Comments By Kevin L.

When I read this the first thing that came to mind was when I went to get my school bus endorsement I had to retest in a school bus. The company I was going to work for happened to be a state authorized testing center as well. They offer for a fee the use of their bus or tractor trailer for an additional fee as well as give you the test. Your state may have similar testing agencies as well.

As far as a 160 hour certificate goes I am unfamiliar with it. I can tell you there are some companies out here that will hire you and train more than that in house between time in orientation, classroom and driving time prior to you going solo. Actual driving is where you will see most improvements.

Yes they sure are governed to 65 mph. I was playing around with the 8/2 split and crossed the midnight threshold as well as a timeline that day. I also remember I had to do a safe haven move and the closest safe place happened to be the receiver but here’s an image of the Qualcomm that covered my high day.

I just wish all the OTR loads were 700-1000 plus miles and regional or dedicated ran the short runs. This company seems to give out a lot of runs under 800 miles to people out for weeks or months at a time.

Yes thank you for asking. I still love being in this division. I drive whatever is left on my 70. I have gotten only one reset since I started. I’m not seeing any shortage of miles. I am still averaging over 300 take home pay more than when when I was in USA flatbed.

However, they just gave a raise to flatbed and had I stayed it may have made a difference. Either way I’m regularly clearing more than the gauranteed gross weekly pay.

My high mileage day here in tcd is 759.6 not bad for one day from a rookie. We all have good days but I didn’t think that many miles in a day but now my goal is to break 800

I was not done with the post but I will continue here. There seems to be very few people on this forum from Maverick. Of the ones I know of they all have multiple years experience in trucking and likely from other companies as well.

When a new person came on here asking about what to expect when they got to North Little Rock and how they could excel in training there I honestly thought that the best person to reply would be by someone who recently lived the experience. Not someone who may have a decade or two experience with other companies that may have entirely different ideas of how to train a person to drive.

I really do not want to press any issues about earnings potential between types of trucking. I can and did express my personal experience and felt like I was called incompetent because I pointed out that I make substantially more since I switched divisions and several people load and unload my truck while We both get paid to get it unloaded me to back up and open doors them to load and secure. It leaves me all that time to drive instead of burning up my clock

First the good news six months ago today I was offered a job at Maverick Transportation. I survived.

It has been a few weeks since I posted on here. To be honest I was not sure If I should even remain a member of this site. I believe in being honest and stating things clearly. I realize I’m not even close to having the level of experience many on here have. I understand that the mega carriers are good at business. I know that I’m still learning a lot of basic things other drivers may take for granted.

HOWEVER, I have noticed on this forum that there are only a very small handful of drivers that work ofor Maverick.

If you are driving a modern school bus many of them are equipped with air brakes. You may already be able to drive that with a class b dsl. However like Brett said if you want to upgrade to class a to drive a class a bus such as the ones big cities use that bend in the middle. Many states consider them class a. Every state I know of requires to take the road and skills test in a vehicle that is the type you wish to be licensed for. If you looking to drive tractor trailer you would need to do the pretrial skills and road tests in a tractor trailer. In my state anyhow I had my class a prior to getting school bus and passenger endorsements and was still required to retest kin a school bus and if it did not bend in the middle They put a restriction against driving a class a bus on my cdl It may sound confusing but it is different in each state.

That’s an interesting perspective about none paying more than another. Could you then explain how as a company driver getting paid the exact same cpm and detention, breakdown pay in flatbed or tcd. Financially I’m only seeing two differences bettween the division that is stop pay and tarp pay. When you look at the amount of work required of a flatbed driver especially in the first year and compare it to the work expected from a tcd driver that does very little other than drive. Which if you get paid by the mile and detention pay at the same rate seems to me that the tcd driver would make more.

Keep in mind the flatbed driver does a lot of work when they arrive at a shipper or consignee that a tcd driver can pretty much open the doors back up to a dock and go in sleeper berth till the phone rings telling him to come get his paperwork. Then put in an empty call and go to the next shipper and repeat. All the time a flatbed driver spends loading unloading and tarping are hours off his 14/70 hour clocks limiting his hour to drive and be paid.

Granted there are people that can get loaded secured and tarred well under the 2 hour detention threshold and who can do it fast enough to still get good miles in but that is not what most rookies experience.

To say that the only reason a person makes less with one type of freight than another is because they are underperforming at one is rediculas. The two different types of freight have different responsibilities. More work is expected of a flatbed driver then a tcd driver.

You guys are correct I am still a rookie. That is why a new driver should be able to relate to my experience with the company. I would like to know if there are any other drivers on here that have less than 6 months experience and work for Maverick are getting 2800-3000miles avg per week on USA flatbed. During our orientation we were told things like the average driver will make 60-85k their first year. From what I saw in the driver portal a few weeks ago those numbers are more along the top drivers numbers and I did not see any of those listed as being under a yr exp.

I do believe good money can be made in all forms of trucking. I also believe companies are out to make money. There is a lot of truth in the statement if the wheels ain’t turning you ain’t earning. I’m all for drivers improving their driving skills and making more money because of it. My problem was all the work that is not paid for that burns up your 14 hour clock. The idea that even if you can setup, get loaded, secure, and tarp every load in under 2 hours you make 12.50 an hr if it goes 3 or more hours it’s sub minimum wage.

You are all correct there is no universal form of trucking for everyone in fact trucking is not for everyone. One rookie to another I would say ask the questions you need in orientation. I have stayed in touch with a few drivers from my graduation we started feb 4 and all that are in flatbed are tracking for about 34k this year.

I came to trucking to get out of debt and make a better life I want to do it as fast as I can. My first full week in TCD I made more than any regular work week in flatbed. My weekly miles was just under double what I was doing in flatbed. For me it was the right choice. Also in tcd I’m not cooking the e logs or working 80-95 hours a week either. I get plenty of rest in fact often It’s hard for me to wait to start driving again.

Maverick is a great company to work for. As with any job though you need to determine what is the best fit for you. The training for tcd is only two days. Always Thursday and Friday. You will be assigned a different truck then flatbed.

I drive for Maverick. I’m pretty new to it. I went flatbed about five months before switching to tcd. I have found tcd suits me better personally. It’s really a personal choice. I started there as a student. I have had my cdl class a for a long time but no recent verifiable experience. When I switched from flatbed USA to tcd I’m receiving exactly the same pay per mile. The main difference for me is with tcd I get a lot more miles because I don’t spend as much time loading securing and tarping . Flatbed got paid tarp pay of $25 and $30 for stop pay you also will be paid detention time over 2 hours if multi stop TCD pays the same on detention but only 20 stop pay. Tcd is far less work than flatbed. I may not be the best example but my first week in TCD I did 2618 miles which is more Than I was getting in flatbed. Also if you got flatbed USA expect to work primarily in the region you live in.

To be prepared get a motor carriers deluxe atlas, a hand calculator, dry erase marker fine point, straight edge or small ruler, minimal items and clothing to get by on about 2weeks. A set of twin sheets or sleeping bag, some cash for food after lunch or Walmart trips. Practice Trip planning, try and get familiar with HOS and FMCSR mainly relating to hos. Pay close attention to the instructors ask questions for clarity. Always try and be about 15-30 minutes early. Don’t bring anything that might be seen as offensive or dangerous. No alcohol, we had one guy sent home because his shirt had skulls on it but I think he was warned and did it twice.

For me it was about 2 weeks orientation and securement then 3 1/2 weeks in a trainer truck then on my own. Once your on your own you will want to make you truck as much like home as you can without modifying their truck. Trust me it can add up fast.

Working at Maverick my not be perfect but they will work with you and you can learn a lot. Be safe hope to see you out here

I was told the lumber tarps are 170 lbs and the steel tarps are 140 but the canvas tarps feel more like 40 lbs. I did see a girl the was probably 95 pounds soaking wet put a lumber tarp on the bed of a truck. Keep in mind you still have to throw straps and use chains and bungee the tarps down as well. Stretching out 150 -200 bungees is a workout in itself. It’s not just the tarps though proper setup and secure meant are time consuming. I know where there is a will there is a way. I’m a large man of 6’ 1” 230 lbs and just switched from flatbed to temp control because the work was so intense I didn’t have enough time to drive and make the money I wanted. Good luck either way be safe.