ANOTHER MAVERICK ?.

[redsfan]

I live around the pensacola,fl area, I know that I wont be home on the weekends but thats okay I already expected that, and since you already worked for maverick how is there equipment?

The equipment is great! Freightliner Columbias, none more than a couple of years old. They turn them back in at 300-350K miles, so even if you got an '04 or '05, you probably won't be in it for long.

A lot of people bash on Freightliners, but I'll tell you what if I'm gonna be living in my truck I definitely want a FL. Where I work now, we have '05 & '06 Kenworth T800's and Pete 379's, both with CAT C-15's. IMO, they don't hold a candle to a Columbia. That's just my opinion and others will disagree, but for driver comfort Columbias can't be beat. What I don't get is why everyone calls Freightliners "Freight-shakers"? Anyone who has driven a Pete 379 knows that they ride like a dump truck and beat the crap out of you. Columbias ride much smoother and I've yet to see any more power with the C-15 over the Detroit. My biggest pet peeve with the KW's is that you can sit in the drivers seat and almost reach out the passenger window to adjust the mirror. I get claustrphobic in those damn things...

One other thing, Maverick is going to all automatics. I hated the idea when I first heard it, but my last truck with them was an auto and I miss the hell out of that. You can't beat it when you're in stop and go traffic. Anyone who drove one for a week would never want to go back to shifting.

As for Pensacola, that's not bad. Don't be surprised if they actually do get you home on weekends. The buddy of mine lives in Gainesville and he seems to get home every weekend.

Good luck!

[redsfan]

Redsfan,

Just curious what you dont like about your local job. I did the same and feel like you but not ready to go back out there just yet.

1) The hours suck, I never have a set schedule. One day I may work from 4 AM til 10 PM (yes, I know that's 18 hours...) and the next I may not start until 2 PM and be done at 8 PM. Honestly I got much more sleep when I was OTR. I really don't see my family much more now than I did when I was OTR. They are usually in bed when I get home. I was supposed to be starting at 4 or 5 AM and being done by 4 or 5 PM every day.

2) The money is not nearly as good. I knew it would be less, but most weeks it's not nearly as much as I was told that it would be.

3) I am always running illegal. I'm always either overweight or out of hours or both. I hate that, I don't know how all the cowboys out there can stand to run that way.

I know it sounds like I'm whining, but I've talked to my boss numerous times and he keeps promising changes, but it's become obvious that nothing's going to change so I have to do it on my own. I've talked to several companies this week and I will probably go back to Maverick (should not have ever left), but I wanted to explore all options. I'd love to be home every night, not at this trade-off.

Sounds about like me. I've tried a couple of local outfits. First one, hauling milk. Seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Forget logs, there's no way you can do it legal. Just make up a bunch of crap and turn it in. Every load was overweight and all the equipment was a DOT inspection waiting to be placed out of service. Company policy was always bypass every scale. Second job was getting paid by the load, hauling a rock bucket. God almighty, I have never seen so many DOT's waiting to shut us down. I had no idea the DOT had it in for rock buckets. In four years of driving I got pulled over more times in three weeks than in all the time than I'd spent doing anything else. The DOT hates us. Just last week I got fined $430 for 2,000lbs over on the trailer axles (my fault, really), and a bald trailer tire. I told the company repeatedly about those sh*tty rear tires and they simply will not replace them. I get to pay for it out of pocket. Get up at 2am, get home at 8pm. The earliest I ever got up while running for TMC was 3:30am. One time, that's it. I swear I got far more sleep running OTR than local. Plus, more predictable schedules, better equipment, and if I had a problem with illegal equipment, it was taken care of immediately. I don't know. I'd love to run local, but unless it's LTL with a really good company, it seems OTR is far better. Especially flatbed where you can get home every weekend and safety actually exists. :evil:

Yep, that's the same boat I'm in. I haul a lot of grain and feed ingredients in a hopper. I've also run a fair amount of dry van. It's not so bad on the backhaul because most of our vendors won't load you over 80K, but on the front end, if the boss loads it you can bet that I'll be 95-100K.

I know a lot of guys that run rock buckets and you're dead-on with that. A buddy told me when I was getting my CDL that if he ever saw me driving a rock bucket, he was going to smack me for the same reasons that you stated.

I'm definitely going back out, but once I found out how cush dry van drivers have it I may not go flatbed if I find a decent dry van company. I'll probably end up right back where I started though, with Maverick, because it's hard to find anyone else who measures up.

[cattle_feed_maker]

Is it common for Maverick to haul sod? I thought it was kind of odd myself, unless maybe it was a different type of grass going to a golf course or baseball stadium somewhere. Today while out i saw a Maverick truck hauling pallets of sod, i believe it was 16 total. they were not tarped per say but did have a sheet of black plastic on the top of all of the pallets and then strapped. This was in Memphis going east on I-40.

[Snowman7]

Sounds about like me. I've tried a couple of local outfits. First one, hauling milk. Seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Forget logs, there's no way you can do it legal. Just make up a bunch of crap and turn it in. Every load was overweight and all the equipment was a DOT inspection waiting to be placed out of service. Company policy was always bypass every scale. Second job was getting paid by the load, hauling a rock bucket. God almighty, I have never seen so many DOT's waiting to shut us down. I had no idea the DOT had it in for rock buckets. In four years of driving I got pulled over more times in three weeks than in all the time than I'd spent doing anything else. The DOT hates us. Just last week I got fined $430 for 2,000lbs over on the trailer axles (my fault, really), and a bald trailer tire. I told the company repeatedly about those sh*tty rear tires and they simply will not replace them. I get to pay for it out of pocket. Get up at 2am, get home at 8pm. The earliest I ever got up while running for TMC was 3:30am. One time, that's it. I swear I got far more sleep running OTR than local. Plus, more predictable schedules, better equipment, and if I had a problem with illegal equipment, it was taken care of immediately. I don't know. I'd love to run local, but unless it's LTL with a really good company, it seems OTR is far better. Especially flatbed where you can get home every weekend and safety actually exists. :evil:

All this from "Mr Safety"? What a hypocrite. Gee, no one ever fined me. And they hate steel haulers as much as you bucket drivers. Of course, I never gave them a reason to. 8)

[nrvsreck]

Tell me snowball, after spending too much time OTR you take that "dream" local job only to find out it's far worse than any OTR job you could imagine. What do you do? Do you moan and groan and refuse loads until you're fired or do you just get fed up with it and quit? I don't like quitting jobs, but I hate getting fired even more. What's your solution? As far as being over on the trailer tandems, that's not a safety issue, it's a money maker, either for me if I get away with it, or for them if they catch me. How 'bout it supertrucker? What's your honest opinion on the matter?

[Snowman7]

Tell me snowball, after spending too much time OTR you take that "dream" local job only to find out it's far worse than any OTR job you could imagine. What do you do? Do you moan and groan and refuse loads until you're fired or do you just get fed up with it and quit? I don't like quitting jobs, but I hate getting fired even more. What's your solution? As far as being over on the trailer tandems, that's not a safety issue, it's a money maker, either for me if I get away with it, or for them if they catch me. How 'bout it supertrucker? What's your honest opinion on the matter?

Driver, my honest opinion? You gotta do what you gotta do. A man's gotta eat. I'm only picking on you because you started in on me. We're all in this together, just trying to make a living. As for me I drive for Conway. Great job if you can make it thru the first couple years. Some weeks, like this one, are pretty slow. On call, all different shifts, when you do work alot its crazy hours. Really tests your patience. I think about a better way every day but I cant come up with one yet. For now, I'll keep on pluggin away and if I ever get some seniority this will be a good job. How about a truce now?

[nrvsreck]

Yeah, no problem. All that really matters is that I'm right. :P

Good luck with Conway. I don't think I could do that "on-call" crap. :shock:

[redsfan]

Is it common for Maverick to haul sod? I thought it was kind of odd myself, unless maybe it was a different type of grass going to a golf course or baseball stadium somewhere. Today while out i saw a Maverick truck hauling pallets of sod, i believe it was 16 total. they were not tarped per say but did have a sheet of black plastic on the top of all of the pallets and then strapped. This was in Memphis going east on I-40.

I never hauled sod, never saw anyone else haul it or even heard of Maverick hauling it. With all that being said, I don't doubt you seeing that at all. If the money is right, Maverick will haul anything. I just never experienced it. Was it a Maverick truck or a MAV-IC truck? I know the MAV-IC trucks will haul some loads that you'll probably never see a Maverick truck hauling.

Primarily we hauled steel (coils, bars, sheets, etc.), and building products (lumber, drywall, shingles, etc.), but you would get an unusual load from time to time. I hauled a load of burnt rice hulls one time from AR to Detroit. Skids of bags double-stacked and extremely light. Easy loading, securing and unloading, but the consignee was the biggest pain that I ever dealt with. They were a glass plant that apparently uses the burnt hulls to cool the glass. Being in Detroit at all is bad enough, but being there for 5 hours plain sucked. That was one of only 2 times that I ever had to collect detention pay with Maverick.

[stevedb28]

ill probably seeing you there smb. I am starting this weekend and will be back in little rock on nov 6th for orientation.

[SMB]

Stevedb28 I moved to the 16th instead so we might run in to each other there. When are you going?

[SMB]

Stevedb28 I moved to the 16th instead so we might run in to each other there. When are you going?

Well October 16th not November.

[stevedb28]

the 16th myself. Was due to go this last week but couldnt locate my birth certificate

[SMB]

Cool see you there!

[Charkar]

Unless things have changed in the past couple of months, Maverick is as good as any company out there. I rank them and TMC at the top of the flatbed world. Melton is a distant 3rd to them, IMO, but no other flatbed outfit is even close.

A distant 3rd? LOL.. That is too funny!
I don't knock other companies, in this case, either you have your facts mixed up, maybe it's just your personal opinion.
Enough said....
Charles

PS: Maybe people could check out http://www.safersys.org on each of the companies listed safety records.
Stats from safersys
Melton 1 fatality, and 36 injured in the last 2 yrs
TMC 10 fatalities, and 76 injuries in the last 2 yrs
Maverick 7 fatalities, and 44 injuries in the last 2 yrs

This is a matter of public record courtesy of the FMCSA. TMC being the larger of the three companies.

Have a great day!!
Again..............Charles