Melton Truck Lines

Hey, glad to hear they got ya home - they are pretty good about gettin ya home I guess, but as long as you still work for them! (haha) Glad to hear Melton is working out for ya. Not my pick of the litter, we've been there done that and it's not all that great. Freight should not be slow, these are actually the good times for melton freight. MD isn't a bad home-spot, but not as good as south carolina, we used to get loads that loaded in north charleston, sc that delivered in soda spring, ID....nice run..but no tarp. They were those electrodes...easy easy easy. One of the better runs...except for that 2700 miler from ky to california I believe, those were the good times.

The bummer with melton ( just a side note ) are those pesky little appointments, designed to keep their trucks moving and their customers happy. I never liked appointments, they always seemed a bit too tight. But thats me! I work for a company now that basically treats me lilke an owner op..I get the load info from the broker, call up the shipper and go pickup the load. I'm given a certain delivery day to be there, not really an appt. There really isnt a such thing as a "hot load" that has to be there the next day....maybe with melton, but not with this company.
We get alot of landstar related loads, so fun military stuff, some OD loads, and LTL's which I did 4 the other week and made about 80 cents per mile plus 3 tarp pays at $40 which went 1200 miles plus the deadhead miles about 20milesx4x my CPM....not a bad couple days work. LTLs are partial loads that can fit onto your trailer if ya got room, allowing you to boost your CPM and total overall revenue with increased CPM and addtl tarp pays.

I cannot tell you the name of the company yet, only because I feel I need to be here longer in order to completely "endorse them" so far so good though!

Melton is a great place to learn flatbed though, but do try to move on to bigger and better eventually. As far as truckers being whiners, it's hard to not let a few tears fall when you're getting drug across the coals...you will learn that sometimes there's a fine line between speaking your mind and whining. I might be crying about it, but at least you can hear me.

 

They are more like Melton's appointment times not the actually shipper or receivers appt times. Speaking of the arrived consignee macro...did you know you can beat Melton's "on-board" system by preseting your "empty call" basically after you do your arrival mac...go ahead and enter the numbers for the empty call...don't send it..or even complete it, just make sure the mac number has been entered..hit enter...and scroll down to line one...let it sit...that way when you do actually get unloaded, the empty call is already time-stamped and preset...complete the empty call..and send...the time-stamp messes with the computers and shows you available sooner...uping your place in-line for the next load....this is always good when you're facing being number 15 on-board.....remember this is the "empty call" not the on-board call - the on-board call is basically b.s. - this is a small secret that may or may not help ya out!

Small runs add up, but the east coast is murder! I'd do 700 miles out west before I'd do 500 miles on say..I-95 thru MD and DC.

 

I guess its whatever you like - short or long...shoot for 2500-3000 per week (minimum) if you're not getting that, move on.

I think I meant 500 out west before I'd do 700 on the east coast -- basically because of the traffic on 95 up thru those areas...it's murder...you probably dont have a huge say-so on what loads you take, this is usually the case with company drivers. The miles might be good, but another thing to factor in is the states u gotta go thru to deliver or pickup...those 55 MPH states, IL, and OH...and those heavy traffic areas...all that DC traffic off I-95...will slow you down...dont get me wrong, we spend plenty of time driving the east coast...we've been in the everglades of FL and ran all the way up to maine. We try to hit those heavy traffic areas in the early morning hours...especially chicago. You gotta stop and think, if u get a 1200-1500 mile dispatch on monday but it cant deliver till friday...you're kinda losing money..you could've delivered thursday and picked up a friday load to keep ya going over the weekend. Use that 34 hour restart to your advantage...and if ur company, try to pick a load up on friday to carry you over the weekend. I'd rather be rolling on the weekends than sitting at the truck stops with everyone else...I mean...i know you cant deliver on the weekends usually, but that doesnt mean you cant be enroute...no dispatch friday almost guarantees you will be sitting over the weekend...especially with melton.