Question:
A recruiter came in to class today from Central Refrigerated Service. What a waste of an hour of our time !! Says its a private Co owned by the CEO of Swift. Guy explained what a great deal 8CPM per diem is to THE DRIVERS LOL....That they'll do a 5 year lease @ $600.00 a week..then the driver can BUY THE TRUCK OUT !!! ...That 84CPM plus fuel surcharge will enable the driver to GROSS $100,000 !!! Went on to say that because they haul FOOD the drivers get LOTS OF MILES...Gee lets see- 27CPM with a years experience vs say 36CPM with a years experience with Martin. Gee doesn't Martin haul FOOD too ? Or how about Shaffer @ 38cpm... Lets see 3500 X 27CPM=s $945.....2500 X 38CPM=s $950 ....OHH I FORGOT- ITS ABOUT THE MILES !!!!!!!! P.S He claimes turnover rate for experianced drivers is like 18% and only 6% for O/Os...

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Good thing you were wearing your hip waders. Sounds like the shiat was getting deep.


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Glad you saw through the BS cause it looks like this dude was laying it on pretty thick. But like ole' BT Barnum said, there's a lease-purchase operator born every minute. And that's one whopper of a boneheaded move when you lease a truck from the same company you haul for. An O/O can haul stakes at any time, but try that when the company holds the note on that specked-out "dream truck" the driver leased with $0.00 down and $0.00 equity left over. Keep your eye on the moving shell folks, now you see it now you don't...

Yep, the average length of haul tends to be longer with reefers. What the snake-oil salesman convientently left out was that at the end of your run, there won't be a nice drop-and-hook waiting for you. Nope, there'll be a food warehouse which means lots and lots (and LOTS) of sitting around at the dock dealing with cranky people in the wee hours of the morning. Then there's lumpers, who are like the Morloks from that movie The Time Machine whizzing around on motorized pallets. What, you're really gonna charge me $300.00 to break down 10 pallets?!?!

Probably more like 180% and 60%.

I'm a newbie driver myself, and it didn't take me long to figure the score out here. Seems like you're already ahead of the ballgame by a long-shot. Most of these cowboys never figure it out.
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One good thing about Martin is the driver is paid $12.00 per hour after 2 hrs waiting time(which of course they charge the shipper) I believe this practice cuts down on wait time. More companys should follow this practice IMHO

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Do you have experience with Martin or Just repeating what the recruiter told you?

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I see what you are getting at- I sure WISH I worked for them....this is from a driver at Martin:"I do not know much about Trans Am in terms of how good they are to their
drivers, but I personally love working for Marten. How much you may make
will depend a lot on your personal desires, but for an average driver
with 1 year experience (36 cents per mile as of April 1st) who does only
10,000 miles a month, plus several easily obtainable bonuses, you would
make a minumum of $46,000. This would go up in time with more experience
and/or if more miles were run. We run all 48 states, with the heaviest
volume of freight being in the Midwest, Southeast, and West coast. The
waiting time is very limited in terms of waiting between loads. You are
almost always preplanned on another load the day before your current
load delivers. The exception is when you are due home, they may wait
until the next morning to find the best load to get you home. As for
waiting at customers to load/unload, all our customers have a maximum of
2 hours to load/unload. After this time, the customer is charged
detention and the driver is paid $12.00 per hour for the wait. Most
customers try to avoid the detention, so they get you out of there
within 2 hours. We have professional, friendly fleet managers working
here. Anyone who doesn't get along with them is likely the one who has
the problem getting along with people. They have shown to be real pros,
just as Randy Marten demands they be."
Actually a reqruiter pointed out that the figues may be a little off because of driver time off etc. -allthough isn't it possible to average 10,000 miles a month and still get home time ?

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He makes good use of a calculator. But he makes makes poor use of experience and realities.
Sounds like a driver recruiter and a company recruiter to me. It also sounds like some very inflated numbers and a lump of BS thrown in.
At least one thing is for sure. You haven't a clue of what it is like to work at either Martin, Trans Am or Joe Blows trucking company. Giving advice and telling of all the great benefits about companies you don't have one clue about is a little crazy and should be taken with less than a grain of salt. Right now your simply hoping what you have been told is true. Maybe come back in a year and let us know. Meanwhile seeking advice is good. Giving it is bad.

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I would tell that driver he is so full of crap he couldn't see straight. His philosophy, if you dont get along your a misfit and it's all your fault. The company or manager couldn't be at fault, nope, it is all the driver.
It also sounds like quite a few people dont get along with their wonderful managers. It's also a good reason I would never work there. I dont live in a perfect world.

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At least one thing is for sure. You haven't a clue of what it is like to work at either Martin, Trans Am or Joe Blows trucking company. Giving advice and telling of all the great benefits about companies you don't have one clue about is a little crazy and should be taken with less than a grain of salt. Right now your simply hoping what you have been told is true. Maybe come back in a year and let us know. Meanwhile seeking advice is good. Giving it is bad.
_________________
I agree- thank-you for pointing this out to me. nuff said

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No way. Marten is a reefer outfit which means you'll be going into alot of food warehouses. And as any driver will tell you, food warehouses are notorious for detention time. I think the average time I spend at a food warehouse is about 6 hours. And that doesn't include the time it takes to washout the trailer and swap pallets around (which they don't pay you for).
So you wait 6 hours at a dock, you're only gonna get paid 4 because you give 2 hours to the company and the food warehouse out of the kindness of your heart. $48.00 / 6 = $8.00 per hour. No thanks.
That's why I stick with dry-van. Alot more drop-and-hook after the big guns in the ATA got together and started charging detention. But food warehouses are a different animal altogether. The stuff has to be unloaded, broken down, counted, stacked, verified, checked, and God knows what else.
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Why pull a refer when a dry van pays te same and is much less work and waiting.202 N Main Street
Summerfield Il 62289
TRUCK PARKING AVAILABLE!

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Actually I was comparing Central with 2 other reefer outfits. I understand the waiting time etc and realize it is a shortcoming of reefers. Unfortunately untill I get some experiance under my belt my options are more limited.

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I don't understand why you feel that you have to pull a reefer. Plenty of dry-van companies out there that will hire you with little or no experience. Reefers are way too much hassle with no extra pay to compensate for all the BS you have to put up with. And trust me, there's more than enough BS to go around out here already.
Heck, I don't even have a year in yanking a dry-van around and better deals are starting to come my way. Right now, I got an offer with Coca-Cola on the table if I want it. Local job, hourly pay, Teamsters...the works. Only problem is lugging that stew up and down staircases on a hand-cart doesn't sit so well with my back. But hell, maybe I'll give it a try.
Then there's a yard-jockey position at Georgia-Pacific. $12.00 an hour to start, paid lunch breaks, overtime after 40. Wait....let me repeat that...PAID lunch breaks. Heh, paid to eat, what a novel idea!!!! Weekends free to toss back pitchers and chase skirt around while the supertruckers are parked on a ramp somewhere trying to catch some z's for that 0500 appointment on Saturday.
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There are more dry van jobs available to new drivers then refer jobs.
Many of the refer companies will try to paint a nice picture. Because they pay less to about the same as dry van and do much more work and waiting.
Also, always ask what the drop and hook ratio is. The more drop and hook the better.
Also, check to see if they have a lumper policy. Some companies do not want the drivers to unload trucks. Workmens comp is to high. They will pay 300 bucks to roll off 24 pallets. Others want the driver to unload and will only pay for a lumper when they "have" to be hired. Dosn;t matter if it has to be broken down 50 ways.
In refer, you will learn the lumper biz pretty fast.202 N Main Street
Summerfield Il 62289
TRUCK PARKING AVAILABLE!

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What are you guys talking about. The most fun you can have is in a reefer. I've attended more than one very early morning grocery wharehouses truckers rodeo. Aint nothing quite like it when the gates open at 4am and every truck wants to get into to one of the few available parking spots so they can wait a few hours for a dock. I also enjoyed many a rodeo at local farmers markets. It's a blast playing dodge the box truck while your setting up to back into a hole made for a pickup truck.