The truth about May??

OK I drove for them a little over six months last year.

Nice people, ok pay and miles if you are not prone to logging as it happens. Make their job easy and they will roll you. Mention hours of service, I don't chain, or I can't etc.. and watch your miles drop off while they give loads to drivers who can.

60-62mph trucks most likely a Pete 387 13speed with the engine parameters cut back so you will crawl up hills.

High cube trailers with spring suspension and no e or d tracks to use straps on. Many trailers 10+ years old with bent up mud flap hangers, light broken rotted tires bent landing gear handles and tandems that off track and are a ##### to slide if you can get the rusted and bent pins to retract.

Lots of short runs and multiple stop loads and late night delivery's to detention prone grocery whses.

Little if any night or weekend support so preplns and taking care of business during the day is a must.

Breakdown and you might be sitting for a while because the company does not like to pay for things not covered by warranties or use road service after hours.

This is a smaller private outfit. Keep your Idle down and throw your logbook in the bunk and don't look at that ancient trailer in your mirrors and you will do fine. Act like a lazy newbie just out of school and you will be on the B team faster then you can say "I'm starving".

They usually expect you to stay out 10-14 days with 2 days off and run tours within 1000 miles of your home terminal.

Dry side is 11 western and refer is 48. Don't like to chain then do refer and stay east in the winter.

 

I drove for May for awhile, some good people, some not. Opal is great. They have changed a few things since I was with them, like pay and hiring area. Anybody got a grip on the hiring areas now? Overall, a good company to get experience. Good luck to all.

 

Listen, i aint looking to start nothing with ya, but i have no idea where you drove for May, i used ta pull into the Pilot at the 263 directly across from Mays yard in Brooks Oregon, i never once saw an old trailer like you described, infact even out on the road i never saw a trailer like that. I will be starting for May on the 20th of October.

 

Hey, Bowhunter, keep in touch with me will ya? I'm thinking about going with them too, and i will start about 4 weeks after you. (Schools 3 weeks) Let me know how it goes.

 

no problem, i will start my orientation on monday then hopefully be jumping into a truck right a way, i have allready been asked about being a trainer with them becuase of my experiance but not sure if i will.

 

Listen, i aint looking to start nothing with ya, but i have no idea where you drove for May, i used ta pull into the Pilot at the 263 directly across from Mays yard in Brooks Oregon, i never once saw an old trailer like you described, infact even out on the road i never saw a trailer like that. I will be starting for May on the 20th of October.

You never saw a trailer like that from across the street at the pilot?

Man you must have good eyesight to be able to do a pretrip from that distance. I worked out of the terminal at Brooks my friend and my experience with their trailers was certainly not limited to looking at them from across the street.

Tell you what, go work for them and when you are under that trailer they assign you and you are blowing out a disc in your lower back trying to get that trailer at 40' for CA or trying to bend that mud flap so it is not rubbing the tire, you can think back to how pretty the trailers looked from across the street at the Pilot.

I will however say that they have bought some new trailers but they don't stay new for long and when you spend a night at the Fontana yd or Auburn yd,you will see why.

 

i have been up close to many of there trailers, at other truck stops and rest stops, infact i just talked to a may driver yesterday at a local truck stop, his trailer looked nothing like what you say they do, i admit trailers get dinged up, but no way does any weigh master let a trailer like you have described stay on the road for very long. you have yer opinion, i have mine, but you have allready showed yer not to fond of may.

 

Having just spent some time working for May, the only thing I agree with him on is the after hours support. Preplanning before the weekend or before your DM goes home is a very good idea.

As for the rest, in my personal experience, it's.. less than accurate

 

yeah learch, i passed 5 may trucks on I-5 today and not a one of them had bent up mud flaps and there were no messed up doors or sides. they looked good to me.