TMC Transportation Or Annette Holdings Lied to me about how much I would make, made next to nothing, destroyed my career Des Moines Iowa

 I was a a new graduate of a reputable CDL training school. I reviewed many recruiters during my training and TMC really stuck with me. When they sent me an acceptance letter I was naturally delighted. I was told I was to attend a 2 week orientation which was "training". Then I would be home precisely 2 weeks later to meet my trainer. No other stipulations or requirements were mentioned. I arrived on a Sunday night after driving with another orientee all day. Monday morning we are up bright and early to start. This is where the silly begins.... I am looked over from head to toe like a horse at an auction. Every mark on my body questioned and documented. When questioned as to why we have to do another physical we are all informed that our DOT long forms are junk. After we are taken to a truck with a large coil in which we are to perform a test in which we have not been trained with the tarp. Now mind you it's nearly 100 degrees and we are required to lift the tarp as the "physical therapist" says to. My hands were sweaty in my second lift and the tarp slipped out of my hand. There ya go. End of orientation. Physical therapist says pack your stuff. SERIOUSLY?!? Not allowed to sweat? I passed up another job for this? I spent money for food for 2 weeks and traveled 900 miles for THIS? One slip!?!? What happen to TRAINING? I was put on a greyhound, leaving $125 in food behind because I couldn't transport it on the bus, and sat on a bus for 28 hours home. No compensation for my time or travel. I literally passed up another great company with a great reputation for THAT crap. My family suffered because of this company. THIS is the real truth on how TMC treats people.

I am a former employee of TMC. I wish the "former" wasn't part of that statement.

When I started out in the trucking industry, I weighed my options of the different companies out there and chose as wisely as I could given my limited knowledge of the industry.

Fresh out of training school, I was somewhat limited as to what my choices were but, there are a lot of companies that do hire out of school. I had never heard of TMC until a recruiter came and spoke to us while I was still in school. They sounded great, and I immediately began looking into the company.

I took almost 2 months deciding where I should go, and what company I would best fit in with. Of course, I also wanted to be somewhere I could make as much money as possible.

Finally, I decided to give TMC a try. They were straight up with me from the beginning, and I liked that. I chose, after orientation, to go with the percentage pay program instead of the mileage pay.

At first, the money wasn't there. It took me several months to find my "groove", once I did, I began making 900 dollars a week, consistantly. I was home every weekend, in the nicest company truck I have ever seen. (At the time they had Freightliners) they were just begining to get in a few Peterbilts then.

My mistake was that I fell for an owner operator's BS about how good it would be to quit my job and came to drive for him. He was getting too old and sick to drive his own truck anymore. Since he only drove east to west, I thought it would be a great learning experience for me.

I quit TMC for a job with no benefits, the pay wasn't any better, and when I came home, I had to chase the guy all over the place, just to get my pay. It's a long story...

If I had of stayed at TMC, I would have had a nice Pete to drive, retirement, good pay, good insurance, and I could have been home most every weekend. I'm married now and could sure use a job like that.

If you didn't make money at TMC, after being there that long, it's no one's fault but your own.

I was in York S.C. one morning, after picking up a load of skidded coils in Indiana the day before. There was a Maverick driver waiting in front of me and I got out and talked to him.

Come to find out, he had the exact same load as I did, picked it up at the same place, and was delivering to the same location as me.

We got to talking about how much we were getting paid for the load, he was mileage pay, I was percentage.

I was surprised to hear that I was getting 50 dollars more than he was!! For the same, exact load! Not to mention, I was driving a nicer truck...

I'm sorry you couldn't make it at TMC, in a way, were similar in our stories about our experiences there. We both screwed ourselves!

Good luck in the future.

Ok. Lets be honest here.  To start with I currently work for TMC and have been for almost a year.  Since I am a fairly new driver my memory of Orientation and Training are still fresh in my mind.  To start with consider yourself fortunate to have recieved $500 for orientation.  i only recieved $350 per week(2 weeks).  But thats minor.  I knew going in what the pay would be.  You say they stuffed 6 of you in a rental to go home in.  I can tell you I remember clearly they never put more than 4 people in a car in my orientation class which turned out close to 30 drivers.  You talk about trainers and having to travel a whole 3.5 hours to meet them.  Hello!! Do you know what business you are in? You're a truck driver for crying out loud.  I had to drive over 300 miles and stay in a hotel for 3 weeks with my trainer.  No complaints though.  The goal is to get in a truck. Right? EZ pass.  Dont know about that but I do have the I pass and I dont pay a nickel for it. Accepted everywhere ez pass is.  Comcheck for orientation pay and you're complaining for having to pay the pilot?  Take it to your bank and you wont have that problem. $135 for a 2 day haul.  I havent seen that yet.  The least I made on a load was around $100.  But that was a one day load.  And its rare.  And that was also when I first started (23%).  Im now at 28. There are other holes I could punch in your statement too but I will end on this note.  The thing that stood out with TMC is that they pay by performance.  Im not saying things are perfect because there are some things they do that I dont agree with either, but its not my company.  And no company is perfect, in any industry.  I was tired of going into a job and someone like you is working beside me who thinks he is "entitled" to recieve more money simply because of his tenure, regardless of his performance.  Meanwhile I'm turning out 2x the production he is and getting less money and why? Because he's been working there longer than me.  Not at TMC bro.  If you're looking for a company to pay you simply because you show up.  And increase your pay if you keep showing up regardless of performance I think you picked the wrong company.  By the way I have no problem grossing between 900-1300/week depending if I stay out, but I work to get it.No free rides bro. Safe travels to you.

I used to work for TMC, they are not as good as they claim ( no company is ) but to answer a question on the recruiter's- yes they do promise these miles, several of the drivers that were there when i was all got the same tell.  We were able to confront our recruiter's and they all said that frieght had dropped since we were invited to come to orientation.  TMC has to many rules to make it to 2850 miles a week.  You have to pay your own tolls ( cash advance mind you if they route you this way, if not they will route you 50 to 80 miles out of your way and say this is the best route so they don't blow money on a toll. )  I know what i am saying, they did it to me several times to try and slow me down.  I got points for drivin 10.5 hrs straight through one time, boy did i get chewed up for that.  They said i could not do that and i laughed, wrong thing to do.  TMC has a point system- 20 points in a month anything above that and your fired.  No joke!  Log book-there is fun in it's self with them.  Their system will put you in the sleeper everytime you stop for more than 10 minutes and they want you to log it that way.  This company is trying to slow the driver down to keep the frieght up and to get more per mile from companies in saying that there is not enough driver's.  TMC haul's frieght for near nothing to try and cut the rest of industry, bad rep on the road and to keep the driver from earning what he need's to survive.  Careful they will report false info on your DAC to.

I am a trucker and trainer myself, 22 years experience. I am planning to apply to TMC for a driving position since I am moving to Mo. soon. If they have people like you working there I will fit right in. Good rebuttal. Dave

Okay, I'd say you're stretching the facts here. I have been with TMC for almost 15 years now. I work directly with the training and recruiting departments. First of all I see the confidential critiques (as in we don't ask for the participants name and the sheets are not collected individually) that are completed each week at the end of the orientation program and the very first two questions deal with the inside and field recruiters specifically. NOBODY in the recruiting department is telling guys they will bring home $1,100-$1,300 a week. You forgot to mention that not only are our recruiters longtime employees, but they also sit about 20 feet down the hall from the orientation classrooms. Wouldn't take long for a few of them to get a mouthful from a disgruntled driver if they were telling tall tales like that, would it?

As far as the pay, it doesn't cost $30 to cash a comchek. Also, each and every single new hire is faxed an orientation checklist outlining just about everything conceivable you would need to know. Matter of fact if you go to the tmctrainingcenters web site anyone can view this checklist for themselves. No secrets there!

As far as driving to meet a trainer.....did you know that over 80% of our trainees have a trainer within 150 miles of where they live? Not bad considering the vast size of the U.S., huh? If we had a trainer closer to you we would have provided one. It was YOUR choice to committ to driving 3.5 hours to meet a trainer. The other option would have been to have the trainer pick you up, but obviously the trade-off would have been the lack of hometime during training. Can't please everyone all the time.

A test on the qualcom each week?? No idea what that would be. I've been involved in the training program since 95. Never has been anything like that. There is a very brief weekly progress eval that you and your trainer would have completed. Nothing even remotely humiliating about that.

The certification program you referenced to.....It is a program designed around performance. Low performers make lower pay and higher performers make higher pay. You're measured on out of route (your ability to do proper tripplanning), mpg, revenue, safety, etc.

Has TMC let some drivers go recently? Absolutely! Show me a trucking company who isn't right now. Look, does a fleet manager just call a guy up out of the clear blue sky and say, "you're fired!"? Of course not. You have no idea how big of a financial drain a training department is on a truck line. It is MASSIVE. That means we do everything we possibly can to retain a driver. If you were told you were let go because of performance issues, then I can GUARANTEE you that you these areas of concern were addressed with you multiple times. Not just in warnings, but also invitations to guidance and instruction on how to improve yourself and to set goals for success. I've been involved with trucking most of my life and honestly I can say that very few truck lines will go to the extent TMC does to help ensure a driver's success. Remember that certification program? The better you perform and the more money you make, the better off TMC is. It is a win-win proposition.

The bottom line is that everyone is taking a hard look at their low performers and those who choose not to improve by proxy are also choosing to find themselves unemployed. I wish no ill well towards you and I hope you do find happiness elsewhere, but do not vent your frustrations to others by stretching the truth.

Good luck!