Transport National

!!!! Have on update !!!

I started training with Transport National back in June, they flew me up to Oak Creek (south of Millwaulkee) and put me up in a very nice hotel just down the road from the terminal, gave me the use of the company pick up when available, paid me by the hour while training (3 weeks).

First day they took me to a physical therapist to evaluate my working capacity, done some lifting, bending, carrying, climbing & crawling (yes...crawling), basicly they just wanted to see if I was able to do the job, by the time I was finished I had broke a good sweat & was breathing hard, was a real eye opener as to what 9+ years driving a dump truck will do for you, but to be honest you'll do every one of the task performed once you get to work, if your afraid of getting dirty or manual labor stop reading now & find yourself a job pulling dry freight.

What Ive learned so far:

The company: they treat you with respect seem to be honest people and run a very professional business, theyre very picky about who they hire on, expect you to be a professional and do the job you hired on for, never once have I caught them trying to pull one over on me, in a lie, shorting my pay check & theyre willing to work with you as a driver if any way possible, they are very safety minded and your trained to load and secure the freight to their standards then the load is photographed & sent to safety dept to be looked over before leaving the shipper, sloppy/unsafe work dont fly at TN.

The pay: I started out at a $1000 weekly gross & so far never brought in any less the $600 (and this figure is after advance came out), once you get to hauling the bigger/better paying loads the money goes up, you still get the $1000 and anything more than that is paid as a bonus at the end of the month, good drivers can bring in some big numbers, in the thousands big numbers, top earners will bring in mondo bucks money, but it takes time to get there, right now I'm pulling loads in the 12 wide, 14+ tall & edging 100 long & the money is getting bigger along with the size of the loads.

The work: plan on working hard, getting dirty at times, sometimes you can work the load in a building & sometimes your working outside,, dragging & throwing chains, crawling on top under loads, tarpping varies, you may not tarp for a month then you'll have 2 weeks worth of everything needs a tarp ( & I hate tarps but its part of it, I look at it as a challenge to keep my mind off of the chore, do the best & neatest job possible), some loads are a puzzle and takes some brain power to make it work, most loads are a piece of cake, may be storage tanks that require a few chains & straps or could be a load that takes every thing you have in the box to secure it safely, keeps me from getting bored and gives me a chance to use my critical thinking skills (HA ! I have thinking skills !!), its not bad once you learn the tricks of the trade to make short work of it. ( and were always learning, Right??)

In a nut shell its seems to be a good job, not gonna sugar coat it, you have to put out to do this safely & to be compliant, its a lotta work at times, requires you to think & make sure all the bases are covered, and if your not,safety minded, a team player & dont do your job you wont make the cut, plain & simple, dont get me wrong about the hard work part, if it were more than it was worth I would'nt be wasting my time with a no paying BS job, I wont do it, in time to come ( and is happening already) my money will make a big jump, more that Ive ever made before, I know what can be made if I'm willing to learn & progress & thats my goal, if it werent I'd just stay home & go fishing.

 

**** UPDATE ****

Left Transport National about 6 months ago, as it turned out they werent what they said, the $1000 a week salary ends up being around $650ish after everything is taken out, the insurence is junk, the monthly bonus is unabtainable (worked like a dog for over a year and only made bonuses and they were just a couple hundred bucks), you do more tarpping than they claimed, they beat me out of a third of a $2500 load pay, and will play you like a fiddle. (and these are common complaints from drivers in every terminal, not just me)

I had very high hopes for that job, really worked hard,never had any claims, was on time every time, never turned down a load and was a team player in every way, what it boils down to tranport national is just another promise making BS company.