truck driver

fleet manager

van driver

supply chain manager

software engineer

Marten Transport

I can tell you this is an honest and truthful assessment of working as a driver for Marten. First, the turnover is at least 100%, that in itself should tell you something. There is a fair amount of nepotism at Marten........which is bad. Family members work there based on who they know and not their qualifications. The recruiters are not very knowledgeable. They talk a good game.....and that's about it. They are under pressure to get trucks seated. When a recruiter refers to trailer seals as "straps" and the refrigerated trailer as a "freezer" that should tell you they don't have a clue.

I made it a point to talk to drivers that were quitting wholesale. More than a few said the recruiters were less than truthful. They were told they could pick what truck they could drive and the money they were supposed to make was not even close. Several drivers told me they were not making close to what they were told. New drivers were repeatedly assigned trucks that were broke down and waiting for repairs. Consequently, some sat around for days waiting for a truck. When they fire you, they will route you hundreds of miles and even thousands of miles to terminal that needs a truck. You are then on your own as to getting back to the terminal you were based at. There is no synergy here. No one works together. The shop, dispatch, management, dispatch............its a cluster f@#%. 

They run orientation and when the drivers are finished some are sent thousands of miles to other terminals to get a truck, without clothes or personal effects. Beware, when you quit, leave or are terminated your last check will be nothing and no one will tell you. Marten is like every other Truck load carrier, they are hurting for bodies. Consequently, they are continually lowering their qualifications. I believe its going down to 3 months. They hype a lot of benefits, but believe me, its all talk. Take the sliding pay scale, its a joke. You drive a truck, why wouldn't expect the same money for all miles driven. Don't be fooled. You will give a lot of your labor away for free. If you are courteous and give them two weeks notice, they take it personal and will dog you out. It is what it is. My advice to anyone considering working here is to walk, no run, in the opposite way. Are there worse trucking companies than Marten to work for? Yes indeed. You don't want to work for them either. But at the end of the day, stay away from Marten. 

Its a merry-go-round, constantly stopping and starting, with drivers coming and going. The mechanics in the shop joke about it constantly. They are tasked with cleaning out the trucks and getting them ready for the next crop of "suckers". Truthfully, most of the time the mechanics are cleaning out trucks, rather than working on them. In all fairness, if I can voice some for Marten, they are not alone. Its the way of the industry. There are much better choices, I would save myself the headache and look elsewhere.

Issues with the company from the start of my employment. Signed on as a Northeast regional driver and to be home weekly. On several occasions I ended up well outside my region, and it was always a problem getting me home. Sat for several hours at a time. At one point I delivered at 9a, and couldn't get my next load until approximately 10p (per my dispatch). Went to a nearby truck stop and sat for approximately 18 hours because also stated in my dispatch was the next load was to be picked up at 10p, but the trailers to be picked up would not to be loaded until between the hours of 11p-2a. Had I started my clock to get the load at 10p I would've wasted at least 4 hours of my clock just sitting. I've sat for anywhere from 10-20 hours either waiting to deliver or pick up. You don't get paid to sit and wait unless you are loaded and getting detention pay. They do not pay deadhead miles. I've driven over 300 miles at any given point empty. I sat at a delivery for 19.5 hours (including delivery time) as I arrived early, and was advised by my dispatch that they would contact the receiver and see if they could move the appointment to an earlier time since I was already there. Dispatch never contacted the receiver, and I just had to wait and extended amount of time to deliver a load. After all the times I was forced to sit to take an extra day off my dispatcher contacted me one day and blamed me for a load arriving late after I had taken an 11 hour break. I had taken an 11 hour break because I was close enough to the delivery to do so, and still left in time to arrive on time. Unfortunately I ran I to heavy traffic (accidents and construction) enroute to the delivery. In that instance they contacted the 1st stop receiver and requested the appointment time be pushed back an hour, and then it was delivered on time. They will put you on a bus/train to get you to orientation and hotel with your own room. If for ANY REASON you depart the company prior to working for 6 months they will take the money put out to get you to orientation out of your final check as reimbursement. If you do not return the tractor upon your departure from the company they will charge you $700 for the cost of the tow to obtain the truck.

Too much dispatch micromanagement at times, overzealous load assignments not workable in hours available on busy days, poor internal communication between departments, too much qualcomm spam, too much data collection at QC and fuel aisles, and very poor condition of Chicago Ridge drop yard make me inspired to seek friendlier shores.  Trucks are run to 500k miles before age-out and the mean-time between failures is too high above 300k, costing drivers too many work days sitting at Zionsville terminal, Thermoking, or a TA.  Zionsville terminal repair bays ate understaffed and overworked.  Hourly pay for intermodal fleet is ok but just below average for Chicago truckers per glassdoor.com.  Benefits are UHC and can be pricey -- lowest affordable deductible is @ $800 annual.  There are some good things about working here, $75 monthly safety bonus, $150 weekly 6th day bonus, $150 layover pay for bad weather shutdown (but rarely granted, even in -30F temps last vortex), and work is steady.  Dispatch mostly good about driver safety shutdown(fatigue, rest, etc.).  Not enough time off for a life unless you want to slip seat (which is nasty).  I think I would make a bit more in a .50CPM OTR job but only if the miles were there and steady.  It is a decent job to have if you are juat coming out of a truck school contract or have need for a semi-local job.  Marten currently runs 2800 trucks...terminals are nice unless you are a Chicago operator, no terminal here. They also forbid personal use of the tractor(obvious fuel waste) and could write you up for stopping to get resupplied even if you're on-route.  Intermodal is decent job for experienced drivers who are looking to avoid risk of owner-op and already established as suburbanites.

Right off the bat, you will be driving one of the slowest trucks on the road.
Trucks are governed at 65 (64 if you're being realistic)
Limited speed = Limited miles = Limited earning potential

My personal experience, plus the experience of a few others that I've talked to....
The truck I am assigned to was in a Marten operated shop and worked on by Marten employees.   While it was in the shop, one of the mechanics stole something of MINE from the truck.
I explained this to someone in the dispatch office and provided pictures and receipts of the exact thing that was stolen and thought it would be taken care of.
Instead, three weeks later I was handed a cheap version of what was stolen from me and on top of that it was damaged.

So should you decide to work for this company, it's advised that you either remove every single thing that you own from the truck while it's in their shop or set up cameras everywhere inside of the truck.

Some in the dispatch office will sit and argue with you that you have more than enough time to run a load to completion when you know for a fact that you don't have the hours.
If they hand you a load that requires 7 hours, and you only have 6 left on your clock some will attempt to tell you it can be done.
I have also been told a few times to use Personal Drive time to finish a load if I'm out of hours, though this hasn't happened in over a year.

I run out of the Walmart DC dedicated account, and while it's usually a fairly decent run most of the time there will be other times at certain stores where you might find yourself waiting outside for up to 30 minutes.  Rain, snow, shine or -25 degrees with 20mph winds.

Also, while I'm at home for a couple of days each week they'll occasionally let another driver use my assigned truck if they need one.  In multiple occasions these other drivers leave trash all over the truck, or spill their drinks on the dash or steering wheel and most of the time leave the truck almost completely out of fuel.

This over all is a good company. The 2 stars for Job security are there because of the CSA Scoring and the new rules from the DOT and FMCSA.  The most enjoyable part of the job was getting to see the country, and having rather easy to get along with dispatchers and driver managers.  After a year of hard work I got on a dedicated account I loved, then another local position opened up which still got the miles, and a chance that if I chose, I could have been home EVERY NIGHT. Took that account and loved it!

The only bad thing I can say is what lead to my dismissal from the company.  I was informed by safety that I should get the speeding tickets from my personal vehicle fought down to no points, then my job would not be affected.  Well come February 28th, I was called to the terminal in indianapolis to sign papers. When I got there on February 29, they were my dismissal papers and I was given 0 chance to fight for my job.  Their case was made, and I wasn't even given a chance to save my job (which I loved and would never do anything intentionally or unintentionally to damage our relationship.)  The director of safety was clearly not willing to listen to me and hear my side of the story. So that was the reason for the 1 star on management.  

It was the ill advice from the safety department I received that caused me to waste money on a lawyer to help me fight down the tickets, in the feeble attempt to keep a job that I absolutely loved.  Though I take full responsibility for the tickets that I received, that was my fault and not the fault of anyone else.

Also another ridiculous note, another reason I was let go was they found a ticket on my record that was misreported (wrong date and year) I put EVERYTHING down that I was aware of to the best of my knowledge, and inserted a statement of good faith, that there was in no way, shape,and/or form an attempt to mislead, or convey intentional misinformation. 

I started working for Martens Transport starting around The end of September 2014, and here's my experience as an OTR driver, the first few weeks were great! I averaged 3100 miles a week and went coast to coast, used to take loads from New Jersey to long Beach Cali, I used to average take home around $1600 a week, I was running like crazy I was happy, but all of sudden the freight dropped off the map! I would get bunch of 200 mile and 300 mile loads that didn't deliver the same day, ounce I was deadhead 200 miles to pick up a 15 mile load that took 8hrs to unload... The great thing about Marten is that they pay detention very quickly.. So every load get extra money ontop of that. Wether it's an extra 100 bucks or 10 bucks it's extra money for the load... Another issue I had was once Marten puts you in the North East your stuck there, ounce I was stuck there for almost 3 weeks... With a whole bunch of 200 mile and 300 mile loads.. My pay check was 600 to 500 bucks a week when that happen... And that sucked! Also Marten trailer equipment is brand new so you'll have very rare trailer issues, now the tractor is the problem, Marten gave me a truck that had an APU,which was great, but the truck had 460k and it was a raggedy frieghtliner 2010, that used to break down and have numerous safety issues... And they didn't want to give me a better, reliable truck, finally I couldn't take it no more, the OTR mileage wasn't there, the equipment was bad, and home time was suppose to be earned 1 day every 6, so I stayed out 10 weeks which at the least insured I have 5 days off... When it came time to have off, the Supervisor named Dan didn't want to allow me to take any leave, ontop of that he was very rude, very unprofessional, called me a liar on the phone and hung up... So what I've learned is Marten is a good company for regional only, OTR isn't a good at all...

Mega Carrier that has freight and will keep you busy depending on the account. 
Perdue Account is a good account however it depends on the dispatcher. 
First 2 months of working there it was great money was awesome and it seemed like the perfect job. 
They had that wow factor I have been in the industry only 5 years and I have seen the good bad and ugly in that short period of time. I would say their pay system is very good and they have great equipment like very good equipment my favorite thing about them. Their maintenance department is awesome especially the Colonial Heights VA terminal. Now night Dispatch and night Maintenance is horrible just plain bad dont expect much from them they really suck bad.
My only gripe with Marten is the inconsistency of pay and it's only because of the routes. Some pay awesome and some dont and with the wrong mix of the donts during the week your paycheck will disappoint you. However when the routes are good you have a high smile on your face at the end of the week. They Guarantee 1k a week as long as your available to run and if they dont have a load for you then they pay you for that day/night. 
Benefits are ok meaning sub/par but still better than my other previous company's. Forward facing cameras but no driver facing which is fine with me. Alot of night runs which I love and pre loaded drop and hooks. 
If you hate the smell of chicken then dont sign up for the Perdue account but I love it. 
Governed at 65mph and they reward you for safe driving with a bonus each month. 
Could be a long term career but for me it's a stepping stone to bigger dreams maybe 5 years I'll be here or maybe after 2 I'm gone either way I'd say better than most but not the best worth applying and seeing for yourself.

In my 10 months there I can say that the equipment was excellent. They have enough terminals to meet a drivers needs. Especially in ATL. They give you the red carpet treatment until you get your first load. I was first told that I couldn't switch from OTR to regional because of an out of state license, then as I was about to quit 6 month later, they changed their minds. Stating it was red tape and who gets credit for me being hired yada yada. From what I'm told the fleet managers are capped at how much detention they can pay so I got it about half the time. Two other drivers have said that they dropped theirs to $10 or $15. Even saying that, because I shut down at the customers still with hours left that I can not get paid, all macs were correct, everything done(geotrack bs). FM used to try and bully me often, talking to me like I was some degenerate  until I asked to speak with his manager or told him to send me a msg of what he was saying. Never understood how he kept a job there. All of them will call you while you sleep. Ultimately, I truly believe that this could be a driver friendly company if everyone that talks with the drivers was held accountable. Oh and don't be late. I was, once at 10 months. As the shipper was late loading me and they wanted to reroute me after I had shut down, about to go to sleep. I was givin the option to drive another hour to swap out a load with another driver and sleep at this drivers house( never met him ) or drive 2 hrs because of parking and hope to find a spot and not run out of time. Since they showed me little respect prior, I bucked. They then report the late on my dac and I was refused by a potential company because of it.  The next company that I went to work for was AWESOME. Amazingly, I made a little more and a whole lot less stressful,  but I decided to move.

A decent job for a newer driver (6 months- 2 years). Pay is decent with the minimum guarantee which you will get a decent amount as a regional driver as you do a lot of dink and dunk small mileage delivery’s. As they will beat into your head they have a extremely strict Red Light policy so this job is not for those who are not extremely careful, you will be fired with no warning, possibly hundreds of miles away from home as I was. The dispatcher you get when you start is great but the night and weekend dispatchers are powerless to help you in any meaningful way if anything happens after hours or on the weekend. But they do pay for layovers and delays, make sure to mention it to your fleet manager and they most likely will offer to pay you for inconveniences. The home time for regional will always be on the weekend, 48 hours from when you go off duty is when you get back on the truck to maintain your minimum pay. The shop from my experience is rushed and will not always fix your issue unless you pester them to do so. The entire time I worked there my steering wheel alignment was off and was never fixed. Be prepared to sit in line for the inspection lane for upwards of two hours once a month. The inspection itself is 45 minutes. Overall a decent company, but in my opinion if you were considering this job, consider the fact that you are one mistake of running/ rolling a red light away from a termination that will ruin the way your employment history looks in this industry. The rollover rate for this job is extremely high and you will often be left with 15-30 minutes on your 14 while only have traveling 300-400 miles. 

Marten is mainly full load over the road or traveling truck driver position, they have some local but mainly OTR positions. For a bigger Truck Company the experience over all was not bad. They equipment is new and well kept,pay is competitive benefits fairly good.  Trucking in general I think is more of a lifestyle and Over road  is different than local but both have there downsides . But trucking in general is for someone that wants to get into a career with 90 days or less training depending on the company and there willing to train it is a good way to make honest living if you have no lifestyle or family restrictions and compliant. Trucking can be a good job depending on the previous statement but there can be travel with long hours and it is hard to have a set schedule  with normal 40 hour work week or regular Lifestyle . So with that said I think someone living in Martens or any Carriers Terminal hiring area that gets cleared if the company has something you interested in and they are well balanced then you have to decide by what they have if it is your thing and the amount of availability the company allows and other hiring factors.  Like I referenced trucking by nature has high burn out rate and highly regulated . So if you can get compliant then the only thing I think any truck Carrier has to do is have different shifts and days on and off to make everyone stick around but there might be long days and travel. But overall Marten is fair and good regional Otr Carrier depending on you and your dispatch.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Truck driver 801 salaries reported	$1,539 per week
Fleet manager 1 salary reported	$43,000 per year
Van driver 1 salary reported	$82,300 per year
Supply chain manager 1 salary reported	$62,500 per year
Software engineer 1 salary reported	$103,927 per year

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