Melton vs central oregon?

What's important to you? Pay, hometime. Where do you live?

 

@RedRover

 

What do you think of TMC?

 

I work for Central Oregon. They require one year of driving experience but train people who are new to flatbed. They use shock cord instead of bungees for tarping loads, which in my experience thus far knocks half the time off of tarping. Both companies pay 50 to tarp the load. So I guess that’s where I’d say the companies diverge... Melton has a lot more drivers. COTC also has a brokerage, so we literally do not wait for a load. If you wait an hour to be dispatched after getting empty, they give you 100 dollars on the spot.

COTC pays a minimum guarantee of 4300 the first month and 4250 thereafter. They pay a minimum of 10,000 miles per month. Full COMPANY PAID benefits from day 1. Vacation pay starts accruing from day 1. I ran 12,000 miles my first month. So far I’m on track to do 13 this month and I’m on my way back home to Texas from Las Vegas as we speak. My load delivers in Corpus Christi 8am on the 13th. My home time is scheduled for 4pm in Dallas. They make it a priority to get you home if you give them notice. And if there’s an emergency, they will even fly you home if they can’t get you there.

Trucks governed at 65. APU. Inverter. Newer ones have refrigerators. They speak to you on a first name basis. 2018 best workplace experience for small carriers and 5 consecutive years best fleets to drive for.

I can’t even do them justice right now because I’m out of my head with the flu. I’m leaving a lot out. One thing that is made clear in orientation is that safety is absolutely their number one priority. Not wasting your time is priority number two. Everyone in that office is there to make your experience better and when someone leaves, for any reason, they do an exit interview and an assessment of what they could have done better. But that doesn’t happen much. The turnover is at about 10%. When you’re in orientation, I’d encourage you to ask the few drivers around the terminal if it’s all smoke and mirrors. You’ll think it’s a cult, rather than a trucking company, because you won’t hear a single negative word spoken by one of our drivers. Not about pay, not about miles, not about how they are treated. At the end of orientation, the entire executive staff have a huge catered breakfast and you can interview them. I was already convinced by that point, so I asked questions about how they keep companies like landstar from double brokering their loads and that sort of thing.

The pay may scare you, because it looks low. But to put that to bed, I made 6200 last month before bonuses. I made 270 just for being on time 100%... another 400 in fuel bonuses... another 400 for no safety violations and another 400 for hitting the top mileage tier.

I wasn’t even close to the best paid driver. There was a guy who drove 16,000 miles last month. On elogs. At 65mph. They will run the dog #### out of you. And you do get pay increases for experience... but make no mistake, your pay is performance based. A brand new driver who manages their time, is never late, watches their speed and gets decent fuel mileage is going to make more than an average driver with 30 years experience. If you come to work, the planners know how hours of service work and they can plan you down to the last minute. Nobody there is asleep at the wheel.

Obviously you can see which place I’d suggest.

The only way I am leaving is when I get another truck and my operating authority. Even then I’d deal with their brokers, because I do believe I’ve one the one completely honest trucking company out there.

 

I've heard from a number of FB drivers that Central Oregon is a great company to work for and they pay very well. I pass them every day on the I-5 and they always have new clean rigs. If I was a company driver and drove FB I'd be there too.

 

Want to stay west? COTC.

You’ll see a lot of eastern freight here at Melton, even if you live out west.