positive thread for mcleod express

ok this weeks loads: mt at carlisle on monday
lancaster,pa(mon) to # stops ny...sarycuse,rochester,buffalo (tues)
buffalo(tues) to edwardsville,Il(wed)
granite city,Il (thur) to decatur(thur)
decatur,il (thur) to bowling green,ky (fri)
hopkinsville,ky (fri) to w chicago (mon delivery)
this week I also got performance bonus of an extra $500 to weekly check
everyone keep the wheels on the ground and keep smiling..winter is comming..yeehaw

 

delivered noon at w. chicago,il (mon)
reload chicago,il(mon) to terre haute,in (tues)
paris,IL (tues) to Mcintyre GA (wed)
eastman,GA (thur) to Decatur,IL (fri)
Decatur,IL (fri) going to landover,MD for (mon) if hurricane doesnt get me..looks like Im headed right into the heart of it.

 

I've been with Mcleod since January of this year. Glad to of found a thread with CURRENT information on it. Here is my take on Mcleod. Overall I'm 90% happy. I've only had to get the $800.00 guarantee twice since January. Once for $4.00 and another for a little over $100.00 due to slow freight that week. I average around $900.00 weekly. Sometimes more sometimes less just depends on the lane that I ran that week. My dispatcher is great. Communication is KEY in this job. Not just at Mcleod but any trucking company. There have been loads where there was no way I would make it on time. I just send in a message and dispatch takes care of it and either has new appt. time set up, a relay, or will cancel the load and give it to someone else with more hours. I have NEVER been forced to run illegal here. I like being able to pick my own route and not told which way I need to go (I got a map for that). I like that when I go to the office they know my name. It's nice that Mcleod is a big enough company to have good contracts set up along with enough drivers to plan a relay yet small enough that they know whats going on in your home life as well. It's nice not having forced dispatch to NYC. I have only had 1 load that needed picked up there. It was picking up in a town right next to the Bronx which wasn't technically 1 of the 5 burrows but they were still going to pay me the $150.00 NYC pay (the broker ended up canceling so I didn't end up going there) They have apu's on all their trucks. If the truck is broke down or apu doesn't work they put you in a hotel.
Now to the things I dislike about Mcleod. It's unfortunate that at times they will send me right by the house on Friday (when it's my weekends at home) and have me run 500 miles past the house with a preplan that gets me back home late Saturday night's. This would not be such a big deal if this was explained to me from the very beginning and not them making a big deal about "promising" to have drivers home Friday night and leave out Monday. I have spoke to quite a few of our drivers who have been told this. I don't like how many of times I get home on Saturday and need to deliver a load at 0700 Monday morning 400+ miles away. I don't like having a 62mph truck but this will not be a issue anymore since they are upping the speed to 65mph (not much difference but at least we will be able to pass Swift). Not having Prepass/EZpass can be a pain sometimes but we cannot blame that on the company since drivers were using the EZpass in their personal cars at home and racking up tolls. I have never had a problem getting a cash advance for tolls. Longer miles per trip would be nice but no big deal there since I always seem to make enough money running a few extra short loads throughout the week. I would also like to see more southern freight for us Ohio drivers since Chicago to New Jersey gets old pretty quick.
Now I'm going to call B.S. on some of the comments on here. Mcleod DOES NOT FORCE YOU TO RUN ILLEGAL! They do maintain their trucks. Sure the trucks aren't fancy but they do run. If it is a immediate problem they WILL have it fixed while on the road. If it is something that can wait they do their best to get you into the shop as fast as possible. I understand completely why they do this since it is cheaper to fix it themselves. Any smart company would do the same. I have never ran into the problem where someone didn't answer the phone. Even if my dispatcher was busy someone in the office was able to help me with whatever problem I was having. Recently I had a issue with a certain truck broke down in a bad neighborhood. While waiting for road service to come out I had night dispatch offer to hang out on the phone to make sure I was able to stay safe until road service showed up. I declined the offer but it was a very nice gesture on his part. There is some huge myth that we don't get showers or points at Pilot. Not sure how that one came about but I got almost $60.00 in Pilot points saved up (trying to buy a new television) I am currently on my way over to Pa. When I got the load I asked dispatch of any new road conditions over in Pa. The response I got shows they care about their drivers. I was told "snow, and flooding. If you do not feel safe driving let me or night dispatch know and we will take care of it". If you turn down a load they do not cut your miles for the week. I don't believe for one second any company would cut a drivers miles if they refuse a load. It makes no sense. Whether that truck runs or not it still has overhead on it and companies don't make money by not letting their drivers have freight to haul. Even if they are mad at you we all know a trucking company is out for profit and they wont do something that could potentially hurt their pockets.
Overall summary is simple. The company is only going to do as much as you do for them. If you don't whine and cry and need someone to hold your hand while driving then you should be fine. Yes there are things in life that require you to raise a little hell once in a while but not over every little thing your just to lazy to do. If you maintain your equipment and let them know of problems its taken care of. As long as you run safe and legal they don't bother you. If your load is delivered on time you will get the minimum $800.00. Do what your supposed to and at the end of the quarter there is another check for $600.00. They GIVE you $2400.00 extra a year to just do your job. If you want to sit in the truck stop all day and gripe and moan about politics, trucking, your wife, and anything else that crosses your thought process Mcleod isn't for you. If you want to make money and not be scared of EARNING your paycheck Mcleod is a great place.

 

You must have really made some one mad to get billed for that! Funny how I have gone quite a few miles out of route to take my 10 at home and never even got yelled at for it let alone be billed. You did forget to add one part to your story there though. It should have started out "You ain't gonna believe this!"

 

No, I did not have to add it.

You can believe it or not.

They made the threat to bill me. I said to them, I would not have accepted any loads till it was fixed, so big deal. In addition, 90 percent of the time, when in Assumption you deadheaded to Decatur for Loads from their main contact. It was part of ADM I think.

The person that told me this was a dispatcher who had been in the position for a couple of weeks and was trying to "impress" me with his self importance.

I really did not care. He thought the guaranteed salary of 750.00 a week was impressive.

I told him what I thought and was only there until the economy got better. I made twice that in my little truck.

 

well said i for one more week not tht i woeked there a week so guess u are the clown huh

 

doing great,work hard and the money rolls in again.. loads this week. granite city,il(sat) to danvilleIL(sat), lafayette,in(sun) to cranbury,nj (tues)
woodbridge,nj (tues) to harrisburg,pa(wed)
new freedom,pa (wed) to horseheads,ny (thu)
buffalo,ny (thu) to decatur,Il (fri)
decatur,IL (fri) to baltimore and philly for monday delivery..
had 2 short runs this week due to low on hours to run due to running weekends to make extra money so I am not getting my 34 hr resarts.

 

i have talked to them about gettin a job there and i called mark personally and since he knows me and my family he said call A.C. and hell explain everything to you. note i dont have my class a cdl yet

 

like bbqchkn had said iceman......it is what you make of it.

 

I think that roadmedic's problem is he don't have the backbone. I sit here and read all these posts the positive and negative and have found that a lot of these driver's are forgetting what the true meaning of being a truck driver is........remember seeing on the back of a lot of trucks the saying, "It's not a choice it's a child!"? Well, i think these drivers need to really look at that statement and think about the meaning of it. My husband has been driving for mcleod now for about a month and he has NO complaints.

Roadmedic......it's NOT how the company treats you, it is how you act as a driver and what YOU make of it.