McLeod Express - Be Careful
 

McLeod Express is out of Decatur, Illinois. They have van and flatbed driver, also, regional and OTR.

However, I would be careful of them. They do pay $.40 per mile, but since I have started, I have averaged a little over 2100 miles per week.

I could live with that though, but have serious issues with their dispatchers. Trying to get a hold of a dispatcher can be impossible at times. They will not answer theirs phones, will not answer voicemails, and will not answer the QualCom messages. There is a complete lack of professionalism and common courtesy. Hours will pass before they get back to you, if they ever do. Most of your questions will go unanswered and you are on your own. You will do better calling the shipper or receiver. The last company I worked for would answer the phone, voicemails, and QualCom messages. They were polite, professional, and fairly quick to answer. McLeod could take lessons from most other companies on communicating with drivers. They could take lessons from a 1st grade class on common courtesy.

They offer a $800 per week minimum pay package. You drive less than 2000 miles in a week and they will pay you the $800. However, you have to be available to drive Mon-Fri, not be late on a delivery, and not be late for a pickup. Management is proud of this offer. It has drawn in a lot of new drivers. However, it is up to the dispatchers to assign a few late pickups to each driver each week. You get a preplan where the pickup time is hours before the load you are carrying delivers.

Human Resources says to refuse the preplan and tell the dispatchers to change the pickup time to a time that you can make. However, this is an absolute guarantee that the dispatchers will refuse to answer you. I have gone 7 hours straight trying to get a pickup time changed before giving up. You will keep getting QualCom messages begging you to accept the preplan, but the dispatchers will refuse to acknowledge that you are asking to change the pickup time. So, while management is promising you the $800 minimum weekly pay, it is apparently the dispatchers job to purposely assign late pickups in order that McLeod doesn't have to pay out that minimum pay very often. The head dispatcher once proudly told me that he had paid out $1400 in minimum pay the week before (regional drivers have a $700 minimum pay). That is 2 regional drivers out of over 350 drivers. I have talked to quite a few drivers that drove less than 2000 miles in a week and never got the minimum pay for it.

Because of the lack of communication with the dispatching staff and the non-delivery of the minimum pay, they lose a lot of drivers. To be able to maintain drivers for about 350-370 trucks, they are trying to bring in 20 new drivers each week. I heard one of the staff telling the hotel clerk to go ahead and maintain the reservations of 20 rooms per week until the end of the year. That is trying to bring in about 1,000 drivers per year to drive 350-370 trucks! That is more than twice the industry turnover rate. That should tell you something right there.

Even for the OTR drivers, most of the runs are regional runs. Less than 600 Miles. Their service map shows their primary and secondary running areas. Don't believe those maps. They basically run from St. Louis MO to Maryland and Delaware. Kentucky up to New York and Michigan. A very long run for them is 865 miles, my longest to date. I have been given runs where I have 27 hours to drive 200 miles or so. I think that they are a regional company with Delusions of Grandeur of being a OTR company.

My opinion would be to use this company as a last resort. The company lies to you more than your recruiter does. Dispatchers will ignore you and try to cheat you out of the minimum weekly pay. I can't leave because they are my second company in under my first year. I will have to wait awhile before I can leave, so I am basically stuck for now.

In a way I can feel your pain.

I was going to go to work for them a couple of years ago. I applied, went for my drug test, and had a date set up for orientation. 2 hours before orientation was to be held I was called by some secretary there and told my application was placed on hold. No reason given and they refused to answer my phone calls or to discuss the matter with the recruiter, who at the time was the same guy who owned the school I got my CDL from.

When I got called by the recruiter, I tried to do a careful check on them. However, I couldn't find anything on the internet about them. Absolute silence. It was like no one had anything good or bad to say about them.

I also tried finding some of their drivers to talk to, but didn't see any McLeod trucks on the road. I was mostly running north and south and McLeod mostly runs east and west. So, I struck out on that angle also.

By the time I was finding McLeod drivers and ex-drivers, I was already driving for them. So, I thought that I had better post some of the stuff I see so that others drivers can make a more informed decision.

Im in orientation with them now, I coulnd't find nothing about them either. So far from what I learned from orientation, there medical is really expensive especially if u have a family. There dental and vision sucks, it's not even a insurance, i'ts discounts. There paid vaction thing kinda sucks, well actually compared to what SNI gave me m first year it really sucks. So far the only thing that sounds promiceing is the $800 gurantee and being home on the weekend, but you got me wondering about that one. Well looks like Im stuck for at least 3 years if every thing goes well. At least till my alchol charge passes it's 5'th birthday

The one good thing I can say about them is that they have had me home every weekend so far. The one weekend that I was to work, they got me home Saturday afternoon.

This past weekend was a little different though. I request 3 days off starting on Saturday. Actually got though to my dispatcher (after many attempts). Told her that it was very important that I was home those 3 days and that I needed all 3 FULL days. I also told her that I needed to be home by Friday night (like usual) to make sure that I was fully rested for Saturday morning.

Well, lo and behold, Friday was spent running around Chicago. Ran out of hours at my second to last shipper that night. Spent Friday night at the shipper, and dropped that load on Saturday and picked up another load. Finally got home early Saturday afternoon. Could not get my dispatcher to answer me.

So, just a normal weekend, I get home fine. But, when I actually requested time off and told them how important it was that I was there on time, then I was jacked around.

Oh man.... :x

BEWARE
 

Do beware of this company. Seems to me there is too many chiefs and not enough indians. Dispatchers and planners are terrible. They promised my husband home 3 weekends out of the month. The first month he got home 3 weekends and then they kept sending his Qualcomm a message telling him it was his weekend to work. He had the weekend off before that one and worked the 2 weekends before that. He had to go pick up a abandonded truck (now I can see why) trailer and take that load to deliver. He called dispatch they said drop that load in Knoxville pick up in Dandridge then the load picking up there delivered Tuesday morning in Illinois. Friday morning on his way home (and he was halfway home which would put him out of route from the original Tuesday morning delivery time) they send a message to his Qualcom and tell him to deliver the load Saturday morning. He goes OFF! He calls dispatch and asks them what is going on? The dispatcher he was working under, Steve, hung up on him. My husband calls me back. The head dispatcher gets on the phone and tells my husband he does not wanna work! My husband even "fudged" his logs to please this company cause of the short miles and time frames they EXPECT you to deliver and pickup on. My husband is a HARD worker and will break his back to help any company. He runs hard and hates to sit. You cannot make any more money than the guaranteed base $800.00. I don't see how they are coming out honestly. The dispatchers and planners have no idea how to run a truck. You learn how to add and subtract in elementary! I agree with the comments on this thread. They are all true. BTW the safety guy there use to be a DOT officer and I'm sure he has connections!

:lol: Good timing was reading this forum when they called.
Told him I would get back to him {not}
Another driver saved thanks all

Mcleod Express- Not WORTH It
 

My husband has been with Mcleod since April of 2006 and my advice(along with his) is DONT waste your time with this company.
Yes they offer you .40 per mile along with weekends home but its all BS.
As far as the miles, youre lucky if you get them (yes their is a guarantee of $800) and as far as weekends home you have to actually fight with them and refuse loads to make sure you get home.
As far as their dispatchers go, in plain english, they suck. You are lucky if you get a response back from them on the qualcomm. They never answer and when you call them on the phone they're never at their desk or they put you on hold only to keep you hanging. I dont know where they find people like this but the are very unprofessional and dont care about anyone, especially the drivers. (Myself as a dispatcher wouldnt have a job if I behaved and treated my people the way that they do.)
For example, one Friday he was sent back to Decatur in hope of getting home that Saturday. He kept sending his dipatcher messages along with calling him to find out about his load home. Didnt get any answer and before he knew it, it was 6pm and they went home for the night and he was stuck at the shop for the w/e.
I know all this personally because I was in the truck with him for 6 months and seen everything they did.
He is now in the process of going to another company and it will be great knowing that he wont have to deal with these "kids" that call themselves dispatchers anymore.
So if you want a company that pays .40 per mile and rarely gets you home on w/e's and has you sit for hours without a load and never answers you, then go to Mcleod.

I work for McLeod right now and have no trouble. If you do your job, you will get your pay. I spent a day in there office and I saw all they had to deal with. The phones do ring like any office, if they did not have to watch so many drivers so close, and everyone just did there job, no one would have any issues. They are a good company and if any new prospects reads my message, please give McLeod a try if you are looking for a good job. All you gotta do is what is expected of you and the rest will all fall into place.

Me thinks me smells a recruiter :wink:

...after I emailed the CEO the link to this thread yesterday :lol: these guys suck

I don't usually post on these things cause it's a waste of time to me but I saw some of the things being said about McLeod..I had to post.

I've been driving for about 18 years and with Mcleod for 4 years. I also dispatched for Warner for a couple years before I went back to the road. I have my bachelor's in business management, but I always loved to be on the road so that's where I am today.

After all the companies I've been with, I'll tell you the truth:
If you are a road rookie or you need constant attention and can't help yourself(logwise or taking care of business), Mcleod is not the place for you. All these guys leaving messges on here sound like those guys who I hear about quittin all the time about stupid sh*t that they couldn't pull up their own diaper. I don't know who that recent post was that sounds like a recruiter if that's real or not, I don't know. But what he's sayin is right. If you do your job, you will be fine with this company. I live in Decatur with my wife and 2 beautiful kids and that might be why I don't have too much of a problem getting home, but there have been times where I didn't get home when I was supposed to. Something a lot of drvrs who never dispatched or brokered loads don't understand how it works is that if there aint the right freight, you can't always get where you wanna go! It's trucking!

I've never had to get the guarantee except for the 1st time 2 weeks ago during the slowest time of the freight year. I don't always see the amazing miles that everbody here wants but I averge about 2300 miles a week.

This aint a diss to anybody but lots of these truckers on here give real truckers a bad name. Mcleod aint a bad place if you know how to take care of yourself. Everybody makes mistakes at every company but Mcleod don't sit around apologizing..they just get right to work on fixin it. If you can't help yourself out, Mcleod probably don't want you anyway.

welcome to CAD, Jim.

1st post!! :lol:

i am heading out to orientation next monday for mcleod so far from what i read they are like any other trucking company's standards,do the job expected and there is no problems.bandit,it sounds like you had a bad run in with them,but i wouldnt make the company seem like the worst thing out there.i been with a few shady outfits,and from what i see,mcleod is far from shady.

LOL , how the hell do you know they are far from shady ? You've never even driven for them . This is why these lousy companies stay in business , unqualified drivers with no clue just take a pick out of a hat and say let's try these guys out .

hehehehe......

You know, the biggest mistake I made was NOT listening to this board....

If you find people ranting about a company, good or bad, it doesn't hurt to pay attention.... and know who the recruiters are for what company.

Just my .02

so,now there a lousy company because you say so? i am guessing you worked for them then smooth? unqualified lol you seem to know so much about everything another trucker running down the highway knows all seen all...good luck to ya union-man

I just figured you would have set your sights a little higher after reading the multiple negative posts about the company and checking out the profile on CAD .

http://www.classadrivers.com/truckin...s.php?Cid=2390

Minimum qualifications are a joke , you can have 3 tickets in the last 3 years a preventable or two and a dui and felony in the early part of this decade and they would still take you . Quite the high standards......

Anyways , GL there

The big problem with these chat sites, is that most of the chatters were fired or do a lousy job so they are mad!

[quote="Jim Henson"]I don't usually post on these things cause it's a waste of time to me but I saw some of the things being said about McLeod..I had to post.

After all the companies I've been with, I'll tell you the truth:
If you are a road rookie or you need constant attention and can't help yourself(logwise or taking care of business), Mcleod is not the place for you.


Mcleod only asks for 6 months otr experience. Now isnt that considered a "road rookie"??? If that isnt, I dont know what is.
Oh, btw, my husband has been driving for a long time and gets to his stops all the time as he's suppose to do and also does alot of extra BS for those guys. He busts his a** out there only to be ignored constantly by his dispatchers and left hanging. It doesnt take much to answer your driver when a message comes up on the qualcomm. I can understand waiting a little while for a response because they are handling other situations. But come on, dont you think waiting 4-5 hours or getting no answer at all is professional? I dont think so.

[quote="Jim Henson"]I don't usually post on these things cause it's a waste of time to me but I saw some of the things being said about McLeod..I had to post.

After all the companies I've been with, I'll tell you the truth:
If you are a road rookie or you need constant attention and can't help yourself(logwise or taking care of business), Mcleod is not the place for you.


Mcleod only asks for 6 months otr experience. Now isnt that considered a "road rookie"??? If that isnt, I dont know what is.
Oh, btw, my husband has been driving for a long time and gets to his stops all the time as he's suppose to do and also does alot of extra BS for those guys. He busts his a** out there only to be ignored constantly by his dispatchers and left hanging. It doesnt take much to answer your driver when a message comes up on the qualcomm. I can understand waiting a little while for a response because they are handling other situations. But come on, dont you think waiting 4-5 hours or getting no answer at all is professional? I dont think so.

Blondie,

Like I said in an earlier post. It is all about doing your job. Not everyone is good a fit for every company. Most of us bust our butts our here and get little to show for it. McLeod is a good company and half of you guys were most likely fired or did a bad job and you thought you got screwed. Hope your husband has better luck at his next job!

McLeod
 

Just shot them an app. before I seen this thread. Really second guessing that now.
Only reason I applied was their about 2 hrs. from house and say they allow pets. milage don't seem too high,how high are med. benefits and if dispatchers are that bad really doubt I'll be too receptive to any offers. just out of curosity what type equipment do they have?

They have late model/new Freightliners. Good company! Miles are not the highest now because of the season, but freight has been picking up. I like working for them.

You come down on Yellow for making unsubstantiated assumptions, yet here you are doing the same thing! :roll:

I drove for these guys a while back, they were a good company. I left wasnt fired. They had there problems then, the owner and his son put up like a 3 million dollar facility, and was in the process of changing over the fleet. I drove a classic for them and had no problems with the equipment. that was then as far as now I dunno. I never really had a problem with the dispatchers in general just mine.

I scrached their back and they scratched mine. I'd go back if I wanted to take it easy, but really dont want to do that. just waitin around on my orientation date.

Those guys considering this company, youll hear good and bad about companies all you can do is try. If the same guy owns the place, hes a really nice guy and not all uppity.

In response to the post about "half you guys probably were fired or did a bad job and quit".

I did leave McLeod after 2 months. I wasn't fired and did a very good job. The head dispatcher tried talking me into staying telling me that I had no late deliveries, logs looked very good (they should have considering that they were highly fudged, my comment not his), and that they were very happy with me.

The final straw for me came when I told them that I did need to be home on a certain weekend. Well, lo and behold, they have me running around Chicago until I run out of hours Friday night and now I wouldn't be getting home until Saturday afternoon, even though they knew well ahead of time that I needed to be there in the morning.

While I am not a real veteran, I fully realize that when a company tells you that they will have you home on Friday, expect to be home sometime from midnight to midnight on Friday. But when you tell them to have you home on Friday (what time Friday doesn't matter as long as it is Friday), that doesn't mean Saturday afternoon.

Couple that with the fact that the dispatcher would never answer my questions on the Qualcomm (a female dispatcher that shall remain nameless - as well as mannerless), and all the other problems I was having with them. I tried switching dispatchers, but the head dispatcher denied this request (although when I called to tell him I was quitting, he promised to switch me if I didn't quit).

I don't need babysat or my hand held while on the road. Experienced drivers know that there are times you need to ask the dispatcher something. It is very frustrating when the dispatcher purposely refuses to answer those questions. When you send in your question starting at the time the dispatcher gets to work and every couple of hours after that, and then the dispatcher goes home without answering, you can be pretty sure that it was on purpose. Especially after it happens a few times.

Yes, there are posts all over these boards from drivers who were fired, or from drivers who quit their company after doing a bad job. However, I am not one of them. Finding a good company is a three way fit between driver, company, and dispatcher.

I am glad that some drivers find this a good company. But I did not. A lot of other drivers didn't either. But, they are managing to keep some drivers happy or they wouldn't still be in business. It is just that they couldn't keep me happy (decent and consistent paycheck).

One thing you said in the original post bothered me a bit -- they assign you late pickups so that you can't collect on the $800. Why would you accept a load that you KNOW is late?? If you were taking late pickups, that is on YOU.

They assigned us late pickups. Human Resources told me to tell dispatch that I could not take the load until the updated the pickup time to something that was attainable. Message after message would go out over the Qualcomm with no response back. Take that back, once a hour I would get a message saying, "Please commit to preplan". That would be the only response I would receive.

Try the phone. Well, they have caller ID. Calls would not be answered and would roll over to VoiceMail. No attempt on their part to return VoiceMails. So, no ability to contact them over phone or Qualcomm. I can contact them, but they will not contact back. Talked to numerous other drivers with McLeod at that time and they were having same problems. Once called trying to get head dispatcher, receptionist was frustrated because head dispatcher was sitting at his desk staring into space and not answering the phone. Tried 5 times to get him, rolled to VoiceMail each time.

As to why I would take each "late" load? When it comes down to the choice of taking a "late" load or not driving any miles, which one would you take? I had spent as long as 8 hours trying to get a pickup time changed without success, lucky for me on that one I was rolling on a delivery.

When you are a truck driver, the only way you get paid is to be putting on miles. Sitting at a location trying without success to contact dispatch isn't putting on miles and isn't putting money onto your paycheck. You get to the point where you either give up and take the "late" load or do without miles for the day. A $700 before taxes check is better than a $500 before taxes check.

The main reason I left was the dispatchers not getting back in contact with you. Doesn't matter whether you are trying to move the pickup time to something realistic, have a question, or need to tell them something.

Nice screen name, insert joke here.

Well at least you didn't get screwed as bad there as some companies will do to you. I have looked on here for a while, and most info on here seems to be good. Just try to listen next time! :D j/k

Friends don't let friends drive for Mcleod Express!

They are so incompetent when it comes to maintaining their equipment. The shop manager acts like its the drivers' fault when the truck or trailers need repairs! Forget about getting a PM!

They cut down the fuel stops to like 26 Pilots & Flying Js. WTH? Plus, they don't give you the Pilot points. Just another way for them to nickel & dime the driver!

They don't have an EZ Pass or PrePass. If you decide to get a cash advance to pay THEIR tolls, they keep $2.00 of it when they reimburse you. $2.00 adds up after week after week, month after month of getting money to pay tolls!

They don't give you the real delivery times, they schedule you in an hour early. It used to be two hours early. This cuts into the drivers' time and throws his whole day off sometimes.

They have got the poorest planning board I have come across! These people absolutely do not know what they are doing when it comes to legally planning routes!
Honestly, no driver should have to butt heads with his company day after day about his hours or his DOT break. But alas, run into any of their drivers and if they tell you the truth, it is exactly what they have to do in order to run legal.

We all know that most companies rip us off of our mileage pay ie. HHG. If you work for McLeod & calculate the miles, they take 2-5% extra off the top plus HHG. I know this because I have seen bills before with the real miles that they are getting paid!

They advertise three out of four weekend home, yeah right. Most weekends, you don't even get the 34 hour reset! In on Sat evening, leave on Sun evening!

This is just a warning for anyone considering driving for McLeod. Don't believe the recruitment hype!

Friends don't let friends drive for Mcleod Express!

Sounds like a horrible company.I hope you're not still driving for them.I'd be raising alot of cane with the tolls.Who knows maybe their not reimburing you for all tolls,then keeping $2.00 every pay period,thats just wrong.A company I drove for did'nt reimburse me for my tolls and ripped me off on the load pay.I did;nt discover that till I left and filed charges against them for something else.What do u mean u don't get pilot points?Don't you have your own pilot card and you automatically get points for each gallon?I did'nt know companies can stop you from getting pilot points.That company is ripping the drivers off big time.Who knows,they may not be paying the drivers for every load.Sad how companies are,drivers are literally making peanuts and the upper staff better known as pencil pushers are making the big bucks and the drivers are the ones that work and will stop at nothing to get that load delivered on time and you the driver don't get as much as a thank you for your loyal services.

It's not the company that you drive for that gives Pilot points, it's Pilot. Something's amiss there.

Wanted to give UPDATE:

Recently took a load going halfway across the country. Before I accepted it, I asked dispatch if McLeod would approve ALL tolls. They said yes.

Big SURPRISE: they didn't reimburse me for ALL the tolls like they said they would. I'm currently out of $50.00.

I have proof of this...I'm no dummy. Dispatch put it right on the Quaalcomm!

You are absolutely right about the driver getting little respect in some of these companies. I think it has gotten worse in the last decade.

The owner of the company gets that penny that adds up on the card put back into the tank. The drivers don't get the points, I guess they go back into the Company's account.

If you don't mind running outlaw, it's the company to go for. Just note: when you get caught, don't be surprised to find yourself by yourself on the gallows.