Wondering about Marten Transport-Pros? Cons? Good or Bad?

[oregontrucker]

Anyone out there drive for Marten? Just wondering because I'm getting on with them next week from Schneider. Anything you can tell me about the company-good or bad-would be greatly appreciated.
By the way I'm a new user and love the website-lots of good stuff here.
Thanks

[drivenaway]

Gross Pay
7/21/2006 Friday, July 21, 2006 $1,424.12
7/28/2006 Friday, July 28, 2006 $746.30
8/4/2006 Friday, August 04, 2006 $754.56
8/11/2006 Friday, August 11, 2006 $1,156.96


8/25/2006 Friday, August 25, 2006 $831.96
9/1/2006 Friday, September 01, 2006 $1,083.24
9/8/2006 Friday, September 08, 2006 $816.84
9/15/2006 Friday, September 15, 2006 $572.04

example of past month pay, sep 15th had hometime in it

avg length of haul around 900 / little higher when out west
ive had many 1500 mi trips and several 2500
usually preplanned with not much waiting for next load
most lumpers on account
take hometime anywhere
1 day for every 5 out / minimum 2 weeks out
liberal fueling at most pilot, petro, TA but no FJ
no ez pass / tolls reimbursed
no scale reimbursement / built in gauge on trailers and tractor gauge
just started trans flo

have had a few bad customer waits 2 maclane food, 1 US Foodservice and 1 Americold

Generally avg UL/Load 2-3 hours/ better than last dry van co I was with
around 40% drop hook

diverse routes all over / dont get stuck in one area too much unless you want dedicated or southwest regional /

professional and orderly but not too much. Also not smiley and all friendly but more on the business side

mostly dispatched with plenty of time / 15% on tight schedule / 10% w/ too much time

good customer relations / able to drop early and other stuff that goes with good customer relations.

probably think of other things later

things that bug me

often in Chicago, Baltimore, NJ when in east, but can run out west and take hometime with family in Los Angeles.

no scale reimbursement

no ez pass / see Baltimore, Chicago, NJ

cant get used to reefer / hard to get to sleep

[drivenaway]

noticed you are in oregon, great domicile in my opinion. alot of 11 western which is my favorite. I also like I-5 corridor. And you get real long runs leaving northwest heading east. sometimes all the way to Mass or NY.

[oregontrucker]

OK! Thanks for the info!
Sounds like a pretty good deal to me. But no ez pass? Hmm......... :?:
The pay is much better than Schneider currently. Only been making about
$500-650/wk with the great pumpkin for last 5 mos, that's not ok when I can do better elsewhere.
Length of loads sound pretty good, too.

Until next time, Adieu.

[Castanea_d.]

Drivenaway, I'll add my thanks for the detailed info. I am also considering Marten.

Oregontrucker, there are several other Marten threads on this site. TK the Trucker is someone else here that used to drive for Marten, and as far as I know still does.

a Celedon thread that mostly talks about Marten

another Marten thread

[cadillac]

check out Southern Refrig too SRT both reefer outfits

[fireman932003]

Just keep in mind. No matter what company you are with there will always be one out there that pays better and seems better. The grass is always greener on the other side till you get there. Also remember, do not just go off of just one persons experience. Everyone has a different experience. I am not saying that he is not being honest with you but just talk to several other drivers from that company as well. A lot has to do with your relationship with your dispatcher and such. Good luck to you.

[oregontrucker]

Just keep in mind. No matter what company you are with there will always be one out there that pays better and seems better. The grass is always greener on the other side till you get there. Also remember, do not just go off of just one persons experience. Everyone has a different experience. I am not saying that he is not being honest with you but just talk to several other drivers from that company as well. A lot has to do with your relationship with your dispatcher and such. Good luck to you.

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.

[WildK9]

A lot has to do with your relationship with your dispatcher and such. Good luck to you.

Well put...this is the case at almost any company. BOL!

[oregontrucker]

I've done a little more exploration with Marten and it seems like a good choice. I've gotten feedback from a few guys who drive for them and the general consensus was positive. I would have loved to have stayed with the great pumpkin but just wasn't getting the good loads or miles that I had gotten with them at first. I hate to say it but that seems to be a major problem at Schneider nowadays. Even some of their million-milers are leaving for this reason. The newbs get all the good runs while the experienced drivers get the not so good ones. I'm generally not one to complain, but it just doesn't make sense to stay in that situation when you can possibly do better with another company running solo. I guess every company has good and bad points, so we'll see how it works out.
I appreciate all the pointers 8)

[Karnajj]

Drivenaway, how many years of experience do you have? The reason I ask is because 5 of the 8 weeks you quoted are not very good at all and only 1 of the 8 is what I would call excellent. Please don't take this as an insult but I'm wondering if it due to a lack of experience. I always thought Marten paid much better than that. It might be more helpful if you included the number of miles you drove those weeks.

[drivenaway]

1 year 5 months
.36 cpm
you can figure out the miles for each week

[-FlyByNight-]

Let me start out by saying that I currently drive for Crete Carrier and highly suggest you consider applying with them or Shaffer Trucking if you feel you must pull a reefer. Just click the link in my sig and it will take you to Crete's site. You can then click on Shaffer Trucking at the bottom of that page to go to their site if you prefer to pull reefer.

I want to stress that what follows is just my opinion based on my personal experiences as a company driver at Marten Transport for 14 months from 3/05 to 5/06 and that I hold no ill will towards them.

My #1 complaint about Marten is they had HORRID communication and seemed to prefer to keep the driver in the dark. ie my fleet manager wouldn't know or at least acted like they didn't know what was going on and pass the buck onto the load planners which are like the mighty Oz...behind the curtain and you can't see/talk to them.

I haven't had such problems at Crete so far. The communication here is wonderful! I don't have a FM for one because we have a totally different system here and usually if I do feel a need to call dispatch about something they're always friendly and helpful.

At Marten, I got tired of being dispatched loads that were hard or even impossible to deliver on time due to HOS, but when I stood my ground and said no I would get what I like to call 'penalty loads/runs'. That's when they sit you for ages or they feed you a steady diet of overnighters. With that said, I want to also say that the HOS changed 10/1/05 and it really made it hard to legally run reefer due to so many live loads and unloads and no longer being able to freeze your 14 hour day by going in the sleeper. So that did play into it. But I refuse to run illegal, so I wasn't a good fit for that. They are in trouble with the DOT and I've heard from friends that are still there that safety is about to 'clean house' soon. They're having trouble keeping drivers I'm told.

I don't know how it was at Crete before 'the accident', but I can tell you how it is now. You run legal or you run elsewhere! Some like to cook their books, I don't. I make good miles and good pay running legal. If you like to cook your books, don't even bother applying with Crete. You WILL get caught. Crete companies are using electronic logging across the board now. It's not paperless like at Werner, but your paper logs better match the electronic ones!

I just read what I've posted and I don't like the way I'm coming across, so I'm going to change gears here...

There are basically four MAJOR things a driver looks at when deciding on a company. You can put them in any order you want and you will be able to find a company to match your first two but you'll most likely have to compromise on the last two. Mine in order are:

1) Benefits
2) Pay
3) Home time
4) Equipment

1) Crete's benefits are better than Marten's pretty much across the board.

2) Crete's mileage pay is not only much higher, they pay practical route miles. Not to mention I don't deal with reefer, cold storage, inflexible appointment times etc A LOT more drop and hook here.

3) This is one Marten beats Crete on. Marten is 1 for 5 out and you can bank them. They also pay $50 for every day home late if you followed proper home time protocol. Crete is 1 for 6 out and they only really want you to take 4 if it's not including vacation time, but if you're knocking down the miles while you're out they're good about an extra day here and there. No $50 late home pay, but then I'm ALWAYS home on time or early so...

4) I guess you could say Marten has the edge here...sorta...they do have a lot of different trucks, but I had a Columbia at Marten so it wasn't much of change for me.

There are all sorts of intangibles.

No truck washes at Marten. One a month at Crete.

Can read your Qualcomm while going down the road at Marten. Not @ Crete! (Don't even try the turn the key off trick, new software catches that trick 100% of the time now.) :shock:

Can fuel anywhere on the fuel list whenever at Marten. With Crete you just need to go through the hassle of getting a new fuel solution is all.

I could go on and on, but you get the point. If you have a specific question, feel free to PM me and I'll do my best to get you an answer.

I've been with Crete now for five months and am really happy for the most part. At five months with Marten, I'd almost quit several times and was looking for a new job.

Even with saying that, there were some good things about Marten, but not enough for me to stay.

Here's a link for you to check out Marten. Rod is a good, honest guy and his site is NOT a recruiting scam. He explains it in one of his posts on the site, but basically he ended up filling my current bosses job when she left Marten to become a terminal manager here at Crete. Best of luck with your decision.

http://www.martenreview.com