plate glass hauling

I flatbed with maverick, but I am not in the glass division. I have talked to some of the glass haulers. The ones I talked to seemed to like it, but I have not talked to that many. I have found some negative stuff on mav's glass division unlike the flatside where I could not find anything negative, but it might be OK. I just know I don't want anything to do with it. They do run canada with glass. I would imagine that it would be easy to get claims against you for broken glass as you dragging that stuff behind you all the time.

 

I have no practical experiance hauling glass or anything else for that matter. I just finnished CDL school followed by company training with Maverick specialised division and am waiting at home for my road trainer.

BUT... I did just complete Maverick SD's week-long "glass class" and have something of a feel for the culture of glass haulage...

I can't immagine an independant being able to just "get into" glass hauling... everything about glass, the equipment, the securement standards, driving technique, etc is unique to glass.

I got the distinct feeling at Mav SD that much of this knowlege of how to do glass hauling is institutional... IE, the Mav SD (formerly Schneider) staff and drivers had litterally built up a body of knowlege on glass hauling from almost nothing largely by trial-and-error over 20 years. The culture around Mav SD seems highly collegial; new drivers are taught not only a set of rules for handling glass, but are encouraged to think ABOUT their jobs and communicate ideas back and forth, solving problems as they go... Even with all this stress on mastering the techniques of glass, there is still a strong feeling that "glass breaks"... no, it isn't cool to lose a load, but yes, you will from time to time have breakage...

So, if you are looking to just independantly buy a glass trailer and start taking glass loads, you will have to recreate or steal all this institutional know-how.

If your goal is to come work for Mav SD or some other established glass hauling outfit, then I really can't advise one way or another. I do not get the feeling that glass haulers make more money, however. Mavericks recruiting materials make stronger promises of expected earnings for their general flatbed (Transportation Division) than for glass hauling (Specialised Division). They also have a policy that SD drivers can't transfer to regular flatbed, to prevent using SD as a "backdoor" around the waiting lists for TD jobs; this implies to me that at least within this company general flatbed is comsidered a more desirable job than glass hauling.

I personally took the job at SD because I was impressed with Maverick's overall reputation and record and did not live in the hiring area of TD. However, having now met staff and drivers at both Little Rock(TD) and Laurinberg (SD) I am glad that I signed on for glass and believe that SD will be a good fit FOR MY PARTICULAR PERSONALITY.

I don't know that much about other companies which may do glass hauling (other than seeing some Werner tractors at the glass plant in Laurinberg)...

If as you say you have no driving experiance I do not think this will hold you back in learning glass. The other guy in my glass class had 11 years experiance and was challenged by the driving habits he had to un-learn, so starting fresh may even help a little.

If you are going to go to a company school to get a CDL for the first time, Maverick is probabally a good choice as long as you DON'T live in North Carolina. All non-NC trainees get sent to ASU Newport Driver Training Institute, which I found to compare very favorably to CDL schools I have seen reviewed here in terms of comprehensiveness, ammount of behind the wheel time, numbers/condition of trucks and range, etc. Maverick only makes you sign for $1500 for this school whose cash tuition is $1200 and provides housing and transportation. This $1500 is considered repaid in six months with no payroll deductions (By comparison, "Driver Solutions" network also sends a few students to ASU Newport, these students sign for ~$5000 and have to pay $1500 through payroll deductions with a 12 month committment and the whole 5k due if they quit or are canned early.)

Since it appears that you do live in NC, I should warn you: NC apparently demands that all new CDL students graduate from an in-state school, and Mav SD has a second school that they use only for their local NC hires. I met a couple of students who came through this school and it sounds like a hellhole: 25 students sharing 6 trucks and in five weeks he claimed only 8 hours behind the wheel though he was told to log it as much more. If you live in NC and want to work for MavSD, I would suggest going to CDL school independantly and then applying.

 

Since this site is where I did most of my research prior to signing on with Mav SD, I had read many of these same complaints. I specifically have been asking around and keeping my eyes/ears open for evidence of the sort of malfeasance which certain people were accusing Mav SD of last year... So far those horror stories seem far fetced and completely out of line with what SD drivers say in person driver-to-newbie driver.

Not to say that Mav SD is perfect, or even much better than any other company... The truth is I have as little basis for comparison as you do... But the nightmarish accusations certain people were making seem to be inventions of either disgruntled ex-employees or just mischeivous trolls.