TMC,Maverick, or McElroy???

Wow! Someone might see more in 16 seconds than they could forget in a lifetime!

 

Are the pete 388's and 579's all 9 speeds or is there still some 13 speeds??

 

Not sure. I have a 388, and it's a nine. My trainers tractor was a 579 and it was 9. The 579 I'm getting here shortly is a 9.

 

Thanks for the reply. Was just wandering if they were getting away from the 13 speeds.

 

Rumor has it they just cancelled their order of new 9 speed 579s, and ordered automatics.

 

Bama, Have you made any decisions on who to drive for yet?

 

I haven't yet. I am still going back and forth between TMC,Maverick, and Averitt. I start cdl school on 1/4/2016 so I hope to have a good idea by then.

 

I am sure you have read about them on here, but a guy did a series of videos on his training and experiences with Maverick. They are very well done and informative. Here is a link in case you weren't aware of them.
http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...ads/my-maverick-experience-documented.267470/

 

We have a Lowe's distribution center just down the road from where I live, and McElroy hauls a lot for them. I went down this afternoon and parked at a place where I could just observe trucks coming and going to get a feel for that particular aspect.

It was interesting. Most of the trailers were pre-loaded with tarps draped over the load and loosely secured. I observed one driver come in and drop an untarped load of shingles and then move to pick up a mixed load. It still took him almost an hour to scale it, get the load secured and the tarps taken care of properly. Another guy who had dropped an empty and moved to a mixed load at least 15 minutes before the other one arrived was still working on his when the one driver pulled out. I followed the one truck out as he left, but the other man looked like he would still be at least another15-20 minutes.

That gave me mixed feelings about the pre-loaded trailers as it relates to McElroy.

 

We have the same here at TMC. Those pretarped aren't really a huge time saver, because they never truly secure it. So first you gotta strap the load, then fix the tarp, etc. Plus those mixed loads, the tarp always looks funky lol.