[TK THE TRUCKER]

Originally Posted by satch

just read tk trucker my space trucking blog . it gave a detaled description of all the loads he pulled in a six month period for marten .
it seems he gets detained on both sides of his load so much that if you acumillated all that time in a week,it would ad up to what a lot of drivers drive.
after reading his blog iam having second thoughts as to driving for a company that will waste my fourteen hour clock on a continual basis .
is this the norm for marten drivers? or did t.k. just get stuck with all the b.s.?
anyone know how much marten pays a driver for all that detention? i could not find the detention rate on their site

I think my blog was only for 2 months :wink: Please don't base your whole decision about Marten on my blog. It just the experiences of 1 person but does give some kind of idea to what goes on. Also it's from a year and a half ago.

As far as the time spent being detained at shippers and receivers it's really not much of Marten's fault or any company for that matter but more of a refrigerated freight issue. It's just the way it is. Most refrigerated warehouses are a 24/7 operation and have trucks coming and going around the clock and some of them are not ran very efficient.

When I was there detention was paid at $12.00 an hour after 2 hours. I'll have to ask my friends if it's still the same. And that's only if the customer will pay. Some places simply refuse to pay for detention.

Like I've said before I was pleased with Marten and would consider going back to them (which I have been lately) but that's just me. Some people might not have the same experience I did

[satch]

thanks for responding t.k.
i am aware it"s not martens fault for the detention at a food storage facility. but reguardless of fault it"s the driver that pays.
i am not above doing a little creative writing in my log book every once an a while. but when i do it"s to cover my own time managment mistakes not the mistakes of the shipper.
it would seem to me ( correct me if iam wrong) that in order to make original appoitments you would have to be useing a lot of white out. on a good deal of martens loads.
i was cleared for orientation but was having second thoughts.

i will try and keep in mind that when all is said and done you still would return to them. that says a lot

[WildK9]

I currently work for them. If you want to know anything specific, just ask. :wink:

Yes, detention is paid at $12.00/hr over 2 hours. Although, most of my loads are drop n hook at one end or the other, sometimes both.

I've never seen Jersey or anything northeast of central PA, except on occasion I go to upstate NY.

Average length of haul, for me in recent weeks, has been around 900 miles.

Yes, prepass would be nice.

[Barrelburner]

When I drove for them, teams and O/O's got most of the good loads. I was a solo company driver.

[satch]

i guess i will find out soon enough when i get to mondovi. but i will ask anyway.
do you find that your miles have been getting smaller since marten started putting containers on the tracks?
can you take your home time in any part of the usa if you put in an advance home time request?
does the no trailer wash out policy ( if there is one) cause problems when trying to pick up a load?

[namakanta]

if you wash your companey trailer at marten, you will be paying for it out of your own pocket.
their home time policy will let you take h.t. in any place their is available freight. n.j. , chicago, not a problom. florida or arizona might be hard places to get home on a regular basis.
your dispatcher will let you know right away " we are a transport bussiness ,not travel agents.
yes they are using more containers every chance they get and miles will be getting less and less.
the road test they give to newbies in mondovi before they put them on the road is very difficult, if you can not back in the hole blind side and sight side with in a reasnable amount of time you will not get hired. they have nice equipment and don"t want any non drivers behind it

[WildK9]

Originally Posted by satch

i guess i will find out soon enough when i get to mondovi. but i will ask anyway.
do you find that your miles have been getting smaller since marten started putting containers on the tracks?

Honestly, not me.

can you take your home time in any part of the usa if you put in an advance home time request?

For the most part, yes. I've taken hometime in various parts of the country.

does the no trailer wash out policy ( if there is one) cause problems when trying to pick up a load?

If the customer requests the trailer to be washed out then you can, otherwise you just sweep it out.