Maverick Vs TMC

So, I registered on this site just to respond to this topic. I currently haul glass for Maverick and I can honestly say that I really like it. A short glass run for me is around 800 miles. You will deadhead quite a bit. For example i'm currently heading from Perrysburg, OH to Laurinburg, NC empty. However, I'm getting paid for all miles loaded and empty. Having transferred from Maverick's flatbed division, I can say that live loading glass is alot of work. However, in my short time hauling glass (4 weeks), I have only had to live load 3 times. Every other load has been preloaded and pretarped. Another thing that I can say is that you will never have to un tarp your load outdoors out of the fear of a random rainstorm popping up. The glass cannot get wet.

I've been jumping all over the place with my response, but let me know any questions that you may have about Maverick Glass Division. (Oh yeah, and I love my automatic truck. I've driven a manual truck before and I much prefer sitting in traffic with this truck)

So, I registered on this site just to respond to this topic.

Jhayson, thank you for that! We all really appreciate the effort and the great response.

Fritofeet, don't be sold too easily on a salesman. That's not an insult by any means to the recruiters but keep in mind that's what they are. Evaluate companies based on the type of freight, quality of equipment, home time, pay & benefits, and other opportunities available. The best company in the world can send a lousy recruiter that makes them look bad and vice versa. Listen to everything they say and ask a lot of questions but remember in the end they're trying to sell you on their company. Some will do a better job than others. The quality of the recruiter's presentation should be no reflection upon the quality of the company itself or how well they'll suit your needs.

We as a class have all been very careful to evaluate at arms length what we have been told by recruiters and we we have asked many of the questions outlined in another thread here on the forum. Of the 4 companies that have visited us, I don't believe any have created a sense of excitement amongst the group. I personally want to feel encouraged that the organization that I am henseforth going to dedicate a tremendous portion of my life energy and time for is equally excited about having me and my classmates onboard. Perhaps our expectations are too high but I think I can speak for the group and say we've been left feeling sorta flat with perhaps the exception of maverick for some.

We as a class have all been very careful to evaluate at arms length what we have been told by recruiters and we we have asked many of the questions outlined in another thread here on the forum. Of the 4 companies that have visited us, I don't believe any have created a sense of excitement amongst the group. I personally want to feel encouraged that the organization that I am henseforth going to dedicate a tremendous portion of my life energy and time for is equally excited about having me and my classmates onboard. Perhaps our expectations are too high but I think I can speak for the group and say we've been left feeling sorta flat with perhaps the exception of maverick for some.

So of course I can only give my personal experience with Maverick. I started with them at the end of last year and the day I arrived in Little Rock for orientation, I could tell that they were on another level. I called my wife that day to tell her how impressed I was. I am a veteran and I have very low tolerance for BS. They are very big on being on time to classes and will not hesitate to send someone home for being late to a class. They do everything in their power to get you home when they are supposed to. In fact, in my time here, I have only been stranded out one time and that was because of inclement weather. Everything that my recruiter told me was actually true, believe it or not. I'm not a big fan of writing long posts so if you have specific questions, I'll answer to the best of my ability or try to find the answers for you,

Thanks Brett for posting that. I have a student in my class that is perjured with TMC and after looking at their website I had begun to think that maybe it might be a good choice with the percentage pay as well as the nice trucks. What you wrote really helps.

They all have said that you do make more money that way compared to cpm

That's not true at all. It doesn't make sense. Why would a company pay you more for taking a percentage than for taking mileage? Have you ever heard of a corporation in your life that goes out of their way to find ways to pay people more than they have to? Of course not.

In fact, I personally don't like the idea of being paid a percentage because there's no way of knowing what the company is actually making on any particular load. They'll tell you what they're making, but you have to take their word for it. I don't like being in a position where someone owes me money for doing a job but I have no idea how much they should be paying me. It's a huge conflict of interest.

Now of course you can take you percentage pay and divide it by the miles you ran to see what your mileage pay would have been for that load. That way you can compare it to what you'd be making at other companies who pay mileage pay.

Now if you do the math and it turns out you're making more running percentage than you would have made running mileage from the same company then the company rigged the game to turn out that way. They're simply offering an extra low mileage rate. And why would they do that? Two reasons:

1. Because drivers will think they're making more money getting percentage and it's to their advantage. They'll even tell other drivers, "You'll make more if they pay you percentage."

2. Because then the company has everyone on percentage pay and they only have to pay you a percentage of what they say the load makes. And the company knows there is no way you can really know that. So if they grab the occasional big money load they can keep the "extra meat on the bone" and give you what would be an average rate for the load. You'll never know the difference.

I am a veteran and I have very low tolerance for BS. They are very big on being on time to classes and will not hesitate to send someone home for being late to a class.

Thanks Jhayson O., I appreciate your service. What branch were you in? I just got out of the Army last year, it's good to hear a fellow veteran is in the same company I'm looking at. Another veteran I'm friends with is at TMC, which I have a pre-hire for. However, Maverick seems to be G2G in my books, which is why I'm looking at them too. Main questions are 1) is the pay as good as the recruiter made it out to be, and 2) how in the hell do you tarp glass that's pyramid shaped?

To everyone else, thanks for the replies, I appreciate it. Look forward to getting out on the road in Feb when I graduate from my CDL school (240 hours worth ughh, classroom portion is a darn waste and its 10 weeks. Only good part is the route planning portion, which is two weeks long)

Also, status update. In my class, I'm 3rd out of 40ish students, and the only two I'm behind (by 4 points) are prior truckers who are there for a refresher since they've been out for about 4 years. Woo-hoo, right? Apparently I've made a good impression with the instructor, because he's focusing on giving me more advanced challenges and questions. Anyways, all is good, the more I learn in the class, the easier it'll be behind the wheel. After all, a tractor can't be much harder than an up-armored MRAP OR LMTV with a trailer, right?

Main questions are 1) is the pay as good as the recruiter made it out to be, and 2) how in the hell do you tarp glass that's pyramid shaped?

On the pay side, I have no complaints. In the glass division, the starting pay for someone fresh out of school is .46 cpm. And at 6 months in jumps to .50 cpm. I've been averaging between 2400-2700 miles per week. And the best part is that you are paid both empty and loaded. On the glass side, you will get a ton of deadhead miles.

On some of our trailers the tarp is attached to the trailer so once you complete loading the glass, you just have to pull the tarp back and secure it with rope. On the other trailers, such as the one picture, as soon as the driver completes securing the glass, one of two things will occur: either they will drape the tarp over the load, or they will place the rolled tarp on top. Keep in mind, alot of times the load of glass reaches the top of the A frames which gives a flat surface to roll the tarps across.

Oh, and i was in the Army Guard

So I'm assuming theres a lot of ladder work for tarping as I don't think anyone is that tall just to "roll it over"

So I'm assuming theres a lot of ladder work for tarping as I don't think anyone is that tall just to "roll it over"

That is correct