When you are in your OWN truck, how you run is up to YOU. Legal or Illegal Hard or Easy Super Trucker or Driver. Your truck, your choice.

You are right about Jake, but I have to through kudos to Marty, Jim and Woody. Dave on the other hand is a "SuperTrucker". His help in the yard is invaluable, driving with him is a nightmare.

Sean in load securement knows his stuff, Dennis seems to know everything else, unfortunately he had a heart attack right before I left. I guess he is doing ok, last I heard.

I agree with Fred. You can run the way you choose. Safety and logs will rip you a new one if you cheat on your logs. At the same safety meeting that Fred and I went to, the director of safety stated over and over that the days for TMC or anyone to run illegal are over.

If you secure improperly and get caught, safety will rip you. If you drive fast, get tickets, have accidents, and do bad things you will be beat senselessly with a winch bar.

Mr. Marine, Form your previous posts I don't see that you drive for TMC or even OTR. How can you make comments on the company? The company does not starve me, leave me for dead, or anything like that. Through both personal and professional adversity TMC has been totally supportive. They WANT me to make a lot of money, drive safe, get home, and generally be happy. I have been in Des Moines in my FM's work area when another FM was ripping a load coordinator for not getting a load for a driver that would get him home in a timely manner. The company is not perfect, believe me. You have a god given right to give your opinion but misinforming people based on no solid eveidence or experience is just plain wrong.

Well said!

No, that is a right that thousands of US soldiers (and civilians) have paid the ultimate price for you to have. Just refer to North Korea, the former Iraq, or any FUNDAMENTALIST Islamic region for the alternative.

...a digression from the thread's topic but I couldn't resist... :)

I'm keeping up on this thread as I am waffling between going reefer (everone's got to eat) and flatbed (the challenge of securement) and TMC is on my short list for flatbed. Keep up the lively discussion!!

But if you are overloaded at a shipper or you think you are overloaded at a shipper safety will direct you to the nearest CAT scale via a route that avoids DOT weigh scales so its not a perfect system. My problem is that while one hand they hammer the safety part over and over when you go out with a trainer during orientation its a different thing. The attitude I got was "f&ck the car thats behind you". Thats all well and good but its not the instructors record or conscience if you tag that vehicle that is coming along side of you in a left merge lane.

if you read his post in the maverick thread, he quit maverick because flatbed was "too much work for me".
otherwise, TMC is a good company. like the others and i have said many, many times before, TMC has its problems. but not nearly as many as other companies. FM's can be a royal pain in the butt sometimes. For me, hometime is more important so i try to get loads that get me through the house once or twice a week. and it usually works. if i cant that way then i look for money loads and start working back towards the house for the weekend. of course the FM and load cordinators are involved in this but i usually have a say.

good luck :D

This is true but what other way is there to determine the actual weight of the load? Being a New Yorker with somewhat of an "attitude", I would demand that some freight be removed or refuse the load. I'll say it again, when driving, that truck is essentially YOURS as is the responsability of driving it safely. When push comes to shove, even safety will bow to the demands and judgement of the driver, who is the only one physically on the scene. I've never had the misfortune of being overloaded, but rest assured that if I thought for one minute I was, that situation would be rectified immediately or that freight would go no where.

It still amazes me how timid some drivers are. For example, i was delivering black pipe to a job site last week and had one TMC truck ahead of me with the same load. The unload point was some distance into the site and was not visable from where I was parked. Two hours after the other driver went up to unload he finally returned and pulled up next to my truck. I asked him "What took you so long?! I gotta GO!" He said that they installed all the rubber gaskets into each pipe before unloading him. 72 Pipes you HAVE to be KIDDING me? And you LET them? "What else was I going to do?", he asked. I said, "Stay RIGHT here I'll be right back."
I pulled up to the unload site and 3 guys jumped up on my trailer and began installing the gaskets. I said, "whoa, wait a minute, what are you doing? I can't wait here while you guys do your job on my job's time."
"Oh sorry, no problem, we didn't realize you had other places to be today.", was the response. and they happily, and in 15 minutes, had my trailer completely unloaded. We all shook hands, had cold sodas from my cooler, and thanked eachother before I left. They were GREAT guys who really thought that keeping me there was helping keep me AWAY from having to go back to "work". They meant no harm but didn't know that to earn money I had to get to my next reload assignment. They thought I was hourly paid so sitting there would be good. hehehe
I came back down the hill and the other shocked TMC driver asked, "How did you get done so fast, what did you do or say?"
"I simply told them I was pressed for time and could they get me out of ther quickly and they were HAPPY to do it. What did YOU say to them?"

"Uhhhh...... nothing.", was his reply. :roll:

My point was that although they stress running legal, they will route you overloaded, around DOT scales to a CAT scale and then if you are overloaded you can go back to the shipper and have the load reduced. Dont trust shippers scales.

A number of people have PMed or called me requesting info on TMC's pay scale, benefits, job openings etc... so I've added a new page to my website titled pay-benefits-more. It's link can be found on my main page at the top. Hope it helps some of you.

Shout out to vonSeggern, Cableman, NC Trucker, TMC and the rest. I'm writing from a rest area in PA taking my 10 hour break. See, I DO get my rest and will still make close to $300.00 for this load which must deliver by tomorrow at 3PM to Indianna. 500 miles and over 24 hours to make it isn't too difficult, even for me. :wink: