that great technology in the truck couldnt tell that. So it sees 45mph Im doing 70 and it throttles you down real quick. Or it picks up 25mph on ramp signs on I90 in Chicago when driving down the road, and throttled me down. Needless to say, 1st service I had done on the truck I voluntarily gave it up for a 2017...

 

Happy Labor Day weekend everybody! Its been a couple of months since I left Magnum. I long said I would post a final review, so here goes a Pros and Cons list. Keep in mind, this is all my opinion. What is a Con to me may not bother others.
Seeing how much has changed since I left involving the end of the trimester system and the new pay rate, I'll leave pay completely out of this. The new system looks pretty good IMO though.

Pros

• Great home time policy as long as your expectations are within reason.
• Quality equipment. Refrigerator and APU on every truck.
• Minimal micro management when it comes to your runs. As long as you're dependable, you are left alone to run loads however you want.
• No fuel routing.
• Office staff IMO were friendly and easy to get a long with.
• Shop staff were more often than not fairly helpful in working with you and your schedule for maintenance.
• Maybe the best OTR company I can think of for a rookie.

Cons

• Might not be the best choice for experienced drivers. Reasons below.
• Slow trucks! Magnum is one of the slowest fleets on the road.
• Outward facing cameras which themselves are not bad. They are however being used for "Driver Coaching" which means if you do something to trigger the system like turn too sharp or brake too hard, it triggers the camera and next someone from the office will be calling to give you a "coaching" session.
• Fleet going all automatic with every piece of aerodynamic and safety woo they can put on it. Not a Con to some. But I love trucks and for me personally, this takes the truck out of trucking.
• No incentive to run over holidays. Sitting for an extra day due to a holiday like Labor day means no layover pay. I experienced this first hand.
• Management basicly punishes entire fleet due to the actions of a few. Example, some drivers abused reimbursed paid parking, so they took it from everyone.
• Management half ### rolls out new policies that aren't actually ready which causes unnecesary confusion.
• DAC reporting practices. When you put in your notice to leave, Magnum will fill your DAC report with everything it can. It doesn't matter how minor. If you were responsible enough to report to the company any damage you did to their truck, it goes on there. It doesn't matter if it's $50 in damage or $50,000. Its reported as a preventable accident all the same. Management has been made aware of this yet the company continues to do it. In my opinion they do it partially to poison the well of any potential jobs you may seek. I've personally seen this tactic work for them with drivers returning to or staying at Magnum after a potential employer pulled their DAC and then refused to hire them.

To summarize why I left, Magnum no longer felt like a fit for me. I'm still running OTR but with a small reefer company run by a family of actual drivers. I still drive a nice truck, KW T680 13 spd manual with refrigerator/APU and runs 70mph. I make a little more than I did at Magnum, but for me the bigger benefit is a lower stress level of not driving a rolling road block while having to chase mpg/mileage targets that were sometimes out of my control for every cpm I made.

 

Did you mention surveys that are sent out and ignored, and resent and ignored again?

 

Dayyyumm, this is the exact same thing (pretty much) that I would say. The only other thing that I would add would be putting out numerous surveys over the course of almost three years employment and never using those surveys to actually help the drivers. I also left and went to a super small reefer outfit and have a nice Cascadia with none of the cameras, Bendix (radar) or side alert alarms. I actually have to drive this 13 speed truck.

 

Holy Gucamole! I will have to remember to look for the emergency deflate button if I chose one to drive!

 

I do have to say the pay bump looks very nice at Magnum.

Now remove some of that engineering bs and MMGA! Make Magnum Great Again!

 

Ain’t technology great, yeah ifI stayed at Magnum I would have happily never given up my 17...

 

I'm trying to decide which Looney Toon character you are.

 

Yosemite Sam