I was kinda curious as to how you know you are starting with maverick on Nov 6th. I have been on their list to go to their school for 2 months and I still dont know when I am going to school. They are calling people one week in advance to come in. Im not trying to be smart or anything but if there was a way to know a certain date to go to maverick, I would have perferred that. There are 5 or 6 other people on here that have said, I got the call Im going next week.

 

Sorry for the caps lock thing not yelling or anything just habit I guess, and for going to school thing, I talked to the recruiter on thursday and she asked when I was ready to come to work and I told her NOV 6 th so I could give my current job notice and get things squared away at my house and she said fine I was set up and we would keep in touch for the next 4 weeks, you might want to call to make sure they didnt miss place your app or something, they did my employment check and everything so you might want to follow up.

 

They have my application and have approved it, and they told me there would be up to 3 months wait to go to school. And if you check posts from deerhunter, wonderman, steveoh1, pronghornracer, they all had to do the same thing I am doing. Are we talking Maverick the flatbed co. out of little rock?

 

Ya same company and all, I dont know why they made you wait I dont know what to suggest to you except maybe ask them why and let them know that you read on a forum about someone going in on the 6th and see what they tell you.

 

Thanks vonSeggern! Also to those of you being "put off" by Maverick or who may have questions about TMC, you're always welcome to give TMC a second look and PM, email or call me with any questions. Best of luck to you all.
Fred

 

I worked for Maverick for about 5 months, left for the dream local job that seemed too good to be true and... SURPRISE! It was too good to be true. Needless to say I found that the grass isn't always greener...

I'm still running local, but I'm looking at going back over the road. I will probably go back with Maverick, but I'm re-evaluting everyone now that I know a little more of what it's all about.

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.

I'm not sure how deep you are in FL, but a friend of mine lived down there and ran for Maverick and they never seemed to have a problem getting him home. I consistently averaged about 2600-2700 miles, running legal, and when you throw in tarp pay and the occasional extra stop, making $1000 a week really wasn't that difficult. You can't dilly-dally around and expect to make that, but if you're not afraid to work you can make a good living. My thinking was always that if I'm out in a truck away from my family for 5 days, keep me movin and give me the opportunity to make as much money as possible. All truck stops are good for is a place to shower, get a bite to eat and occasionally occupy a parking spot over night.

I also have a good friend there who I talk to recently. He lives in SC and went with the Glass Division when Maverick took that over from Schneider. He basically runs up and down I-95 and frequents south FL. They are running him as much as he can handle and he is pulling in $1200-1300 per week consistently and most of his loads are drop & hook (No Tarping ).

As for the waiting list, it is due to a lack of trainers and a huge demand for their training program. Maverick requires more experience to become a trainer than most companies, hence a shortage of qualified applicants. If you get the CDL on your own you will get into orientation much faster.

Best of Luck!

 

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.

 

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?

 

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: