Marten Transport, LTD. - Mondovi, Wi.?

I worked for Marten and i was fired, I broke down due to the trailer air bags went out, come to find out they bypassed airlines and removed 1 airbag and they said i hit a guard rail, not one time did i ever tell them i had an accident.. I had called and told them i was broke down and qualcomm'd in about the problem i even had a highway patrol sit behind me just for extra caution until a tow truck could get there, finally i got the trailer to a place to be fixed and i went to the truckstop to wait for my next load, Marten sent the tow truck out to get my truck, the tow truck was told my truck was broke down, then i called to find out what was going on no one at marten knew anything, they sent the tow truck away, then the tow truck came back and after about another hour on the phone with marten someone in hr finally said i was fired due to an accident!! Then it was hard to get a job because Marten showed i was employeed..

 

there a good outfit sometime miles get slow but there pay is descent got good trk/trls there comp.logs now or elogs as they say but for most part martens is ok co.they treat there drivers pretty good!

 

Do Not work for Marten!!!! They will lie and put crap on your DAC that you'll have to get fixed, Not to mention the letters that former drivers get from Randy himself cussing you out and I'm not the only one. They fire drivers for no reason and make up a reason they'll say you had an accident even when you can prove otherwise.

 

my wife and used to team for marten transport, they are out of mondovi, wi., and yes they are a refer company but they haul all types of freight. I had read one of the stories on here that stated that a buddy that just got out of school hit one of the yellow protector post and was fired...reason is that they are afraid to have any points against them since csa 2010 went into effect. randy marten is making sure that his company is squeaky clean. Well if that is that case then he really needs to get rid of some of his dispatchers and that manditory per dium. he might get some good truckers. but in the case of that new driver they should have given him a better shot as to proving himself and not just getting rid of him so fast.

 

It's Tuesday, 27-Sep-2011.
On Friday, 23-Sep-2011, I pulled in to the Tucker,GA terminal for an E-service. They pulled my truck into the shop @ 1500 est @ 2000 est they were done with my oil change. @ 2200 they pulled my truck in the shop again to fix a couple of minor problems with the truck, slide the fith wheel back, fix map light, (witch they did not fix). pull truck out @ 0300 on 24-Sep-2011. @ 0700 they wake me up to pull my truck back in to the shop, to put a heater in under the bunk, had my pull my stuff that was sitting on my bunk out of the truck. Than they pull my truck out of the shop 10 minute after they pulled it in the shop. Parked it and put a steering wheel lock on it and told me that I have to wait till Monday to talk to HR dept.

ON Monday the 26-Sep-2011 they called me into the building to fire me for having to many things in the truck. They said that they told me to get rid of some of the stuff 2 months ago. I told them that I have not been home. They said not their problem. I told them that I have not even have had the money to send anything back home, not our problem.

I said I have no money at this time, none not a penny to my name, but a friend back home is going to deposit money into my account back home they said okay, you can stay in the truck tonight we'll get you to U-Haul in the morning and get a truck come back here and if you need help tomorrow we can get somebody out there to help you out.

I said okay thank you very much.

Marten Transport as a company has some problems, and there is not a company out there that doesn't have problems. All these companies are like your spouse you have to find the one that works for you. There is no perfect out there. If there was a perfect company out there think about it, everybody would want to drive for them.

Marten Transport just wasn't the right company for me, I'm not saying the are a bad company, I would never say that. If somebody were to ask me if they are good or bad I would say that they
are a good company if they work for you.

I was getting about 1100-1300 miles a week doing a lot of sitting and waiting, they said that they were going to get me more miles, but that was 2 weeks earlier and they said please give us time. I do know a driver that gets 2500-3000 miles a week all the time. They live in WI,CA,& WA, I've seen his check and he is not lair.

 

Don't know if this was the case, but don't show up at a terminal to get work done with the inside of the truck a complete pig sty.

 

Yeah, I saw some really disgusting rigs while at Marten. Had to wake a driver once at the Ontario terminal, who was supposed to be swapping trucks with a friend of mine. He opened his door to see what I wanted, and the smell punched me in the face hard enough to make me blow breakfast right there in the parking lot.

I'm not saying my rig was any prize, but it always smelled clean (even though I was a heavy smoker at the time). A half hour a day doing "housekeeping" chores keeps a truck smelling nice and relatively clean. My issue (Marten does complain about it) was too much stuff. Their rule is, it must all fit in the storage spaces provided (not under the bunk), with nothing on the floors, passenger seat, or top bunk while you are driving. Because of the problems with the bottom bunk (in all the rigs, it would seem), they want your bedding removed and put on the top bunk, securely, so they can get under it to fix the heater, APU controls, and Qualcomm.

From what I've seen since leaving Marten, most companies are like that.

My rule now is, if you can't carry it all on Greyhound without paying extra, you have too much stuff. Remember, drivers are now more disposable to a company than used toilet paper, and nearly all are based in states where they don't even have to have a reason for firing you.

 

If you are an experienced driver, find greener pastures. Marten Transport is a very driver unfriendly company. If you are already currently working for Marten Transport, most likely you have already considered quitting if you have not done so already. The owner of the company is immature, inconsiderate and self-absorbed. You are forced on a per-diem sliding pay scale, you might have been hired for OTR, but you'll soon find out they will keep in one region, away from your home for weeks at a time giving you shorter runs 300-600 miles with 2-3 days to complete them and they will not let you drop the load for delivery by another driver. You will be sitting at a truck stop more often than you'll be driving. Most likely you'll be laid over on weekends. If you get injured on the job, expect lots of problems and immediate loss of income while they try to find a way to deny your Worker's Comp claim. If you were hired for a local or intermodal position and experience a work related injury, expect to be placed in an OTR position when you return to work. In this case, Marten Transport will claim there is no work available in your previous position even though you see openings for that position on their website. Avoid Marten Transport at all costs!!!

 

Generalized (non-specific) personal attacks tend to make your claims a bit more suspect. Generalized claims of what Marten may do to others definitely doesn't help.

I may have my issues with certain business practices that Marten engages in (I've commented many times on sliding pay scales that make for a strong disincentive to work harder, as well as on per-diem payroll schemes by many including Marten that hurt drivers on a number of levels, so I won't rehash that here). But, I can tell you that, when I nearly amputated my left index finger on my own time doing personal (housekeeping) stuff, Marten was prepared to call it a work related injury, and to pay the medical bills associated with that. My own honesty, not to mention feeling stupid about how the injury happened, was the only thing that put a halt to that, not Marten.

My worst week with Marten (always in the winter), I got 1,700 miles. Yes, for the last few years, Marten has shifted away from OTR to regional, as have many companies, the biggest reason being customers demanded it. Ever decreasing freight rates are the reason Marten decided to go with both the sliding pay scale and the per diem payroll scheme. If they hadn't, they would have been out of business in 2008 (translate that to a couple of thousand people out of work). Marten didn't start the race to the bottom, they came into it relatively late, and they're not exactly a willing participant in the race to the bottom.

I want to add also that Marten is based in a "right to work state," an interesting title given it strips qualified workers the right to get the job they applied for. Marten can hire, retain, promote, demote, terminate, or not hire anyone they wish, for any reasons they wish, even for no particular reason at all. They can take an employee out of upper management and make them a part time night janitor, no explanation, just because it amuses them to do so (a valid argument in court, believe it or not).

Oh, just so you know, rarely does an employer have any say in how their insurance carrier or underwriter handles a Workman's Compensation claim. More often than not, the employer is an unwilling participant in the whole process. Insurance carriers routinely fight tooth and nail every single WC claim, even when they themselves know the worker will eventually win. It's been like that since the insurance, banking, and investment industries were allowed to merge and overlap. The longer the insurance company can hang on to what should have been paid to you or your doctors, the more money they can make off that money.

Good luck with the "greener pastures."

 

Amen Bobby. I Worked there for 4 weeks. In Febuary 2010, and I see the same things are still going on that made me quit. That was my shortest employment ever. I Kept saying it would get better, but continued to get worse and worse.

Those lovely rail loads you dh to go get and normally the dh is more then the loaded miles.

2nd week I was there they pulled me in to the Richmond VA Shop because truck was over due for service. Did what they told me to do and called ahead, and they couldn't get me in for 4 days. So I sat 4 days waiting for a dang service, and get out only to drive 130 miles up the road.

I did like a lot of the drop and hooks at wal-marts, but most of the time I had to wait till the next day to get a load, and yeahh 300mile load.

I wish I would of found this site b4 I ever went there. I ended up taking a bus home from Indiana but the good thing is they gave me a taxi voucher.

LoL @ Greener pastures. If you coming from Marten there isn't nothing green over there. Run!!!