Arky is right Maverick does not run teams period......IN MY OPINION it is not a safe practice to put a new driver at the wheel while the person supposable training him is asleep. Now as far as getting home on the weekends Maverick has not had a problem getting me home. I would rather have a 1000+ mile run than a bunch of 300 mile runs. With the longer runs you can make just as much or more with less securing and tarping. Now this is just MY OPINION.

You will NEVER run two logbooks with your trainer at Maverick. This is a big no-no and I personally know one trainer who is not a trainer anymore with them because he ran for 2 hours one day trying to catch them up. They are fine with the trainer driving the first 100 miles or so with a trainee just so the trainee can see how the trainer handles and reacts to the truck. After that, the trainee will spend 100% of the time in the driver's seat and the trainer in the jump seat. Their logbooks are to be identical with the trainer's time spent on line 4 and not line 3. There may be trainers out there with Maverick that will cheat from time to time, but they won't do it for long if they get caught. Personally, my trainer had me in the driver's seat the whole time with the exception of one night when he parked the truck at a very busy fuel stop while I went in and paid for the fuel. That was it. We never even ran the full 14 hours and the closest I came to that was when I drove 10.75 hours one day.

IMO, and I don't know this to be fact because I never ran like the typical TMC driver does, I would think it would be much easier with an average 7-800 length of haul than it would to make a 450-500 mile delivery every day. I've never seen a way to make a 500 mile delivery every day, 5 days per week and do it legally. Maybe it can be done, don't know, never had to run like that.

As for trailer swaps and repowers, you will do them on occasion, but it is not the norm. You might do one every couple of months or so and you might have the same trailer for 6 months. They usually do not force this swap on you, unless it is absolutely necessary. You will be asked to do the swap and if you decline they will simply go on down the list to the next driver available. If they don't get volunteers, someone will be forced to do it, but it will rarely ever come to that. In most cases, they will prefer that each driver keep the same trailer, it's much easier to keep track of everything that way. Personally, I never had a problem with swapping. Only did it a couple of times, but those were the only times I was asked. If it helped me and someone else get home earlier and easier, I was all for it. It's not like Maverick has any junk trailers or equipment. I would keep as much or my own tarps and chains and straps, etc. as possible when swapping. Volunteering for this sort of thing helps in building your relationship with all the fleet managers not just your own. This makes it much easier to get the things that you need such as new tarps, binders, etc. I never had anyone question me or even inspect my old equipment when I was asking for new. Just send a message to my FM saying that I needed a new lumber tarp and would be in a terminal the next day or whatever and when I got there we just swapped them, no one ever even looked at my old stuff. I'm sure this was because of the good relationship I had with my FM.

I've also heard from many TMC drivers that they avoid the terminals like the plague. That wasn't the case with me either. I looked forward to hitting the terminals whenever feasible. It made it much easier to get a shower and a parking spot than a truck stop. Much quicker to get a truck wash than a Blue Beacon. I even got to sleep in a hotel room one night because I was in good with "the man that holds the keys". Sure, you may have someone from safety come out and look at your load to make sure that it is secured and tarped properly, but that's their job. Make sure you're doing it right and this is never an issue. They're not trying to take money from you or pick on you at all. Their job is to make sure you're securing properly and running safely. It's in the best interest of you and the company.

Thanks redsfan and deere29! I know that not everyone will take my word for it since I'm new to driving, but maybe with you guys backing me up they will understand that what I'm saying is true. Maverick truly does run a prety tight ship! I don't have a clue how things go at TMC or any other company other than reading the threads here and on other message boards, but so far I've been very impressed with Maverick's commitment to safety.

Arky

In TMC's 6 week in-truck training program the first 3 weeks run according to the trainer's 14 hour clock. Then they run as a "team". In my training truck we don't run as a complete team, just not possible to get 22 hours of driving in and have both drivers get rest. TMC might give you a 700-900 mile load that could be ran in one day, nothing over that. TMC's preference (IMO) is that the trainee sees as many loads as possible, not just get training miles. The hard part about being a new flatbedder is loading and tarping; getting skilled at that will make the driver successful. The driving skills will be mostly developed at the end of the 6 weeks.

As far as the short vs. long load debate...
I have had short and long loads that pay well or crappy (on a per mile basis based on my TMC % pay). If the long load pays well, fine, it is less work.
It all depends.

Maverick and TMC are the best flatbedding companies. Who is best doesn't really matter, I work for TMC but completely respect Maverick.

All trucks aren't built the same. I can show you 20 things on a Peterbilt that are built better than a Freightliner. Even so, one truck is not better than the other. The per mile total operating cost of a Freightliner is less than a Pete. The Freightliner may have higher maintenance but the initial cost is much less.

So it goes.

WOW! A FLURRY of GOOD posts! I'm impressed and (for once) agree completely . Feels good. :wink:

I'm probably wrong, but i figured anybody running on percentage would rather have shorter runs. Wouldn't that work out to be more loads, which would mean more money, theoretically speaking. But a driver running on cpm would like having the longer hauls, which would mean more miles. Or does it all just equal out anyway?

SOMETHING like that but not ALWAYS. Longer runs pay higher rates too and thus a higher percent. As far as it all equaling out, there's the misconception a lot of people have. For NEW drivers, percent pay will almost ALWAYS work out better as a new guy can achieve TOP percentage in as little as one month and thus make the same rate as any veteran driver. However, if a new guy chooses mileage pay, the only way to increase your rate is through seniority so to get top pay you'd have to be with the company for years.

yeah that's the great thing about TMC you don't have to have senority to get good pay :wink:

It all just depends on where you are and where you want to be. The copper loads from NM only pay about 33-35 CPM but it is an easy 4 day run that pays U about $950. There are happy-fun loads that pay u $150 and are 100-150 miles. Go figger.

yeah i see that makes sense