TMC Drivers, I have questions

All tmc trucks have inverters, and bunk heaters, andd they now allow you to idle so long as you're in the truck. They will let you have a small fridge, but with strict guidelines you'll have to follow. They do not have apus on their trucks.
They will not let you on the specialized division or the boat division until you've been with them for a minimum of 2 years, all of which must be safe driving. They have a tarping class, and if they make you go out with a trainer, you'll learn tarping with him.

 

Plenty of TMC threads here on TTR
Search Results for Query: Tmc thread | TruckersReport.com Trucking Forum | #1 CDL Truck Driver Message Board

 

I’m not with TMC but can tell u tarping is like wrapping a giant Christmas present that’s got to be wind resistant in one direction. It gets easier with practice.

 

Tmc is all about their image. Many of their guys that have the orange triangle on their truck are part of "safety support". Done drivers take that as being that they are part of safety and they think that affords them the right to look in a drivers truck for violations, and in some instances even call in on a driver for problems that make the company look bad. @Highway Sailor can even verify this.

 

Honestly Melton would be a better fit for how you like to run. They do get out west plenty. That is who @IluvCATS works for.

 

Melton is a starter company too. If he wants to pull OSOW and run the far west, he should go Combined Transport, Systems Transport or ATS. That would be stepping forward instead of backwards.

 

I keep getting emails from Combined Transport through Indeed. Looking into them looks like a solid choice if I decide to move on for heavy equipment experience, not a big fan on the size of their trucks. Those #### cascadia's look incredibly small

 

There's a reason you keep getting emails from them, it's because they can't keep meat in their seats.

Crappy trucks, bad hometime, uncaring management...

I was looking at them because they run glass dedicated out of a location pretty close to me, and they can transition into the heavy equipment that I'd like to get into one day. I talked to a guy who told me he was a trainer on the glass route and a "driver recruiter". That's always a bad sign. Anyway, he was sold on the company, but between talking to him and the recruiter that I called and talked to I could read between the lines. The trucks are small, the idle policy is nothing all that great. The turnover is high. Running glass means switching trailers on a regular basis, with other drivers who apparently just don't care. Moving onto equipment means less and less equipment as you get larger and larger. The guys running the 13 axle setups I'm told are out for at least three months at a time, with little more than a week when they get home. The guys running smaller setups may get home more often, but the most I could get them to commit to anything was "shouldn't have to be out for more than 3 weeks most of the time".

The guys running the smaller stuff get small trucks, not sure about the trucks for the guys who are out for months at a time. Their reefer fleet is automatics, and they are moving that way for everything but the heaviest of the HH trucks. They are transitioning to more of the "safety equipment", like cameras, tracking lane departures, hard stops, etc.

And this is what I got out of the guys who were recruiting for the company. The guys I've talked to who've actually worked there and now work elsewhere are much less flattering. Lots of laughing and cursing.

Just another company doing their best to be a hand holding, cattle prodding mega.