Marten Transport is a piece of work

You have a lot more patience than I do with the whine and cheese bunch. With all the legitimate issues that could be discussed, they choose to make up this BS, trying to hurt the rest of us with their supposed "insider" information.

They should be encouraged to quit. After all, if things are that horrible, why are they still here? Wouldn't they be better off seeking life elsewhere?

 

A typical tactic of someone who cannot support their position is to resort to name calling.

I read the Q1 2009 newsletter, which explains the intermodal growth, as well as other reports which outline overall growth projections. Intermodal growth accounts for only 45% of overall growth, and most of that intermodal growth will be occurring south of the Mexican border.

I have a question for you: If you are so unhappy with Marten, why do you still work for them? After all, if things are so horrible there, wouldn't you be better off seeking life elsewhere?

 

Well I think the scuttlebutt at a terminal is about as reliable as a quarterly newsletter from the company. So holding that up as the gospel is about as pointless as trying to get a penguin to fly.

That's a easy one, lots of drivers sticking around where they may not want to because good jobs are hard to find and the cost of everything will be going through the roof if it hasn't already.


And if you are happy driving a OTR truck the way OTR company's treat their drivers these days, you need your head examined

 

Since the newsletter I read is one put out to shareholders, I tend to take it a bit more seriously than the ones put out to the "rank-and-file" employees.

I myself have never been happy being a truck driver. It's a job, nothing more, nothing less. I don't either hate it or love it, I just do it to the best of my abilities, just as I've done since I first entered the job market in 1976. Would that I could have my dream job, but that isn't the hand life dealt me. So, I play the cards I'm dealt. If I decide later to fold, I have that option. I've worked far worse jobs than this one, both in trucking and in other industries.

As for drivers sticking around because they have no choice, I disagree. Just by staying they've made a choice. But, where I question them staying is when they claim they aren't making enough money to even provide for their own basic physical needs (the "starving to death" claims), where Marten is supposedly in such financial trouble that they can't even pay for fuel (have to wonder how they manage to make payroll on time under those conditions), etc. To see the things posted here, working flipping burgers or just collecting unemployment would be an improvement for them. That's why I question why they stay, if things are that bad for them.

There are plenty of things we can gripe about or discuss about various companies and this industry, all of which need serious attention. Instead, most of what I see here is people making stuff up as they go, with all the accuracy and truthfulness of a CB traffic, bear, or weather report.

I have far more respect for drivers who complain about something that caused them to quit a company than for drivers who make up far worse stuff yet remain where they're at. The former at least takes a stand against what they perceive as something wrong, even if their own perceptions are incorrect. The latter, well, there's a term we used in the military to describe that sort that I can't use here.

 

They have the power,,,,,,,,,,,
The power to make things better. Crying and whining,, yet staying around, isn't going to change things.

 

In the Marines we called that scuttlebut. It got so bad that I decided to start a one myself and told a fellow Marine that I had read in the Stars and Stripes that we were going to be able to grow our hair out like the Army. You wouldn't believe how fast that went around the base and to hear other Marines claiming that "they" had indeed read it in the news. People love to be the bearer of news even if they haven't a clue of what they speak about.

 

frdr,Yes that was you flipping burgers in houston. You seem pretty happy and are one heck of a flipper. Good luck to you in your new career. Hope to see ya soon. By the way, did you ever kick the habbit?

 

Totally agree with you. I got a 2009 Prostar that reeked from the previous driver. Because it was a weekend and in undriveable condition, I spent the time cleaning the heck out of it with strong, bleach based cleaners along with air fresheners.
My clothes would reek from that truck when I got home for time off.
In contrast, my current 2004 KW has over 800k on it and a very tight cab/sleeper (W900), no problem with the stink at all.