The typical day varies much like any other trucking job. When I ran for Maverick I usually tried to spend the night at the receiver so I could be up and going bright and early. This isn't always possible, but it will work out more than you think. How you start your week will make or break you with Maverick, IMO. If you leave out on Sunday afternoon or early evening and get to the receiver, you can be unloaded and ready to roll early Monday morning. Maverick does use forced dispatch, but I can tell you there is a much better selection of runs at 6:00 AM than there is at 11 AM. Get a good jump to the week and roll back into the house on Friday afternoon instead of Saturday. You'll still be able to get 2500+ miles and have a couple of days at home every weekend.
Maverick will get you home pretty much every single weekend. Living near St. Louis and several regular freight lanes, you will be in a good spot for hometime. Living near a terminal will make little difference, however.
Where you are located they will probably push you towards a covered wagon. Those guys can make good money, but I have a buddy who went there in August and covered wagon freight for him has been a little slower than the regular flatbed. He came there from PTL and his slow weeks with Maverick are still better than his best weeks with PTL. A friend from PTL, who also lives near St. Louis came to Mav with him and he is getting quite a bit more miles running a flatbed in the US division. I just had lunch with my friend outside of Chicago last week and he updated me on all of it. He plans to give the covered wagon a full year and if his miles don't pick up he plans to move to flatbed this fall. Let me clarify that his definition of a bad week is 1900-2000 miles. With his stop pay, etc. he is still grossing $900 or so a week, but my experience and the experience of a few friends that I still have at Maverick, grossing $1000+ is still not a huge problem. I will also add that my covered wagon friend is one of those guys that likes to leave the house on Monday morning and head to the receiver. I expressed my opinion to him that this is probably what is holding him back and that I doubted it would make things any better if he switched to flatbed IF he didn't change his thinking on how to start the week.
Oh, and BTW, Maverick pays by HHG miles unless that has changed very recently. Maverick is still to this day the best company I've ever worked for. I never felt like I was lied to. They will give you the proper training and the opportunity to make good money. If you take advantage of that or not is up to you. If you like to hang out in truckstops and insist upon spending every night in one, you've got a lot working against you, IMO.
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