I second and confirm all that Mr. Horseman states in this posting

Thanks for the feed back.

This morning on I-65 NB in Indiana, I saw a nice white Kenworth T800 TMC truck. The first white TMC truck I have ever seen. I figured it was an owner operator. I looked very nice though, as they all do.

TMC has several from the TDT purchase in Florida! Could have been either an O/O or one of the TDT trucks!

Hey,

I wonder what ever happened to Flatbed Fred. I hope the car business is doing well for him. He was always great for positive information. I know he was mentioning purchasing his own truck and coming back to TMC as an owner operator. I'd be curious to find out if he has.


Safe travels all.

After nearly a year with TMC, I wanted to add my .02 here about the company, and the general nature of driving for a large flatbed outfit.

First of all, i'd like to state that TMC is, without a doubt, the best company to learn flatbedding. On that same note, however, you would have to pretty much be a complete fool to get into this line of work, at this time.

I would only retract the previous statement in the case of an ambitious young man looking to learn this trade, and buy his own truck ASAP.

As a company flatbed driver, you are little more than a dog to these shippers/receivers and even your own company.

It's nothing more than a simple numbers game.

The average flatbed company is paying 5-6 cents more per mile for your work... let's say this is roughly 20% "better" pay compared to your standard van driver.

With this higher pay, you should be able drive 20% less and still break even.

As a flatbed driver you will spend a minimum of 3 hours on any given day waiting/loading/unloading/securing/tarping etc. From my experience, that number will average closer to 4-5 hours.

4-5 hours of your 14 hour clock is 28-35% of your day. You've already lost, and I haven't even included your $0.00 hourly rate you've received for your wait time and labor.

I'd love to continue this some more and I will, but it looks like my load is finally ready! I got here at 1630, waited til 1900 to start loading, and its now about 2030. Just a few straps, a couple lumber tarps (10 bucks!) and ~100 miles and i'll be home for ~34 hours.

All this after a 2 hour unload starting at noon 5 miles from my house... I know, asking to just go home empty in this situation is a no-no, and that idle company truck sitting for a few extra hours while the driver gets a little more home time will probably break the company.

I will be driving at least 30 minutes illegaly after 14 hours to get home. Not too bad for logging about 250 miles before my reload empty and loaded, waiting, waiting, unloading, 15 minutes at the truckstop scarfing down a hot dog, driving, waiting, waiting, waiting some more, and working for free.

Well Lenny D you played that load wrong to get what you wanted. When you have to unload near your house on Friday take your ten hour break early and let your FM know when you are picking up that load that you will be really short on your 14 hours once you unload, but on the plus side you are really close to home.

I have done that before with success. Unloaded 30 minutes from home, no shippers that close, and only 2 hours left on my 14. Nothing they can do except to send you home. If you have hours left they will reload you. The other alternative is to wait and send your empty late, like 4pm. You run out your hours because they are slow to unload you. If you make a habit of it they will notice, but sometimes you are just saving the company some money and gaining some hometime.



You do need to be ambitious to do this job, but it does not follow that you need to buy your own truck in order to succeed. You are of course entitled to your own opinion.

Well it all depends on how you look at it. They cannot make money without you to do the work. It is true that many people have their humanity removed in order to do their job, but that is because a lot of drivers give them grief all day long. I try to be easygoing with shippers, receivers, and fleet managers. If I need something in a hurry for a good reason I explain why I need it, If it can wait I let them know that as well. I try to remember that the people that I deal with are still remembering the last person they dealt with who may have put them in a bad mood. Understanding people and treating them with respect will get you far, but reflecting a bad attitude will get you nowhere. I don't let people and their bad attitudes affect my life. Don't let their bad attitudes affect you, and always say please and thank you weather they care or not. If you stoop to their level and reflect their faults back then you lose.



There is a problem with your math though. You do not have 14 hours to drive, only 11. So when you take 4 hours from your 14 you still have 10 hours to drive, or 650 possible miles. That is only 9% fewer than a van driver could drive in that day.

Fridays always suck, it is rare that they don't. Not much that can be done about that. All I can say is that I am glad I don't have the job of putting that load planning jigsaw puzzle together.

I ended up getting stuck in Indy all weekend waiting for service, when I finally got in at 8AM Monday, I got a call to go see safety. talked to Josh, who just wanted to give me a "random" breathalyzer. I said can you tell I've never done this before? haha. blew .000, no problems there. I said and while we're here, I had an overspeed. he said I can't do anything about it until they download data from the truck.

got in the freshly serviced truck Tuesday morning, got a message from my fleet manager saying my truck appearance was excellent and idle time was low. I said no overspeeds?! he said nope. figure that one out. since then I have kept the truck under 73.

nothing new to report, been on my own over 3 months at this point, I have a rookie fleet manager (Chris L) but he is actually doing pretty well to make me money and get me home. by all accounts this is a good company to work for, not everything is perfect but I look at it this way, I am making money, I am driving one of the nicest trucks on the road, I have been treated decently by pretty much everyone I have come in contact with at TMC, so I am happy. to anyone considering still applying, keep in mind there are going to be unhappy truckers at any company, YOUR attitude is what is going to make or break you at TMC. by all accounts, they tell me what to do, I do it, I leave them alone and they leave me alone. made it home trom western SD to western PA for the weekend and the truck made $4500 this week.

the only real thing I question is the love/hate relationship with hours of service. it seems impossible to get a clear answer on TMC's official policy regarding compliance. so far I have been told point blank that 10 hour breaks are important, and 34 hour restarts are optional. not quite sure what to make of this.

the 34 hour restart is a tool, not a requirement. If a driver can run and manage his time properly, a 34 would not be required. But I do recommend it! Sure takes the stress out of calculating hours and miles, when you have a fresh 70 to work with! Especially on Linehaul!

When I was pulling a reefer, I went almost 3 weeks without a full restart, Time management and good loads was the key! While I was at TMC, on longhaul, there were 3 occasions that I went my 2 weeks out without a reset. Again, good time management and a fleet manager that was willing to work the loads so I could keep rolling. Longhaul is a bit more relaxed, as you usually are not loading/unloading and tarping everyday.

10 hours breaks are require, unless you can figure out how to properly manage the current split moron (sleeper) rules. If I am not mistaken, at the time I left TMC, the split sleeper was typically not allowed!


Keep up the good work! Thoe appearance points make a big difference on your paycheck at snapshot.

Rawlco,

No doubt I "played" the load wrong in order to get what I wanted (home empty). BUT, my FM definitely would have known what I was up to, and he had already told me the day before that I would not be going home empty under normal circumstances.

I even thought about hanging around to send my empty in after 1700, but it is quite possible that I would've been loaded out of a different 24/7 shipper (they probably load until 2000 on friday).

I am too honest with the company and my FM. I never complain or whine at them about anything. My team leader has told me several times that my numbers are excellent, but they can't even give me the courtesy of following through on one simple favor I ask for.

I am always professional and courteous with our customers.

There was one exception where a steel receiver decided I was late for an unload appointment. I was on time, AND I was actually 100% unstrapped and ready to go, my tarps just weren't put away. He had a bigger priority, so he figured he could blame me for not being there when I was, and he could take care of his more important work first. The appointment was for midnite, I was exhausted and ready for sleep as soon as we were finished. He wouldn't tell me when he would get to me, just that I was "late" and that it would be awhile... with a very snooty attitude. I told him flat out that I wouldn't put up with his BS, and that I would pull the truck out of the building so I could idle it and get some sleep. He said that would be fine if I wanted to never be unloaded, but he didn't know that I was going to park in front of their only entrance to the truck receiving area, and block the other 2 trucks from their early am unload appointments. When I told him what I was going to do, he backed off and said he would unload within 15 minutes... some of these A-holes just need to be treated the way they treat drivers.

There is no problem with the math. I'm considering the 14 hours as potential worktime. If you throw out all that time you spend waiting and working everyday, and you don't average it in with your actual drive (paid) time to get an idea of your hourly rate... then you're exactly what TMC(and every other flatbed company) is looking for!

Fridays historically haven't been so bad for me, but in the last 3 months, i've been out 2 weekends with a 600 and 800 mile run (hardly worth it), I've been home Friday before 1800 once, and even once on a Thursday night, after 1800 or Saturday morning every other time.