I'm not saying that i'm lying, I hate even being called a liar (one of my worst pet peeves) and i know exactly what u mean by having those lil skeletons in the closet that may come back to haunt u if you're not careful. I have no dui's or felonies, i'm 5'10" and 142lbs, so i know i'm not overweight for my height. Worst case scenario is how far they go back on the MVR.

I can see both sides to this issue of turning down people after they have been "pre-hired". However, it seems to me as if a pre-hire is worthless to the applicant and a nickle and dime savings for the employer. It seems as if it is a means of fast tracking applicants into the orientation process on a large scale without the employer performing his due diligence to insure that the applicant is suitable. In an ideal world, an applicant should know definitively if he is hired or not hired.

The "pre-hire" reminds me of taking a deposit when buying or selling an item. I've seen many people take deposits when selling big ticket items like cars, farm machinery, and airplanes. Often, the buyers back out citing undisclosed conditions or other disatisfaction with the item just to back out of the deal and want their deposits back, even when it was supposed to be non-refundable. They cite that the deposit should be nulled because of deceit regarding the condition of the product. Either way, when one party is unhappy, the deposit becomes the source of contention and someone gets screwed and occasionally people go to court. I refuse to take a deposit on anything that I sell. Either someone will come up with the money or not. The first one that comes up with the cash wins. Employment should be the same way. Employers should take applications, research and verify the information, conduct an interview, and then either hire or not. Anything else is just a jerk-around for an applicant and a poor reflection on the company. I suppose that it is just easier for a large company to tell everyone that they are pre-hired and to come on down to orientation just to keep the pipeline full of bodies to put into seats. Once the company does their homework and only half of the people are left to finish class, maybe they are happy with that.

This is just the world according to me.

Well I just typed up a response and then lost it when the site asked for my password again. Oh well :roll:

In short,

No DUI's or drug rehab issues at all. 10 yr DMV history is spotless with not even a warning ticket. Several drug test for my doctor and several employers all passed with flying colors.

No religious requirements. TMC's written guarantee for weekend time off was more than sufficient.

I stand 6'5" and weigh 325lbs. Clearly I could stand to loose 40lbs but by no means am I physically impared by my size. I currently climb tractors, trailers, and manuver by hand 2,000lb+ dolly's used for hooking double trailers at Old Dominion. And I have full medical clearance with no cardiovascular issues.

Old, nope. 37 years old.

Job history, 3 jobs in last 11 years with last job of 6 years ending in downsizing and elimination of my position. Not what you call job hopping.

My point being that if there was some "quirk" then TMC was not open and forthcoming in communication to let me know. Maverick was very open and not only patient and helpful but followed back up with me after promising an answer regardless if "yes" or "no." TMC did not do that but insteand made everything as if a state secret. Along with Maverick I was also pre-hired and/or passed orientation for Superior Carriers (tanker company), Boyd Brothers (flatbed), Coastal Transport (flatbed), Averitt Express, Old Dominion, and US Express.

Based on the level of communication and professionalism I received in the app process I still say Maverick is the superior company.

GOOD LUCK!!!!! :lol:

I'm not going to bash on Fred or TMC, for that matter. From what I know of them they are a very good company and Fred is just very passionate about the company that he works for. Nothing wrong with that, it's a good thing actually. Sometimes he can come off as arrogant, but TMC itself can be an arrogant company, I found that out firsthand when I notified them that I was trying to decide between them and Maverick. Nothing wrong with being arrogant either. If you're good at what you do and and you are confident, you will come off as arrogant from time to time.

Given what I know of the two companies, there's not much difference whether it be in pay, hometime, or equipment. Most of what Fred is saying here is purely opinion. He happens to like Peterbilts, but he may have never even spent the night in a Freightliner. That's pure preference, nothing factual in saying that TMC has better equipment at all. As a matter of fact, Maverick has the safest equipment on the road (Eaton Vorad Collison Warning, Lane Departure Warning, Roll Stability Control, etc...). All of their trucks are fairly new (30 months old or newer) and even the 04's look and drive like brand new trucks because they're well maintained. I drive a Peterbilt 379 and a Kenworth T800 now on a daily basis. Both are nice new trucks, but they're not nearly as nice as the Columbia that I had with Maverick, IMO. There is much more room in the Columbia, the KW and Pete are supposed to have more power, but I've yet to see it. They both ride much rougher and are much noisier than the Freightliner. IMO, when it comes to driver comfort, there is nothing better than a Columbia. Fred's a Pete guy, I'm a Columbia guy. It's nothing more than one person's opinion as to which is better. Maverick uses Freightliners because they are lighter and that enables them to haul more freight.

As for Maverick drivers staying out for weeks, I don't know who you talked to Fred, but I've never met them. Even the longhaul guys that I knew where home every other weekend unless they, themselves, chose to stay out longer. I was hung out over the weekend once, everyone that I know at Maverick has been hung out once, but it is my opinion that this is part of the test with Maverick to see how you will react. I have no proof of this, but I do know that my entire orientation class was hung out once very early in their solo driving. You will meet many guys there that have been there for 5 years and they have only spent one weekend away from home in that entire 5 years. I met several of them. Trucking is trucking and there will be the occasion that you will get hung out with every company, but I can tell you Maverick will make every effort to get you home every single weekend. I was amazed at times. I remember waking up in Laredo, TX one Wednesday morning thinking that there is no way I will get home this weekend and I'll be darned if I wasn't sitting at the house on Friday evening about 6:00. Along the way I delivered a load in Indiana that paid me for 1200 miles and I had a load on that paid me for 700 miles to be delivered Monday morning in Buffalo, NY. That type of thing happens constantly, but they will get you home. Other than the one weekend that I got hung out I was home every single weekend by 9:00 PM Friday at the latest. Most times it was by late afternoon on Friday and I never once got home on a Saturday. Also, the 98% of all drivers being home on weekends that Maverick advertises includes the guys in longhaul. They're the main reason for the 2% not getting home, not because the company hung you out. Having it in writing is great, anytime you get something in writing from a company it's a beautiful thing. However, putting in writing that we will get you home 46 out of 52 weekends also means that you can be hung out a weekend every other month and then they can say, "Hey, we said 46 out of 52...". I'm not saying that's a problem with TMC, most drivers I know there get home pretty much every weekend, but it's not like they're putting in writing that you will be home EVERY weekend.

As for pay, not much difference in that aspect either that I have found. I don't have firsthand knowledge of TMC's pay but I do know that both companies have driver's making 800 bucks and both have drivers making 11-1200 bucks per week. The driver will determine this more than the company will. I met a few TMC drivers that claimed that they were struggling to make $650 a week. I would guess that it was more their problem than it was TMC's but I did meet a few of them. Personally, I never made less than $850 in any week that I ran on my own with Maverick, that was a short week in which I got home on Thursday evening. I made $700 per week for the weeks that I was in training. When I left them I was averaging around $1100 per week. The only real firsthand experience that I had with pay between Maverick and TMC was when I was sitting in a truck stop one evening outside of Saginaw, MI. A TMC driver parked right beside me with the same product on his trailer. We started talking and we both had a delivery of the same product to be delivered at the same customer the next morning and we had loaded out of the same shipper in Knoxville, TN. We were comparing companies and we eventually got around to comparing pay. I can't swear to either detail, but I believe that he had been with TMC for 9 years and I think he was making 31%. I was making 40 cpm and as it turned out, I made 16 bucks more than him on that load. He didn't believe me, so eventually I thought of a way that I could prove it to him. I pulled out the QualComm and showed him the mileage paid for the trip and then multiplied that by 40 cpm. I'm not saying that every load would work out this way, but I know that one did. Obviously, the lighter Freightliner enabled me to haul more steel than he could therefore his load didn't pay as well.

The bottom line is that there is money to be made at both companies, both will get you home nearly every weekend and both will give you nice equipment for the job. IMO, it really is a matter of preference for "what color truck do you want to drive".

now that's the answer I've been looking for...... I like how redsfan always finishes his statements with IMO, u know when he's talking about something concerning the differences between TMC and MAV. What makes fred seem so arrogant is that he hardly, if ever says IMO. It's like "TMC has shinier trucks........period!" or "The pay is better at TMC..........period!" that's why people get so touchy when he's voicing his opinion, but I'm sure the guy doesn't mean any harm. Hey he's from New York for crying out loud, how many New Yorkers have u guys met that weren't opinionated?? :wink:

Fred ain't all bad, he is just telling it like it is. Peterbilts ARE nice looking trucks going down the road when they are all shined up. That's why you see so many of them with O/O's. They are kinda like the Mercedes of trucks, all dressed up inside and out.

Hey guys. Home from my first week of training last night. We arrived at the trainers house at 5:30 pm.

I sure can't complain about Maverick's training program. Ahead of time, I thought mid-roof trucks would be way to small for bunk beds, but after seeng one and sleeping in it all week, they are no problem at all. We ran something like 2700 miles this week, and still had a lot of time to spare.

For clarification...Yes, maverick does have mostly 600-800 miles runs and from the way my trainer talked, the 800 mile top side might be closer to 1,000. How do they get you home? It's actually pretty simple. We picked up our last load near Detroit to deliver near Dallas. Guess what's on the way? (my house and the trainer's house). Now, for another scenario, let's say that load was headed for Florida and obviously not headed for my house. When they give you the florida load, they more likely than not have some guy from florida picking up in PA headed for Oklahoma, or Maverick's terminal in Ft. Smith. They will schedule a trailer swap where ever the two routes cross and the guy from Florida gets the Florida load while the guy from Arkansas gets the Oklahoma load (which takes him to the house for the weekend). It's pretty simple and I've talked to a lot of Maverick drivers lately and their all getting home for the weekend...every weekend.

I've noticed one thing lately about the guys that drive for Maverick, their all happy with who they work for, for the most part. They don't do a lot of boasting and bragging, they just enjoy their job and get along. I guess that's the opposite of Fred. I came on here last week and found 2 or 3 places where he had commented to me or about me. It's pretty obvious he doesn't like my favorable comments about Maverick as apparently he wants all the new guys to visit his website, read his precious little stories and make donations (apparently asking for donations is something you can learn about in NY also, from the homeless people). Oh, I almost forgot, when you get through reading his stories and your now convinced to be a flatbedder, if you go with TMC, be sure to give them his information, so that he can get the referral bonus.

Fred is recruiting. He may also be driving, but the name "Flatbed Fred" and his website are nothing but recruiting tools developed to persuade new drivers to sign on with TMC and get Fred a referral bonus. I have no problem with that, I would like to get a few Maverick referral bonuses myself, but I didn't come on here bashing Fred or his company to do it. Now Fred, here's the deal as far as I'm concerned. You can play nice or I can start bashing TMC in the TMC threads. You can even bash Maverick, myself and all the other Maverick drivers in the TMC thread if you like (I couldn't care less), but if your going to bash Maverick or me here in the Maverick threads, I'm coming after you and TMC in your threads. That should be simple enough even for a loud mouth New Yorker to understand. :)

Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder my friend. What about a Kenworth W900 or a Freightliner Classic XL aren't those trucks just as nice as petes? MY personal favorite is the Freightliner Coronado........damn that thing is sexy to me, i just love the way they designed it. It attracts just as much attention on the highway as a long nose pete. It's like freightliner took a century class and put it on steroids.

Eeeewww this is getting personal! I guess the Maverick guys or more low-key and the TMC guys are a lil more flashy, but at the end of the day each of the companies employees are very proud where they work at. Like I said I just am having a hard time be patient on this waiting list. I'm ready to go to L.R. and start training.