TMC Transportation, Inc. - Des Moines, Ia.

As an alternative to TMC? Ummm, no. Review the U.S. Xpress sliding pay scale that starts too low and gets even lower with longer LOH. As I've written before, your wallet will be very thin working for U.S. Xpress. -Dave

 

I am a driver for TMC. I have probably posted sometimes from a server that is owned by TMC, since they provide WIFI at the Des Moines terminal and I used the public use computer at the Lexington SC terminal while there for service once. You will find that the majority of my posts originate from Maine where I live.

There have been a lot of points made recently and I don't have enough time to address them all, but here are a few statements:

Trainers: Yes there are good trainers, Yes there are bad trainers. I happened to get a good one. If you get a bad one it is your DUTY to report him to the company and get a good one. Now at a company as large as this one you won't always reach someone with authority to do something about your situation on the first try. Continue up the chain of command until you are satisfied. Although I do recommend giving people some time, things don't happen in an instant.

Night dispatch: Is poor at any company. TMC included. Actually third shift is far superior to second shift, try calling after midnight and you may get somewhere. Second shift the phone can ring for twenty minutes with no answer.

Road Repair: I haven't had any problems, but I don't have a lot of experience with them. It can be a slow process sometimes, especially if you are stuck in an area without many services.

Unauthorized toll roads: That can be a pain, but I don't mind getting off the interstate sometimes anyway. Given that most places there is an alternate highway that is just as good, such as I295 parallel to the New Jersey Turnpike, or in Ohio where the speed limit is the still 55 even on the secondary roads it doesn't cause me any problems. I always avoided toll roads in my personal vehicle anyway if possible.

Meals at TMC orientation: Lunch is now provided for both weeks of training every day. This changed about three weeks ago I believe.

Logging: I run a legal logbook. There are however several things that are TMC policy or DOT law that screw with my logbook.
This is what I ran into earlier this week: First is that you need to log the 15 minute block of time in which you HANG UP the fuel pump as the fuel stop, so if you fuel from 7:42 to 7:46 you have a dilema: You were still driving until more than 7 minutes past 7:30, and you could start driving more than 7 minutes before 8:00 So I log it as drive until 7:45 and fuel 7:45 to 8:00. Now I started driving again almost ten minutes before my logbook says I did, so I have to make sure to log the miles, not the time. I have 20 Miles to my delivery, so that is half an hour on the logbook. I arrived at 8:15, even though my logbook didn't arrive until 8:30. I am required to show 30 minutes to unload, but this is a multiple stop load and it only takes ten minutes for me to undo one strap and them to take off the one pallet and sign their name three times, so I am ready to leave at 8:25 even though I haven't arrived yet. At this point I am running 35 minutes ahead of my logbook and there is no place to park at the consignee, they need me to move and get on my way. I am in CT and there is no place to park anywhere so I continue on down the road. I get to my next stop and am still nearly 20 minutes ahead of when I can be there logging the miles at 65mph. Again this one pallet takes only ten minutes to unload and I am back to being really ahead of my logbook again. I had to log exactly 65 mph all day and finally caught back up with myself at the end. I suppose that amounts to logbook falsification and all, but I drove legally, I was constrained by the laws and policies. If I had waited until my logbook was legal before leaving each place I would not have made my last delivery. I only had ten minutes to spare as it was.

 

You seem to be running into "company policy" more then "Federal DOT law"

1. You do not have to log 15 minutes for fuel if you did not spend a full 15 minutes in doing so.
DOT changed a few thing this last time.
They done away with the 7.5 minute thing and simply changed it to "if its less then a full 15 minute you do not have to show 15min " but simply flag where you was at and what you was doing. Anytime you are in the driver seat you must be on line 3 (sitting at the fuel pump line), if you are able to jump out and fuel your truck and get back in less then 15 minutes you do not need to show 15 minutes on line 4 but simply flag it.

This would also fit into your unload time, if you can do it 15 minute or less (total time not behind the wheel) then you only need to flag.

Call your states Federal DOT office and have them go threw this with you. have them tell you exactly where it is in the DOT book.

 

rawlco has it down pat it sounds. i was a former driver at TMC and have worked my way up. we expect nothing less than 100%legal logs. i seen a comment about our goal of 5 loads. yes and its not hard as long as you communicate well with your fleetmanager, this goes for any company, doing anything....communication is key. to each is own. i hate hearing all this BS, we are in the same industry and work for the same purpose.....to professionals. you have to be wiling to work, and make some small sacraficies to make it in the flatbed industry for any flatbed company. we are all humans and have the right to choose. life is all about choices, im sorry for some of you that TMC didnt work our for you. each individual is different and has their own likeness, TMC may or may not be right for you. good luck in whatever your decision is, but again we expect nothing less than 100% legal, and if your cowboy....good luck elsewhere.

 

you have to show 15 min fuel and a minimum 30 minute load/unload, per federal DOT based out of Iowa. there for becomes TMC company policy. i have met with the federal dot in many states, all the same. not sure where you are getting your info on this, but in flatbed, there is no way you can untarp, put your equipment up and them unload and sign off on your bills in 15 mins. we run a tight ship here and alot companies dont. so if you look at the results of alot of companies ratings after the nationwide audit last year, theres are less than satisfactory. we are above. safe stat rating is another ball game alot of drivers done understand what affects it. its a 13month rolling total of dot recordable accidents( nonpreventable included) logs/citations, mechanical defects. yeah safe stat scores scare alot of drivers looking for companies to go to, but you have to understand, it doesnt necassarily reflect the way a company is ran or if we care or dont care about drivers. that fact is, these drivers are my family and i treat them this way, i give respect and demand it back, which has made me some close friends here. hopefully for some of you looking at companies at truck driving school this sheds some light on safe stat scores and logging. be carefull out there and keep america rolling fellas!!!

 

Argue about Logs and whatnot, but TMC WILL get the EOBRs!! Mark my word!
For one or another or both, I haven't narrowed it down yet.
They will get them because:
1.) The driver does not know or care to know how to cheat correctly, or just man up and run legal.
2.) TMC does not know how to train the 80% of the drivers that are as green as Kermit, to log correctly, or they just don't care.

I have been over here at TMC Since Dec 06, and when a dispatcher says $1.50 a mile out of Little Rock is good, you know something is wrong.
I tried the "line haul" which translates to short haul. It involves untarping, driving up to 175 miles to retarp, and then 500-700 miles the rest of the day, NO FREAKIN' THANX! I did that 10 + years ago with Builders Transport, and I ###### sure at gonna do it for 33 CPM (yes I am on percentage).
So I moved over to Long haul and on the same day I get Chad in Specialized to get me dispatched under him, Safety says ok, so in less than 30 days I am into the "Specialized" div. Haul one 3 stopper, permmited load, at a whopping 1.57 CPM, no extra pay for daylight running only, yada yada yada, what a freakin joke.
They just need me to pull a load 'cause all the exp. drivers were gone, I was the only one on site with any exp. pulling OD.

Logs, schmoggs, TMC runs as hot as they want to, and no internet forum recruiters is gonna convince me otherwise.

Outside of the Too Much Cheap frieght and the typical big company mentality, they ain't too half bad, but half bad is enough for me to be outta here in about 2 weeks. 10 weeks of hauling cheap crap and the rookies don't have a clue what GOOD rates are let alone a decent one.
Come next year they will have a different name showing up somewhere , unless the bribe they give DOT help them to NOT to pull the numbers off the doors.

I may come across as a bit harsh, but when you pull shipper direct freight, leased to Landstar and Mercer (they really suck), you kinda have a hard time swallowing sorry rates, save the BS for someone who knows no better.

$10 for tarping :smt048
.20cpm DH (only after 150 HHG miles) --- does help ease the pain a little bit, but Id run it for free it the rates were NOT sub par.


Listen to this, I ran a load to somewhere in PA, legal, then they waited all day to call me ( sorry Qualcomm locked up and never got any messages), to ask me why I had not picked up the load and how far away was I from the shipper? "huh, what load?, what have you been smoking?"
Dude didn't even know how to dispatch "old school", I had to extract the info out of him, kinda like a role reversal, and he had supposedly been a Trans. Manager somewhere. :smt038 anyways, 130 or so miles over to get loaded, no tarp roofing insulation. Had to be 500 + miles to Detroit by 830 am, it was already dark where i was at in PA. ####, customer asks me to please make sure it was there as a crane was ordered , ok, just for you Mr. Customer. Up at 6 am to drive my last 75 mile to deliver by 8am, sit around till almost 4pm, they run 130 miles to get load, I was sitting in Detroit at 5am. Two hour nap, know what the A-hole ask me after that? Can you be in Vail Co. tomorrow afternoon?????????????????

No, but I can be around 450 miles away including DH. He #### near begged for it to get done.
There is more to this story, but my notes are in the truck and I am sittin' in the truckstop, but it is soooo close it is irrelevant.

This is why I hate a big company.
Thank god I am going to work for a small fleet owner, who expects a good rate and will settle for a decent rate, and if he acts right, i will lease my truck on with him (I am re-building a truck).

Oh, how about winches on both sides of the trlr. "Equally puts force on the cargo" Yeah, tell that to the rookies, the truth is to get the rookies to actually look at the OTHER side of the trlr. They have everyone but those who know better into thinking this way. Rather than just stressing a FULL dvir, they trick you with other means LOL.

How about a rookie driver with right at 11 months of solo driving taking the "Trainer" course. WHAT!?!?!?!? I like the guy, I know he will make a fine driver one day, but he is NO TRAINER. This rookie training a rookie is why we are getting our rears reamed everytime the self interest groups get a hair up their butt.

You guys can preach your "TMC really does stress saftey" all day long, but I have yet to see the actions of such. I have seen the print, heard the words, but as always,actions speak louder than words.


Now, do you want to learn to pull platform trlrs? They are as good as any big company, want good equipment, TMC does lead in this area, then I say go for it. Get your exp. here and go elsewhere to fine tune your skills.



I will say one more thing before I submit this, Todd B and both of the Tonys are good guys and know what safety is, I have respect for them, but their message dosen't make it to the planners or dispatchers.

 

i currently am in orientation and training with tmc and i can tell you that they do push safety very hard. 2 days of our classroom was about safety and the penalties for NOT being safe. i have never driven for another company so i have nothing to compare it to, but so far they practice what they preach. i personally think the problem lies with the trainers who try to take shortcuts and don't teach us "rookies" how to do it right. as far as dispatch is concerned, i truly have no idea since i am not driving yet. but maybe if the exp. drivers would hang around ad TEACH us new guys instead of getting mad and quitting there wouldn't be near as many problems. i agree that someone with 11 months exp. shouldn't be teaching anyone anything except maybe how to shift. but if all the exp. guys bug out, who else is going to teach us? it seems like alot of people go into trucking to get rich instead of making a good living, and when that doesn't happen, they start to blame their companies and point out everything that is wrong. you are the one in control of your truck, so if it isn't safe, don't do it! you have the right to refuse to do anything that isn't safe. truth is, there is no perfect company. but instead of pointing out the bad things all the time and giving the company a bad name, try pointing out the good things and then maybe, just maybe, the exp. drivers will stay on and things will change.

 

I know what my limits are, and I run accordingly.
TMC will teach you things that are good, but you will learn more by asking drivers that have been doing it longer.

Their cargo sec. is good with the exception of a few things, the 2 sided winch track is BS. Dont let them fool you into thinking pulling from both sides is the best, physics dictate otherwise.
anyways good luck to you and if your trainer goes in the bunk while you driver, report his butt ASAP!!

 

When I posted that I certainly wasn't indicating this is something you should do every time. I was just pointing out the change and if you can do it then it is legal to just flag.. Definitely wasn't trying to insinuate a shortcut/cheat method..