Question for TMC Drivers

I would say yes, you should be okay in Chicago. Whenever i needed to get home to detroit on a friday i usually ended up in chicago, TMC' hauls plenty of random stuff out of there, at least they did when i was OTR with them. Something may have changed so don't take my word for it though!

 

ECKZ is not lying. You can always pickup and deliver in CHICAGO and be able too get home most weekends, depending on your F/M.

 

I'm from the Chicago suburbs and generally have no trouble getting home for weekends whatsoever. There are a couple of places we haul a lot from, Owens Corning on the south side we pull a lot of shingles out of and Allied Tube in Harvey I think we pull a lot of freight out of. More importantly a ton of loads pass through Chicago which is how I usually get home. I've asked to be kept out and run plenty of times but still more often than not get routed through the house. You won't have any trouble with home time.

 

Allied Tube in Harvey


God i hated that place!

 

Yep I hated it too after only one time there when I was with my trainer. We were in Chicago and FM said to get there for a 4pm appointment and it was like 3:45pm so needless to say we didn't get there at 4pm. We ended up sitting there till they finally called us in a 4am to get our trailer. Never went there again thank God,,,lol.

 

Allied has a reputation, for sure. I was only there once, 3 hours early for my appointment. They told me to pull in, drop and park outside. 15 hours later..."We're done, come in and tarp". Never been back.

 

Yeah, they take forever. But the majority of them are pretty reasonable people to deal with, There were a few times when one of the older genetlemen felt so bad about how long the shift before him took to load me that he had a few guys come out and help me get tarped, so that was nice of them at least.

 

Hurrycne,

Yes I am still with TMC and yes I think I am still a trainer but I am also in the specialized division. What that means is that I am not normally hauling normal flatbed freight so training won't put any students with a specialized driver. There should be no problem finding a trainer in our area. There are definately alot of drivers at TMC that are from NC. Good luck with orientation and if you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask. Either myself or other drivers on this forum will be happy to assist.

 

Thanks Wolf!

And seeing as how ya offered, , what's the usual difference between "regular" flatbed loads and "specialized" ones? Is it mostly oversized/overweight stuff? Are you having more, fun - per se, in the specialized division than before?
("Fun" = more interesting/challenging loads/delivery locations, possibly even more miles/$$).

 

Flatbed loads = Lumber, wallboard, steel plate, steel coils, etc. Just regular misc. Flatbed freight.

Specialized = John deere, cotton pickers, sprayers, and so fourth. You'll need to be there about 2 years before you can get into that.