I'm In!!! Orientation With Melton Truck Lines In Tulsa, OK

I got a call from Melton the other day. I have no ideas as to how they got my number but they called me three times. . Can you tell me anything about the company? Whats your actual miles like and avg run lengths? Transmissions they run, where they operate at (part of country), the majority of the time. ...Pretty much anything would be great?

Melton is a great fit for me. Runs are from 500 to 2500+ and I avg 2700+ miles a week. They cover all 48 and Canada. You stay out 2 wks min if east of 35 and 3 wks west of. I stay out longer(6-8) wks and grossed $57K last year. You get tarp pay @ $40 and stop pay @ $25. Good ins and 401k plans with 3% match vested after 3 yrs. One year experience is $.47/mile empty or loaded.

Run mostly KW's with 10 spds. APU with 1500wt converters, A/C.

They treat you like family. Never been told anything but the truth and never any pay issues or reimbursement problems.

Let me know if you have other questions.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

Heya GUYs! My name is Ashley I go by the nickname on here, or Scooter, I'll answer to just about anything, and if you call me something I don't like, odds are, you won't like what I respond with ;)

My AMAZING husband, retired from the Army back in 2013, used his GI Bill to go to a private driving school, got his CDL , and his first OTR gig was with a **** company, treated their equipment like ****, treated their drivers like ****, and if you were the family member of a driver, Forggetaboutit! Although, when we were stationed at Fort Campbell, they use to call me Mouth of the South, probably because I speak up when I think somethings wrong...

ANyway, my husband left steven's got his tanker endorsement went to the dakotas, unfortunately the guy he worked for up there was a shady cat, and had a less than desireable moral and ethical character both personally and professionally. So he transitioned from there to first fleet, great company, he needed something at least dedicated regional if not local for a while due to some health issues I was having... But he as he puts it, is tired of being confined to the same road, in the same places, with the same loads, around the same idiot drivers day in and day out.

He's recently started the application process with MElton, now mind you, he's got 10+ years of driving experience and I mean actual truck/hauling/driving with the Army, mostly hauling Jersey barriers (concrete barriers along construction sites, and directional dividers on major highways/interstates) i know the vast majority of companies don't count military driving experience toward a civilian sector career, but hell he was THE actually Master Driver/Brigade driver trainer for his BDE...

The point of this long rambling gets down to the following...:

Does anyone know if Melton will count and include Military experience at all? Does Melton look at Melton experience, (his being the Master Driver/Driver TRainer, or the fact that the format he designed for training soldiers on how to drive the HETs *HEavy equipment transporters/the REALLY BIG trucks in the army* or on how to drive the rest of the trucking vehicles the Army uses) will they at least take that into consideration? And based on your own personal experience/knowledge, what's the minimum length of time you've got to have in the civilian sector before Melton will hire you?

I know a lot of this is on the website and the recruit brochure he's recently received in the mail, however, I often find that personal experience has more HONESTY in it, and is less of a sales pitch. DOn't get me wrong, being in the military world for 15 years teaches you to sniff out the BS, and unfortunately, just because someone spews it from their mouth doesn't mean their breath always stinks LOL...

SO this is my very first post to these forums, i hope I haven't offended anyone, as I said above, I am very blunt, very outspoken, very opionated, and I tend to not be very politically correct about it... ha...

But any advice or guidance you'd be willing to share or pass along would be greatly appreciated...

In addition to that, any other veterans on here wanting to relate, My husband started out as a 12B combat engineer, he went into EOD for a few years, and after some real close calls, they gave him the option of going into supply, driving a desk, or driving a truck. His response "I don't need to, want to, and have no desire to be in a closet all day, I damn sure don't want to drive a desk, so give me 88m (truck driver) so that's what he did for 8-10 years...

I look forward to being on here more and more, meeting new people, forging new relationships and making new friends...

~Scooter

Hey Scooter,

I've been with Melton now for 2 yrs. I am certain that Melton would snap him up in a heart beat. If he doesn't have recent OTR experience, then he may have to go out with a trainer for a short period. With his driving background, he would basically be getting some experience with securement, working the logs and general procedures. They won't give any credit for military truck experience, to the best of my knowledge. For veterans, they do have a sticker that goes on the truck.

I have found Melton to be a great company. Everything that I was told by recruiting has been spot on. Great health insurance a good 401K and performance bonuses. They do respect their drivers and have a variety of ways to show that appreciation. It really is like a big family. They will tell you that you can expect 2000-2500 miles a week average. That is going to be lower when you are going home or coming off of home time. If he has hazmat endorcement and a passport, then there is extra money to be made, too. It is OTR, so there is a lot of time away, but if that works for your situation, it is a great company.

Let me know if either of you have specific questions and I will do my best to answer them. Mind you, all of this comes from a Navy guy, so as long as that isn't an issue....

Well, it's good to hear from you stranger!

Larry, how ya been?

Scooter deserves a gold star for getting you to speak up here in the forum!

I lurk from time to time and I follow the flat bed thread. But I find that at the end of the day, after catching up with the family on FB, I don't have too much left. I have been working hard and enjoying my time out here on the road. I even got lucky and made driver of the month a while back, so Melton thinks I am adding to their bottom line; which is good for both of us. I haven't been to a SAPA plant in quite a while, but I will be looking for that Knight truck the next time I hit one.

All in all, life be good for this one!

Scooter- I am currently going through orientation with Melton and while I cannot really answer to the specifics of your questions I can say that they are a great company and very honest about everything. Now I do know that he can use his GI bill here as OTJ training for up to 1 year. I just filled out the paperwork for that today. So that'll be a bit of extra cash in my pocket every month. If he has to come to Tulsa for orientation a couple of the instructors here are Vets and all of them are pretty good guys. The orientation is really good and they get into stuff that most companies never talk about. Like today we had a class on the realities of trucking and the family issues that can come with it. They talked about things the driver really needs to consider as far as making sure things go as smoothly as possible. I'm sure being an Army wife you guys have been through some of those sort of lectures. Most of what we work on is trip planing, load securement and tarping. You'll hear a very few folks here and there complain about it being so easy to be kicked out of orientation. We started with 23 and are down to 17 today. A couple left because they realized flatbedding just wasn't for them. The rest were sent home for completely legitimate reasons. The ones they sent home they even gave a bus ticket.

I lurk from time to time and I follow the flat bed thread. But I find that at the end of the day, after catching up with the family on FB, I don't have too much left. I have been working hard and enjoying my time out here on the road.

I understand that completely!

I see a lot of Melton Trucks at the various SAPA plants I'm in and out of and I often wonder if inside them I might find either you or "Wilson." I saw a Systems truck at Cresssona the other day with a young lady in the driver's seat. I stopped to visit with her and was hoping it would be our "Little Syster." It was not her, but she knew her and had been in the same orientation with her. She told me that she would let her know that I tried to meet her next time she saw her.

I've been kind of wondering about you since we haven't heard from you for a while, I kind of wondered if you decided to jump right off into that micro-brewery you've been pondering. Anyways, it's nice to know you're still out here, and a big Congratulations on that driver of the month! That's no small feat with all the competition you've got over there!

He was terminated from first fleet back in AUgust the reason, well he had received a ticket for ALLEGEDLY taking out a light pole... According to the cop there was a witness... My husband said oh hell no, and said he was going to fight it. He was fired for the following reason "We can't help defend you on something that has a witness." Well, he got the charges dropped, dismissed, exponged. He was honest about this incident to melton as to why he left first fleet... ANd they said until he's got 3 months of good driving again they can't hire him... Really bummed...

I'm going to orientation by next month for melton at tulsa terminal. Plzz any advice how it goes etc. Anything it will he appreciated

Scooter- I am currently going through orientation with Melton and while I cannot really answer to the specifics of your questions I can say that they are a great company and very honest about everything. Now I do know that he can use his GI bill here as OTJ training for up to 1 year. I just filled out the paperwork for that today. So that'll be a bit of extra cash in my pocket every month. If he has to come to Tulsa for orientation a couple of the instructors here are Vets and all of them are pretty good guys. The orientation is really good and they get into stuff that most companies never talk about. Like today we had a class on the realities of trucking and the family issues that can come with it. They talked about things the driver really needs to consider as far as making sure things go as smoothly as possible. I'm sure being an Army wife you guys have been through some of those sort of lectures. Most of what we work on is trip planing, load securement and tarping. You'll hear a very few folks here and there complain about it being so easy to be kicked out of orientation. We started with 23 and are down to 17 today. A couple left because they realized flatbedding just wasn't for them. The rest were sent home for completely legitimate reasons. The ones they sent home they even gave a bus ticket.