TransAm: It isn't THAT bad

I've seen a lot of threads bashing TransAm, and I'd like to set the record strait a little. It isn't a good enough company for me to use the "Favorite Companies" section, but I'll explain why it is the right choice for some...One thing real quick...if you have over 1 year experience driving, stop reading now...you don't want to work for TransAm, there are better options out there for you.

First, there are two divisions, company and lease. A driver can do either once orientation is over, even if they are a new driver fresh from school. If you are a hard worker with no family/home life, then you want the lease program, otherwise you want the company program. Actually, if you want the company program, you probably want a different company...this review is about the lease program.

OK, so since this review is mainly for new drivers fresh out of driving school, let me tell you what to expect and where to save yourself grief.

Once accepted, they will offer you a bus ticket to one of the terminals...go to Kayak.com and get a plane ticket, they will reimburse for the cost of the bus ticket and it should pay for most of the cost of the plane ticket. Greyhound sucks. When you get there they will stick you in a hotel room with another new driver, if you want your own room you have to pay full price unless you can convince the other person in the room to split the price with you so you both have your own rooms at 1/2 price.

The first orientation period is three days...you only get paid for the third day (friday), after that you get paid $50 per day seven days a week until the end of the second orientation period. This orientation is mostly making sure that you meet requirements that are less than minimal (Can you read? Can you pass a piss test?). Once you are done with this, you will be with a trainer for three weeks, some of the trainers are terrible and some are very good...you can't pick who you get. A good trainer will work you like a slave, just as you should work once you are running for yourself. Once you are done with the three weeks you will come back to one of the terminals and go through a more complete orientation. They will teach you some formulaic methods of backing into various types of spaces, they will teach you how to route yourself if your GPS goes down, and they will teach you most everything else that you should have learned with a good trainer...they do this because some trainers are not very good.

On the last day of the second orientation you will be given the choice to become a company driver or a lease driver. As I said above, if you want to be a company driver, you are in the wrong place...BUT DON'T GO LEASE YET!!! Make 100% sure they have a T700 (any year) available for you. If they don't then put yourself on the waiting list for one and tell them you will go lease as soon as it is available. They will try to lease you a T660 with a C15 engine that has been beaten like a dog and gets terrible fuel economy...but has HIGHER lease payments than a 2013 T700. If you fall for this, you will be lucky to match the earning power of a company driver and they will take their time getting you a T700. One little note...they do have a few T660's with the Paccar MX engine, these are actually very good trucks. The fuel mileage is about the same as a T700, and no one seems to want them so you can probably get one right away. The main downside is that the sleeper is smaller and the lease payment is still higher than a T700. If you do this, still put your name on the T700 waiting list, if you change your mind later and want to stay with the T660, there are enough people on the waiting list that they won't mind you dropping off of it.

You are now a trucker...sorta...here are some other important tips...
-Don't accept crummy jobs after your second week. They will give you crap at first to make sure you are halfway competent...but after that, turn down bad loads and wait for the good ones. Don't worry when they tell you it might be a few days when you turn down a load right after delivering the last one; they will probably have a good load for you before you get to a truck stop.
-Save all your receipts...even the fuel receipts. You can write off virtually everything on the road, and you want to keep the fuel receipts to get an idea of just how much you are saving with their fuel plans as it will allow you to figure out when you actually want to go off their plan.
-They will tell you to finish each trip with 1/8 fuel level. This is to maximize the amount of the settlement for the week. DON'T DO IT. If you do this, each trip will start with a trip to the nearest hole-in-the-wall that has diesel, at whatever the price. If you finish trips at 3/8 or more, your first check will be a bit smaller, but your average will be higher.
-Always top-off your DEF when it is at the pump. A lot of stations that don't have it offer lower diesel prices, so sometimes you can go thousands of miles without having it available at the pump, and you don't want to make a special stop just for DEF.
-TransAm has eLogs...they suck but you can work with them. Pre and Post trip inspections should take no more than 5 minutes each. When you stop somewhere, go to sleeper right away as you might only be there for 8 hours...8 hours of sleeper and off duty mixed is worthless, 8 hours of sleeper is a split-sleeper break. If you arrive at a shipper or at a delivery, log that you arrived right when you arrived, especially if you arrive early. You might have a 10 when you are ready to log that you are done there.
-If you are going to the northeast or Florida, top off your diesel before you get there. Fuel prices are much higher in these states and you want enough left over after your delivery to get back out without fueling, or at least to minimize the amount of fuel you buy there. This does not matter with some companies as you have to pay the fuel taxes for the miles you run in a state anyway...but TransAm charges a flat per-mile rate for all miles run anywhere, so buy fuel in the cheap states.
-If you are in California and you get a job to Colorado (or vice-versa), check the route they tell you to go against the miles. TransAm won't let you take some of the mountain passes, so they might only pay you 1000MI for a trip that is 1500MI according to their own route plan. Turn it down...they have other jobs that go the south way and pay actual miles.
-If you are due for a DFP cleaning, DO IT! TransAm will pay for the whole thing...they charge you for the miles of the scheduled cleanings that you ran when you turn in the truck. The DPF cleaning does help mileage, so do it as soon as you can.
-If you have any small insured damage (like hitting a deer or getting clipped in a parking lot) and the truck is still drivable and reasonably efficient, get an estimate and pick a shop near home...have them order everything they will need (you will have to work with the TransAm risk management department to do this), and then when they are ready for you, go home and drop the truck with them. TransAm will reimburse truck payments while it is in the shop (you have to submit receipts to the LEASING department and bother them a lot, but they will do it eventually). Consider it a vacation. Also, don't bother reporting anything under $500 unless it is the fault of another driver who is insured. A deer ran into the side of my truck and took out a $98 quarter-fender...I replaced it myself (no labor charge) and had no down-time. If I had taken it to a shop, the labor would have been added to the part price and the total would still have been under $500 so I would have paid for it all myself...plus I would have had down-time.
-Bring a hobby with you...downtime is unavoidable. Sometimes you will be waiting to deliver, other times you will be waiting to pickup, most days you won't need 10 hours of sleep, and even if you are lucky enough to run yourself ragged all the time, you will have to do 34-hour resets...so bring a hobby with you. Personally, I have a gaming PC, a bunch of movies, 22GB of mobile data for streaming stuff, and I'm going to get more the next time I get home.
-Cell Phones: I'm sure I'll get some grief for this, but Verizon is really the only choice. When you are in the middle of nowhere, KS you will have internet and voice on a verizon phone...you will be lucky to have cell service on a AT&T phone, and since T-Mobile changed their roaming policies, you won't have any service at all (not even roaming) on one of their phones. All the other companies seem to be limited to the cities. Cell service in the middle of nowhere is vital as the communications device in the truck uses AT&T/T-Mobile towers, so there are lots of places where it gets no signal, but a verizon phone does just fine. Plus, you will need a phone to write TCH checks for company business, and you can get in a real jam if you have no service (lumpers don't accept personal checks). A smart phone is also a very good idea too. Google maps is not truck friendly, but can get you out of a jam when the truck GPS gets you lost...plus the satellite and street view features can help you decide if you want to go to a delivery early and wait on the street, or just wait at a truck stop. The smart phone also helps with that last section; you can watch movies, youtube, whatever...assuming you have a big enough data plan.
-Sirius radio is very nice, but don't pay for a subscription on the stock head unit. They offer an al-a-carte service that is very reasonably priced, and odds are there are not enough channels that you actually want to make use of the allotment that al-a-carte gives you. The stock head unit does not support al-a-carte, so it is actually cheaper on a yearly basis to buy your own receiver with the al-a-carte service. Plus, you can take your own receiver with you when you change trucks, go home, or go to another company...transferring Sirius to another device costs $15. Also, some of the newer Sirius receivers support pausing for 30-40 minutes. This is very nice when going through scales and when getting to a shipper or something. You can also tune-in and pause while you are sleeping, so you have programming ready when you wake up, and you can then skip over the commercials or songs you don't like. Sometimes 30-40 minutes isn't quite enough...but 0 minutes (like the stock head-unit) is NEVER enough.

I'm sure I'm missing some things, and there are lots of other tips that apply to just about any company...I've tried to limit these comments to TransAm tips. Overall, if you are just starting out and you have lots of motivation you can do well at TransAm. You can make decent money while driving an easy truck with a huge sleeper, and that's about all any beginner driver should hope for. Spend 12-18 months there...then go somewhere better once you are qualified. It is a training company, not a career company.

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You get a lot more than 2500MI if you run hard and don't deliver late all the time, I've had weeks were I took a 34 and still put in over 3000MI...and I don't train. I think most of the people who complain about getting only 2500MI are people who are either lazy or incompetent. My weekly take-home pay ranges anywhere from $500 for a slow week to over $1000 for a good week, I've even had a $2200 week, but that was following a $200 week (bookkeeping error held pay for a job over while charging the fuel on the previous week). Part of that is that I'm proactive about it...I don't take crummy jobs, and if I get a slow week where I only get anything less than 3000MI, I'm on the phone with my dispatcher's boss. Now, I know averaging $800 a week isn't great...even when you figure that I'm paying very little in taxes...but by the standards of training companies like Stevens, Swift, Werner, etc is is pretty good...it is even good for Schneider, and they won't hire anyone under 6 months (at least not in my state).

As for the headaches of being an IC, they are really minimal. Most of the crap that one has to deal with being an IC at most places does not exist; it is almost like being a company driver other than pay and the fact that you don't have to do jobs you don't like (I don't go to NYC, Philly, etc). Yeah...you have to collect your receipts for everything except food and drinks, but it is better than paying taxes!

As for dealing with Uncle Sam, you have to do that regardless...and you have to pay him a lot more when you are a company driver. I can write off so much stuff that I only paid about $100 in taxes for the first quarter...and I think I actually overpaid because I held back a bunch of stuff from my cash sheet to avoid my tax lady giving me a negative number back. All big companies hate to pay taxes, TransAm hates to have their contractors pay taxes too, so they give lots of help in (legally) avoiding taxes wherever possible.

[edit]
...And I know that TransAm isn't a great company...I'm leaving as soon as my year is up, probably sooner. It is a training company, but as far as training companies go, it is a good one IMHO. I've kept up with the people who I graduated from driving school with, and I'm doing better than any of them. Yes, I'm sure that with 7 YEARS experience you can go work somewhere better...I'm sure that with 1 year experience you can go work somewhere better...but when you are fresh out of driving school and living in Florida, the available options are extremely limited. Of those options, TransAm seems to be the best, assuming you are willing to work.