Marten Transportation SUCKS!!!!!

Yes, I am very defensive on the subject of what my husband goes through every day. He works very hard, and has spent the majority of our marriage behind the wheel alone. It takes a very special kind of person to do that! I am very proud of what he does. I am not very proud when I hear comments like it is on the driver, or that is driver laziness and incompetence. My husband is none of those. He knew what he was in for when he started driving, but things have only gotten worse for drivers not better. WAKE UP!!!

 

momma: your husband should get that [ditz] fired. The e-logs are the best justification in the world to say "no" when the hours aren't there. It's black and white. Get her to send a qualcomm message asking him to use line 5 (it's probably a good idea for him to stay off the phone in general) and then get in touch with her team lead. My dispatcher works in the same room as this girl, and I don't have these problems.

Unpaid miles for trailers shags? I ask for (and get) a PO#. Every time.
No hours? I say so, and it's never a paranoid issue about getting screwed because I wasn't a "team player", it's just the way it is.

What you're explaining makes sense. I don't doubt that your hubby is in it up to his neck and he only brought his hip waders. Bailing out ASAP could very well be the best solution...but this dispatch issue is a problem with the dispatcher, not company policy in general.

Company policy problems are the $.02 fee for per diem, the Rand-McNally miles, the no-truck-wash thing, the sit-on-your-hands-for-maintenance issues, etc.

Stupid, stupid person problems are terrible utilization in dispatch, the fact that he's being asked to shuttle trailers and not even being reminded that he can keep track of his hours or his miles and get a PO, and, above all else, the dumb **** telling him to drive illegally ON ELECTRONIC LOGS. She should be gone by monday, and if I had her, even as a fill in for my regular guy, I would be screaming for her to be gone by monday if she asked me that.

It's a big company, but they're not all sitting at their desks and twirling their mustaches. (Maybe a couple are... )

But seriously, back to the unpaid side trips and favors. It's company policy to compensate for that stuff. You can get PO# numbers either for hourly work or for Out of Route miles driven, it just depends on whether it's a bit of a trip or not. His dispatcher should have reminded him (mine did, until he was confident I'd remember myself), and even if not, he's entitled. Dragging 3 or 4 trailers around Indianapolis? Hourly. Taking an empty trailer 60 miles up the road and then bobtailing back to get your loaded trailer? Mileage. I just did a thing like that yesterday, and this next trip is $45 richer because of it.

Oh, and finally, the drop & hook customers that don't have the load ready isn't Marten's fault (except on the off occasion where there weren't any of our trailers there). I'm guessing maybe he was in Murfreesboro? Or about a half dozen other places? Those shippers are responsible for keeping their crap together, and sometimes they don't. Yeah, there could be instant detention any time you get to a drop and hook shipper that doesn't have the trailer ready...but I can't think of any shipper in their right mind that would sign a contract like that.

It sucks to get screwed. Best of luck to you.

 

mommadonna, i don't know who your husband's dispatcher is, but they are putting him thru the ringer.

Yes i get oor miles and hourly pay for shagging trailers.
Yes i get layover pay if i sit 24 hours betwen a load, or a load i'm on has more time on it than needed, and i can't drop it in the yrd or get a earlier appoinment.
Alot of time the customers where we drop and hook, fail to send in thier twice daily yard checks. So Marten has no clue rather or not if the load has been loaded, because alot of time shippers fail to call into Marten and say hey , we don't have any mtys.
Many times this has happen to me, and there isn't much i can do about it. I do let my people know, hey this load truned into a live load, because they don't have any mtys, so please make not this cust needs some mtys for the next load(s)

E logs. Each and every dispatcher, thier supervisor, all the way up to upper management can see on each drivers screen, the hours that driver has to work.
Most everyone in the office is on the same page, except the planners. For some reason they are still trying to plan on paper. So when they get themselves in a bind , they let dispatche know, and in order for a dispatcher to 'look good' in the eyes of management, they try and get drivers to take a run , knowing full well what thier hrs are.

Alot of times i will get the same thing, and once i do a trip plan and find i can't make the del, on time, i let my dispatcher know this, he will say one of 3 things,
load and run as far as you can. I'm looking for a repower, or what is your eta, so i can he can request a an appoinment change.
if some one told me to run illegaly, i tell them to shut up. I run my log book, you do not

 

I don't know about regional, but otr drivers get paid 20 percent of the gross for runs 150 miles or less. recently I ran a load that was about 140 miles and made $90.00. Last week I actually got 3000 miles in, but my average is 2,400. To get the 20 percent you have to p/u the load at the shipper and del to the receiver. If its a short run and a split load, you get paid hourly. If you are not getting miles running regional or local, why not try OTR? I will agree on the per diem pay, I don't like it.

 

busted could not have said it better drove for marten seen what has been going on fm's dont care once a driver 32's a load if there are hours, if the driver never even seen a eobr,i am a good safe driver of 11 yrs now did well with marten's e logs never tore anything up was ontime more then late but also had to explain to my airheaded dispatcher that the whole point of e logs was so that once you started the 14 hour clock you cannot stop it.and that was pretty much the whole point of e logs.e logs and the fact of wanting to provide for my daughters was my downfall with marten but thats a whole different story,on top of there shady payroll.the point is you are right because marten is to concerned with turnover for some reason and they are not willing to work with the true safe proffesionals like myself with a safe dot record who could work well with intelligent fm's who know the new e log system.this will continue to be a big problem for marten for sure!and in addition you are wise to recomend there out as far as contracting with your company because ontime delivery do to e logs is just the beginning,because now they are getting rid of tried and true driver's like myself, with years of safe driving!and very few dot violations over years of otr service, for sorry to say, because everyone has to start somewhere,but for rookies who are going to practice on there self insured equipment and your frieght because word is now getting out about them just like knight when they had there problems and now drivers know to look elsewhere.marten will soon join the ranks of prime,and c.r.england and just be a training school with underhanded profitability lol! sincerly nothinbuttailights.p.s. i always say the only way i will ever own a truck is if i get a contract with a shipper let me know,been haulin' reefer's for 10 yrs now my truck will always be on time and clean c'mon!

 

Marten....is and will always be "the geyhound of suckers"......newbies tune into youtube.....type marten on rail"........drivers.......avoid marten at all costs....all costs.......................

 

amen thats right clean out all the lazy pencil pushers who dont respect a hard working safe driver.

 

<My post was removed by Mastertech because it didn't meet the simple rules of this forum>

 

I totaly agree here on getting PO#s for extra stuff. I even got an out of route PO for an MT run that only paid 70 something miles, but was actually 114. I had to fight for it. Dispatcher wanted to deny me, said that it was payrolls call. I called payroll, and they said to get a PO from him, and I told him the payroll persons name. So I got the extra miles, but the runs for the rest of the week sucked. I seriously wonder if that was to pay me back for challenging him.

It's one thing to be 10% of on the miles, but 114 on a 70 paid mile is rediculous.

I've also noticed with my time at Marten that the loads never pay more miles than driven miles. Some pay less, and a some pay exactly the amount, but never more. I figured out what they are doing. They are paying you Rand Mcnally Miles (unless it's more), then they pay you the exact miles driven.

I've worked for other companies that pay Rand McNally Miles. Center of the city to center of the city. Every once in a while it would work out in your favor. With Marten it NEVER works in the drivers favor. It's allways less miles or exact.

It's funny that Marten gets paid the actual miles. They're screwing us comming and going. I hope they get a class action lawsuit for their perdiem scam for every driver they have screwed.

 

Marten Transport's goal is to always have correct information about its policies and pay information presented in public forums. The information provided in this response reflects the correct details of Marten's pay policies.

RE: Sliding pay scale. Drivers make more per mile on every load under 600 miles, the same on loads between 601 and 750, and &#189; cent less on loads over 750 than they did under the flat mileage rate. The average length of haul is around 600 miles.

RE: Loads going on the rail. This is an industry phenomenon that is occurring at the request of customers. The company has 2 choices, put the freight on the rail or lose it to a carrier that will put it on the rail.

RE: Per diem. Drivers on per diem are taking home, on average, $22.00 more per week than they would if not on per diem. $22 x 52 weeks = $1,144.00.

RE: Mileage basis. Marten, along with the vast majority of carriers, bill customers and pay drivers based on Rand McNally HHG short route miles. The company even notifies drivers of this, in writing, during orientation.

Interested drivers are encouraged to contact the Marten Transport Recruiting Department for more information.