Coyote, next week will probably suck for miles, but I have a 580 mile load in the driveway now and it is only a 2.5 hour drive from the house with a 0700 appointment. Hopefully they can find me a prefab metal building going to Florida after I drop on Wednesday and then a pick up at GP in Ocala. :D .

You must be LNG or US if you run Colorado. I am in RAT. Regional Atlantic my ass, anything East of I-35 and no north south limits. But it's all good, a true regional Atlantic division would make most of my trips too short.

Have a good holiday Coyote.

Thanks Jay B,

Merry Christmas.

Bump

Hows it going guys

It is going well. I had a few bad weeks due to breakdowns and weather and some other issues, but then 3 weeks ago some things clicked and I figured out some time management stuff and things fell into place.

The last 2 weeks I was at almost 3000 per week and not completely exhausted by the end of the week. My securing and tarping is much faster and I am figuring out the best times to run certain routes.

Can't wait for winter to be over. The weather can really ruin a week for me because I will not drive on ice or in blinding snow. I also am not a big fan of night driving (but I do it) so as the days get longer I will be happier.

Thats great J, you're still working. I wonder what happened to coyote.
Ron

Hey guys.

I just got off the road after being out 2 weeks (w/ a run to LA, yippee, no ice or snow, lol). I have been reading the boards but I have just not posted a thing. Maverick is still a great company but I do have huge problem with them that is gnawing away at me and making my attitude and life just miserable.

It has to do with this smart chip they placed in our trucks. When I hired on, Maverick had a policy of making you run 6 months with the truck governed at 65 mph. After 6 months they would turn the truck up to 70 mph. Not anymore.

Now, the trucks speed is based on the fuel mileage. If you want to go 70 mph, you have to achieve something like 6.7 mpg (not sure of the actual number). If you are below 6.5 mpg, you can only go 65 mph. My truck, since day one, has never been able to achieve over 6.5 mpg no matter how slow I go or how careful I drive. I have not tried driving 55 mph and I never will. Any truck doing 55 on a road with say a 70 mph speed limit just impedes the flow of traffic too much.

The frustration of trying to pass other trucks that are governed just below my max-governed speed is truly infuriating. I usually just back off and drive slower, but then the other truck does the same (or bogs down on a hill) and so this goes on for an hour and leaves me wanting to jump ship. I don’t mind setting the cruise at 62-63 mph, but I wish I could kick it up to 70 just to pass the slower traffic and then once passed them, back it back down to 62-63.

So, I have no hope at the present time of ever getting out of this situation as long as I drive with Maverick. I am going to stay put for now, but I will weigh my options in the near future.


On another note:
Jay B, I hear you. The tarping is getting a lot faster for me for sure and I too am ready for less ice and snow. And oh yeah, I am not a big fan of night driving either and yes I still do it when I have too.

The whole 6.7 thing is a bunch of crap. I ran 61 mph for 2 solid days and it was warm enough to not idle the truck at night. I used the cruise control almost all the time and did every thing else we are supposed to to get good mileage. I had close to 45k on the deck and ran through the mountains going west and then back east through PA and WV.
I got 6.1 mpg. I am not even going to try any more. If they really cared about it the trucks would have tri-packs and the torque curves would be set back to factory settings.

I don't want to sound down on Maverick, I just think they have taken some bad advice about setting up their trucks. Then again, they are smart enough to own a 1600 truck company and I am only smart enough to drive one of their units so my opinion might not be the best.

I have a question for you Maverick drivers. Have they quit their cdl training ? Are is it just the flatbed side that has stopped. Just curious, I'm interested in either division wondering if I would have to go get cdl on my own before pursuing any further. Any info would be great.

Kilowatt

Call this number and talk to Monica or one of the other recruiters and ask them that question about cdl training. I think it is still an active program unless something changed and they did not inform us drivers. Monica’s number is 1-800-289-1100.

Cruzncoyote
Talked with Paul yesterday from Maverick, he was looking at my flat bed app. . He said flatbed quit doing training several months ago. I failed to ask him if Specialized did the same . I noticed that on the web site the brochure for specialized had different number to call and it still showed cdl training on it also.