McLeod Express - Be Careful

[ALKELE]

McLeod Express is out of Decatur, Illinois. They have van and flatbed driver, also, regional and OTR.

However, I would be careful of them. They do pay $.40 per mile, but since I have started, I have averaged a little over 2100 miles per week.

I could live with that though, but have serious issues with their dispatchers. Trying to get a hold of a dispatcher can be impossible at times. They will not answer theirs phones, will not answer voicemails, and will not answer the QualCom messages. There is a complete lack of professionalism and common courtesy. Hours will pass before they get back to you, if they ever do. Most of your questions will go unanswered and you are on your own. You will do better calling the shipper or receiver. The last company I worked for would answer the phone, voicemails, and QualCom messages. They were polite, professional, and fairly quick to answer. McLeod could take lessons from most other companies on communicating with drivers. They could take lessons from a 1st grade class on common courtesy.

They offer a $800 per week minimum pay package. You drive less than 2000 miles in a week and they will pay you the $800. However, you have to be available to drive Mon-Fri, not be late on a delivery, and not be late for a pickup. Management is proud of this offer. It has drawn in a lot of new drivers. However, it is up to the dispatchers to assign a few late pickups to each driver each week. You get a preplan where the pickup time is hours before the load you are carrying delivers.

Human Resources says to refuse the preplan and tell the dispatchers to change the pickup time to a time that you can make. However, this is an absolute guarantee that the dispatchers will refuse to answer you. I have gone 7 hours straight trying to get a pickup time changed before giving up. You will keep getting QualCom messages begging you to accept the preplan, but the dispatchers will refuse to acknowledge that you are asking to change the pickup time. So, while management is promising you the $800 minimum weekly pay, it is apparently the dispatchers job to purposely assign late pickups in order that McLeod doesn't have to pay out that minimum pay very often. The head dispatcher once proudly told me that he had paid out $1400 in minimum pay the week before (regional drivers have a $700 minimum pay). That is 2 regional drivers out of over 350 drivers. I have talked to quite a few drivers that drove less than 2000 miles in a week and never got the minimum pay for it.

Because of the lack of communication with the dispatching staff and the non-delivery of the minimum pay, they lose a lot of drivers. To be able to maintain drivers for about 350-370 trucks, they are trying to bring in 20 new drivers each week. I heard one of the staff telling the hotel clerk to go ahead and maintain the reservations of 20 rooms per week until the end of the year. That is trying to bring in about 1,000 drivers per year to drive 350-370 trucks! That is more than twice the industry turnover rate. That should tell you something right there.

Even for the OTR drivers, most of the runs are regional runs. Less than 600 Miles. Their service map shows their primary and secondary running areas. Don't believe those maps. They basically run from St. Louis MO to Maryland and Delaware. Kentucky up to New York and Michigan. A very long run for them is 865 miles, my longest to date. I have been given runs where I have 27 hours to drive 200 miles or so. I think that they are a regional company with Delusions of Grandeur of being a OTR company.

My opinion would be to use this company as a last resort. The company lies to you more than your recruiter does. Dispatchers will ignore you and try to cheat you out of the minimum weekly pay. I can't leave because they are my second company in under my first year. I will have to wait awhile before I can leave, so I am basically stuck for now.

[flatbedder]

[Uturn2001]

In a way I can feel your pain.

I was going to go to work for them a couple of years ago. I applied, went for my drug test, and had a date set up for orientation. 2 hours before orientation was to be held I was called by some secretary there and told my application was placed on hold. No reason given and they refused to answer my phone calls or to discuss the matter with the recruiter, who at the time was the same guy who owned the school I got my CDL from.

[ALKELE]

When I got called by the recruiter, I tried to do a careful check on them. However, I couldn't find anything on the internet about them. Absolute silence. It was like no one had anything good or bad to say about them.

I also tried finding some of their drivers to talk to, but didn't see any McLeod trucks on the road. I was mostly running north and south and McLeod mostly runs east and west. So, I struck out on that angle also.

By the time I was finding McLeod drivers and ex-drivers, I was already driving for them. So, I thought that I had better post some of the stuff I see so that others drivers can make a more informed decision.

[Road_Juggalo]

Im in orientation with them now, I coulnd't find nothing about them either. So far from what I learned from orientation, there medical is really expensive especially if u have a family. There dental and vision sucks, it's not even a insurance, i'ts discounts. There paid vaction thing kinda sucks, well actually compared to what SNI gave me m first year it really sucks. So far the only thing that sounds promiceing is the $800 gurantee and being home on the weekend, but you got me wondering about that one. Well looks like Im stuck for at least 3 years if every thing goes well. At least till my alchol charge passes it's 5'th birthday

[ALKELE]

The one good thing I can say about them is that they have had me home every weekend so far. The one weekend that I was to work, they got me home Saturday afternoon.

This past weekend was a little different though. I request 3 days off starting on Saturday. Actually got though to my dispatcher (after many attempts). Told her that it was very important that I was home those 3 days and that I needed all 3 FULL days. I also told her that I needed to be home by Friday night (like usual) to make sure that I was fully rested for Saturday morning.

Well, lo and behold, Friday was spent running around Chicago. Ran out of hours at my second to last shipper that night. Spent Friday night at the shipper, and dropped that load on Saturday and picked up another load. Finally got home early Saturday afternoon. Could not get my dispatcher to answer me.

So, just a normal weekend, I get home fine. But, when I actually requested time off and told them how important it was that I was there on time, then I was jacked around.

[One]

Oh man.... :x

[bandit]

Do beware of this company. Seems to me there is too many chiefs and not enough indians. Dispatchers and planners are terrible. They promised my husband home 3 weekends out of the month. The first month he got home 3 weekends and then they kept sending his Qualcomm a message telling him it was his weekend to work. He had the weekend off before that one and worked the 2 weekends before that. He had to go pick up a abandonded truck (now I can see why) trailer and take that load to deliver. He called dispatch they said drop that load in Knoxville pick up in Dandridge then the load picking up there delivered Tuesday morning in Illinois. Friday morning on his way home (and he was halfway home which would put him out of route from the original Tuesday morning delivery time) they send a message to his Qualcom and tell him to deliver the load Saturday morning. He goes OFF! He calls dispatch and asks them what is going on? The dispatcher he was working under, Steve, hung up on him. My husband calls me back. The head dispatcher gets on the phone and tells my husband he does not wanna work! My husband even "fudged" his logs to please this company cause of the short miles and time frames they EXPECT you to deliver and pickup on. My husband is a HARD worker and will break his back to help any company. He runs hard and hates to sit. You cannot make any more money than the guaranteed base $800.00. I don't see how they are coming out honestly. The dispatchers and planners have no idea how to run a truck. You learn how to add and subtract in elementary! I agree with the comments on this thread. They are all true. BTW the safety guy there use to be a DOT officer and I'm sure he has connections!

[Duceswild]

Good timing was reading this forum when they called.
Told him I would get back to him {not}
Another driver saved thanks all

[Blondie429]

My husband has been with Mcleod since April of 2006 and my advice(along with his) is DONT waste your time with this company.
Yes they offer you .40 per mile along with weekends home but its all BS.
As far as the miles, youre lucky if you get them (yes their is a guarantee of $800) and as far as weekends home you have to actually fight with them and refuse loads to make sure you get home.
As far as their dispatchers go, in plain english, they suck. You are lucky if you get a response back from them on the qualcomm. They never answer and when you call them on the phone they're never at their desk or they put you on hold only to keep you hanging. I dont know where they find people like this but the are very unprofessional and dont care about anyone, especially the drivers. (Myself as a dispatcher wouldnt have a job if I behaved and treated my people the way that they do.)
For example, one Friday he was sent back to Decatur in hope of getting home that Saturday. He kept sending his dipatcher messages along with calling him to find out about his load home. Didnt get any answer and before he knew it, it was 6pm and they went home for the night and he was stuck at the shop for the w/e.
I know all this personally because I was in the truck with him for 6 months and seen everything they did.
He is now in the process of going to another company and it will be great knowing that he wont have to deal with these "kids" that call themselves dispatchers anymore.
So if you want a company that pays .40 per mile and rarely gets you home on w/e's and has you sit for hours without a load and never answers you, then go to Mcleod.

[Bozo25]

I work for McLeod right now and have no trouble. If you do your job, you will get your pay. I spent a day in there office and I saw all they had to deal with. The phones do ring like any office, if they did not have to watch so many drivers so close, and everyone just did there job, no one would have any issues. They are a good company and if any new prospects reads my message, please give McLeod a try if you are looking for a good job. All you gotta do is what is expected of you and the rest will all fall into place.

[AsphaltBound]

I work for McLeod right now and have no trouble. If you do your job, you will get your pay. I spent a day in there office and I saw all they had to deal with. The phones do ring like any office, if they did not have to watch so many drivers so close, and everyone just did there job, no one would have any issues. They are a good company and if any new prospects reads my message, please give McLeod a try if you are looking for a good job. All you gotta do is what is expected of you and the rest will all fall into place.

Me thinks me smells a recruiter :wink:

[Triple.C]

Me thinks me smells a recruiter :wink:

...after I emailed the CEO the link to this thread yesterday these guys suck

[Jim Henson]

I don't usually post on these things cause it's a waste of time to me but I saw some of the things being said about McLeod..I had to post.

I've been driving for about 18 years and with Mcleod for 4 years. I also dispatched for Warner for a couple years before I went back to the road. I have my bachelor's in business management, but I always loved to be on the road so that's where I am today.

After all the companies I've been with, I'll tell you the truth:
If you are a road rookie or you need constant attention and can't help yourself(logwise or taking care of business), Mcleod is not the place for you. All these guys leaving messges on here sound like those guys who I hear about quittin all the time about stupid sh*t that they couldn't pull up their own diaper. I don't know who that recent post was that sounds like a recruiter if that's real or not, I don't know. But what he's sayin is right. If you do your job, you will be fine with this company. I live in Decatur with my wife and 2 beautiful kids and that might be why I don't have too much of a problem getting home, but there have been times where I didn't get home when I was supposed to. Something a lot of drvrs who never dispatched or brokered loads don't understand how it works is that if there aint the right freight, you can't always get where you wanna go! It's trucking!

I've never had to get the guarantee except for the 1st time 2 weeks ago during the slowest time of the freight year. I don't always see the amazing miles that everbody here wants but I averge about 2300 miles a week.

This aint a diss to anybody but lots of these truckers on here give real truckers a bad name. Mcleod aint a bad place if you know how to take care of yourself. Everybody makes mistakes at every company but Mcleod don't sit around apologizing..they just get right to work on fixin it. If you can't help yourself out, Mcleod probably don't want you anyway.

[Triple.C]

I don't usually post on these things cause it's a waste of time to me but I saw some of the things being said about McLeod..I had to post.

I've been driving for about 18 years and with Mcleod for 4 years. I also dispatched for Warner for a couple years before I went back to the road. I have my bachelor's in business management, but I always loved to be on the road so that's where I am today.

After all the companies I've been with, I'll tell you the truth:
If you are a road rookie or you need constant attention and can't help yourself(logwise or taking care of business), Mcleod is not the place for you. All these guys leaving messges on here sound like those guys who I hear about quittin all the time about stupid sh*t that they couldn't pull up their own diaper. I don't know who that recent post was that sounds like a recruiter if that's real or not, I don't know. But what he's sayin is right. If you do your job, you will be fine with this company. I live in Decatur with my wife and 2 beautiful kids and that might be why I don't have too much of a problem getting home, but there have been times where I didn't get home when I was supposed to. Something a lot of drvrs who never dispatched or brokered loads don't understand how it works is that if there aint the right freight, you can't always get where you wanna go! It's trucking!

I've never had to get the guarantee except for the 1st time 2 weeks ago during the slowest time of the freight year. I don't always see the amazing miles that everbody here wants but I averge about 2300 miles a week.

This aint a diss to anybody but lots of these truckers on here give real truckers a bad name. Mcleod aint a bad place if you know how to take care of yourself. Everybody makes mistakes at every company but Mcleod don't sit around apologizing..they just get right to work on fixin it. If you can't help yourself out, Mcleod probably don't want you anyway.

welcome to CAD, Jim.

1st post!!

[HeavyChevy]

i am heading out to orientation next monday for mcleod so far from what i read they are like any other trucking company's standards,do the job expected and there is no problems.bandit,it sounds like you had a bad run in with them,but i wouldnt make the company seem like the worst thing out there.i been with a few shady outfits,and from what i see,mcleod is far from shady.

[Smooth]

i am heading out to orientation next monday for mcleod so far from what i read they are like any other trucking company's standards,do the job expected and there is no problems.bandit,it sounds like you had a bad run in with them,but i wouldnt make the company seem like the worst thing out there.i been with a few shady outfits,and from what i see,mcleod is far from shady.

LOL , how the hell do you know they are far from shady ? You've never even driven for them . This is why these lousy companies stay in business , unqualified drivers with no clue just take a pick out of a hat and say let's try these guys out .

[Cluggy619]

hehehehe......

You know, the biggest mistake I made was NOT listening to this board....

If you find people ranting about a company, good or bad, it doesn't hurt to pay attention.... and know who the recruiters are for what company.

Just my .02

[HeavyChevy]

so,now there a lousy company because you say so? i am guessing you worked for them then smooth? unqualified lol you seem to know so much about everything another trucker running down the highway knows all seen all...good luck to ya union-man

[Smooth]

so,now there a lousy company because you say so? i am guessing you worked for them then smooth? unqualified lol you seem to know so much about everything another trucker running down the highway knows all seen all...good luck to ya union-man

I just figured you would have set your sights a little higher after reading the multiple negative posts about the company and checking out the profile on CAD .

http://www.classadrivers.com/truckin...s.php?Cid=2390

Minimum qualifications are a joke , you can have 3 tickets in the last 3 years a preventable or two and a dui and felony in the early part of this decade and they would still take you . Quite the high standards......

Anyways , GL there