RedDirtDriver Goes To Melton

I have now been employed with Melton for a grand total of a whole month, so I thought I would weigh in about my experience so far. My friends and family are also interested in my trucking career so they can check in here as well to read about my account.

A little bit about me: I am 50, have three years experience, had not driven for about 5 years, and got some retraining upon my re-entry into the industry.

I went to orientation in Tulsa, corporate headquarters for the company. In my class of 12, we finished the week with 10. One was sent home due to a truck abandonment at his previous company and the other went home on his own when he decided he did not want to flatbed any longer and got out of the industry altogether. Of the 12, four were brand new students out of trucking school, two were drivers with flatbed experience, one (myself) had older experience, and the rest were a mixture of OTR, local, and dedicated drivers with varying experience.

Orientation went at a fast paced speed and was your usual mixture of classroom presentation, homework, videos, DOT physical, road test, and securement training. The securement training was really two half day periods practicing on a variety of loads and the entire class together tarping two loads.

Orientation started on a Monday and three of the drivers were assigned trucks by the end of the week. If you are a current OTR driver, even though you may have no flatbed experience, you will be assigned a truck by the end of the week.

Since I had not driven for several years, I got to go out with a trainer. I had no problem with this. I thought the securment training was a little light in orientation so I was happy to go out with an experience driver to get some more experience with loads. My trainer was a nice, patient guy with 5 years experience of which almost 3 has been with Melton. He does not go home very often. I believe he went home a grand total of about 15 days last years. He also has a couple of training buddies that stay out for weeks/months at a time and talked to them often. My home time expectations will be much more frequent. Your trainer will be your Mentor with Melton during your career with the company. If you get a truck out of orientation, they will assign a Mentor to you and give you his/her contact number.

After a couple of days, my trainer said he had no concerns about my driving and said the company wants the trainers to set the drivers loose as soon as possible. He was basically ready to set me free after about 3-5 days. I requested him to Slow Play this a bit because I wanted more exposure to loads. I was with him for a couple of weeks and during that time period we had a variety of loads to include fencing, lumber, more fencing, huge water tanks, roofing materials, machinery, and steel coils. I'm glad I got the exposure and felt a lot more confident in securement. I should add that at the end of orientation you are given a handbook and a couple of DVDs to help you out on the securement process. I have not reviewed the DVDs yet, but I have used the handbook.

When it was time for truck assignment, I was dropped off in Dallas and flown to Birmingham to pick up my truck, a 2012 Kenworth with about 150,000 miles. Due to a non-working Qualcomm/Satelitte I have had some issues the last week, so it has been a bit of a cluster. It took trips to three different facilities in three different states to finally get my Qualcomm working, but it is now reportedly fully repaired.

My first load was a 700 mile weekend load with plenty of time to get there and my second load was a 900 mile load with not enough time to get there. I delivered them both safely with minimal problems and am now on home time since I did not get home for the first month. I enjoy the securement process and the exchange with shippers/consignees. The freight is more enjoyable than 'another load of toilet paper.' All my loads with the trainer were easily secured loads in fine weather. The first load on my own was some steel beams that I picked up and secured and threw the tarps on, but then the skies opened up and I finished tarping in a downpour while under a tornado watch. Such is life. The second load, I got the pleasure to pull my tarps off in 40 mph winds. I have found tarping/untarping to be very easy if you have one other person. It can be a bit of a challenge by yourself. I'm sure I'll get better with experience, but I've noticed that the very experienced flatbedders really seem to take their time. I have noticed that many drivers have their own tarps as well and this can be a timesaver due to the size of their tarps/loads it appears to me. I just have the Melton tarp system currently so I will roll with that unless I am lucky to pick up some somewhere. My trainer has had tarps given to him as has one of his friends. I need luck like that.

Pros with the company are the other Melton drivers, equipment, and people. I have been treated respectfully so far. I feel I could have been listened to more when I got my truck assigned to me and could have alleviated some problems, but..such is life. Cons I feel so far are company maintence, load planners, and fueling. Melton wants you to fuel at their requested stops. I would prefer to fuel when I stop or take a break since I could utilize the day better. My previous company used the same software that checks the prices daily for fueling, but you were not REQUIRED to fuel at those stops.

Kicking it at home for a few days. I enjoy flatbedding so far. I like the physical part of it quite a bit. It is not extremely hard phyical work, but it is manual labor. I do feel that I get a bit of a workout. Lots of pushing, pulling, bending, squatting. I go at my own pace and will not rush. If I find myself hurrying, I force myself to slow down. If I can compare it to jobs I've had in the past, it physically feels to me a bit like the construction gopher work I did as a kid or manual labor I did in the military. I'm 50 and I'm not a total Spring Chicken anymore and don't want to injure myself. My driving style is patient, safe, and legal. I have no safety incidents and don't want any in the future.

I'll give you my perspective. This is after all, my perspective, and others may greatly differ. Your success at Melton seems to be greatly influenced by who your DM is. I'll share the good and the bad. So far, I am having a decent experience.