TMC looking for foreigner? Do they have truck that go at least 125mph,not kl? Where is this TMC place?

 

I see they have you on the same broken record. If you don't make it at TMC you're a slacker or lazy. There are less than a half dozen regular posters here from TMC, most with very little time driving a truck and most have not worked for another company so they can't compare TMC to others. Not nearly enough posters from a company of over 3000 employees to give TMC a good bill of health.

Let me use a previous post by BND as an example of my thinking. The smart ones leave TMC because no one has to work that hard for so little.

BND is up that early because he has slept at the receiver and he wants to be the first in line to unload. He will often not have any toilet facilities so he has to use the receivers yard for that and he won't get to eat a decent breakfast for a few more hours. Up by 7 and in bed by 11. That's a 16 hour work day!

Willing to freeze or sweat all night long to save fuel. I turn my thermostat to 65 at night, but then I'm one of the "lazy" ones. Home by late Friday and gone by 10 AM on Sunday. Nice weekend off? I don't think so. I'm home no later than 5 on Friday and leave for work at 7 on Monday. Paid by the hour so waiting to unload or load is never a concern.

Substitute "sacrifice" for being enslaved to a job and working more than 80 hours a week.


Well actually I can. There are many jobs that pay much better than driving for TMC. You may have to relocate to a different part of the country or put a little more time in school but the jobs are available. For someone who is willing to work for such long hours and little pay you should be a great candidate to put some time into bettering yourself.


And there is the rub. TMC drivers are willing to put up with the crap and like it. I find that amazing!

A typical day is sleeping at the receiver with no amenities so that one can be unloaded first. Don't oversleep or you'll be rudely awakened by other trucks coming in past you to unload. Awake by 7 AM you might not be unloaded until 8 or 9 depending on the load and where you're at. Some construction sites might have you there past noon. You certainly don't put in an "unloaded" macro before you're completely unloaded because that could screw another TMC driver, right? Yeah, right. My first trainer would send the macro as soon as unloading began, the heck with the other TMC drivers.

After unloading there is the wait for receiving the next load location. Until that comes in there has not been an entry in the logbook. You have been working for free up until now. When you get a load the logbook is filled out for a half hour PTI and unload. Off you go on a bounce of anywhere from zero to 100 miles for free. Get loaded and travel 400 to 600 miles to sleep at a receiver again for the night.

After getting a load you might have stopped for a shower and a bite to eat, probably while getting fuel, but there are few breaks during the day because you have to be first in line at the receivers again. Maybe, if you're real lucky there might be a fast food place within a mile or so you can walk to or if you're real lucky the receiver is open 24 hours and you can use their facilities, but there are no guarantees because most places keep hours that are sane.

Eventually TMC will talk you into taking a trainee. There is little incentive for this other than you now get a second logbook to use. Have the trainee log the PTI and unloading, do the bounce, load and get going down the road. When the trainee is tired now you can start your logbook and you have plenty of hours to do TMC's bidding. They will tell you to run as a team the last two or three weeks, with the driver getting all the money, and you will see the dollar signs in your eyes and think you are really getting the big bucks now.

Of course TMC could pay you a bit more and you wouldn't have to jump around so fast. Ten dollars to tarp is ridiculous! Find out what other companies pay to tarp. Maverick is $40. On a five day week they could make $150 more than you for doing the exact same thing! TMC gets a lot more from the customer to tarp a load. Why can't you get percentage for that?

And then there was the question asked by Buzzdog. Does TMC take their brokerage fee off the load fee before giving the driver the load rate? How does a driver know what the actual load is worth that they are getting their percentage from. Only by what TMC tells them it is! Seems that there should be a better system than that.

So of all the people that went through orientation with you, probably 30-50 classmates, how many were slackers and lazy? TMC has large classes because they have high turnover. Of course 90% are just lazy or slackers...or maybe they are not as dumb as the ones that stay. Only you can decide.

 

SnakIze....

WELL SAID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You have described TMC's business model exactly!!!!

I hope more people read what you have written. I couldn't have said it better myself.....But then again if I would have said it Matt (aka as TMC)
would have called me a liar :roll:

 

 

help me out here, so if i enjoy my job with tmc then am i a slave to their business model? yea i guess i could go get an ltl job and be home everynight, but i enjoy what i do and the people i work with, for the most part. i would like to see tmc not hiring so many people. my paychecks are pretty good. but then my work ethic seems to be a little different then some others that i have read about on the website. 3 companies in 15 years and retired navy. now i have seen people get hosed over in my time, but i dont seem to have that problem at tmc. if my truck is broke down more than 24 hours, my fm offers me a rental car to go home. my truck is in okc peterbilt this week and i tmc gave me a rental car to go home for my vacation. schneider and usa doesnt offer their drivers that. i know, i have 2 neighbors that drive for those companies. i guess ones employment is what they make of it. most of the things you and some others have mentioned have not happened to me or some of my friends that work for tmc and read this forum. as for the other stuff, its just water off a dogs back. I did have a problem with the company in the past and i fired a letter off the someone who might listen, more out of frustration, but within a week my problem was fixed and i received a call from hr and given a rental car to get back to dsm. not the greyhound. another buddy of mine works for crst and has to leave his truck in okc and ride the greyhound home every 3 weeks. that sucks. im happy w/tmc and it seems like others are also, so whats with the bashing of bnd? yeah, he makes 32% and doesnt idle his truck. maybe he is tolerant of the weather. so he gets to his cons the night before to be 1st in line to get unloaded. thats his job and he is getting paid pretty well for it.

 

Well, those responses disappeared.

 

Wow....ok...well... :shock: ,maybe I should not have asked for any info here. I just wanted some honest answers from TMC drivers, thanks to those who did answer my post. I in no way ment for anyone to have harsh words. Anyhow, hubby is leaving on Sat for Des Moines. I hope things work out.
All of you truckers stay safe out there, and if you are ever in WV welcome to the "hill billy" state.

 

Truckers Lady,

I would not be alarmed by the peanut gallery! There are a couple of morons on here that have nothing better to do but cause trouble. I leave this saturday for DM also!

I have personally met Terry, and spent a couple of hours face to face chatting with him, super nice guy and excellent work ethic. Terry is brand new to trucking and is doing very well with TMC. As well, I have spoken with many TMC Professionals on the road, and other than some very minor issues, they have spoken highly of TMC as a whole.

TMC is a company that is classified as a training company. In that they take in a high percentage of students straight out of driving school. If what holds true, as what I observed at Stevens, only half make it past orientation, another half of those drop out during the time with the trainer, which leaves 25%. Of those 25%, only maybe 10% will stick with the company and make a career of it, the rest either cannot deal with the day-to-day stress of OTR, some have personal issues that they find require needs them close to home, or they are just lazy and slackers that want a handout.

To quote a old trucking song (the artist name escapes me), "there is no easy run". Every run has its own benefits and faults. The best drivers seem to make it look easy, others just want to whine and cry because they wanted a 1500 mile run, with 4 days to get there, and mega dollars.

I came home from a great paying deal with Stevens Transport a couple of years ago, to take care business at home - getting married, buying new property and all that comes with getting the house set, and watching the 1st two years of my sons life. My current job, Yes, I am home almost every day, but sometimes for only a couple of hours. The dispatch schedule is crazy with load and delivery times, and it is very weather dependent. When I do have time off, I am dead dog tired and not able to enjoy it. When I was OTR, at least when I got home, after a couple of hours of rest, I was able to enjoy my time off, and usually knew when and where my next load was, so I could prepare for my leave out time.

I feel that from intelligent discussions with those on this list and on the road, I will be able to make a good living with TMC. I have 12 acres, so I will be able to bring my rig to the house and not be concerned about theft, vandalism, or having to get my wife out of bed to leave early in the morning to start my new week.

Good Luck to you Hubby! Shoot me a PM or e-mail with his name, and I will try to visit with him in DM.

Louis - The Horseman

P.S. - Hopefully I will get my new website up and running - so I can share my true and honest experience and opinions of TMC with others. If not, I can start a blog somewhere.

Comments from the peanut gallery not withstanding!

 

If you want to be successful in life you use successful people as your model, not a bunch of malcontents who have nothing better to do than talk dirt on success. If they were so happy with their jobs they would be posting in their own threads about how great it is, not in the TMC thread talking about their failure to do well.

 

Well, my truck is in the shop. I had a check engine light on, shocks were going and I had a foglight out. They fixed all those, no problem, but found a leaking water pump, and bolts on the turbo broken. And something else I can't remember. It might be ready today or maybe first thing in the morning. The TMC shop wanted me to take it to Houston since I was already there, but I talked them into letting me take it to Austin, lucky I did.

Anyway, I have some down time. I was going to have home time this weekend. I have it now, so I guess I will be running to Utah later today or tomorrow and from there, who knows.

My truck needed repair, so, let's see who I can blame, obviously TMC. They are out to get me. My FM, he hates me and is trying to get me to quit. Payroll, they didn't want to cut a check for too much money. I supposed TMC needed the extra money this week for the race car. And safety......