truck driver

driver manager

night manager

driver

apprentice

May Trucking Company

May is a great place to start your new career. They hire felons!  Wich is good news because it is very tough to find a company who does in this industry. They hire with 0 experience also but you must have a CDL first. You also have to pass a skills test, wich is not a big deal. They will have you attempt a few maneuvers before you leave with your mentor wich you won’t have to preform perfectly and then when you come back they have you do them again and you will have to do them perfectly that time. But they aren’t hard. It’s a 45 degrees backing maneuver, and then come out of it and put it in another slot that is 45 degrees, then they’ll have you back it in between two trailers on their yard. Remember to GOAL (get out and look).  Then they’ll have you go around the terminal a few miles on the road.  You only train with your mentor on the road for as long as it takes to get the job down. It’s average about 2-3 weeks.  I was able to solo-out in about 1 week or so.  So if you put your mind and will towards it, you can get it down no problem. They have full benefits here, health, dental, 401k and pto. Everyone in the company is very nice and has a great attitude. They keep you rolling pretty good so you are rarely sitting for too long. You’ll average about 2300-2500 miles per week.   Once you’ve been with the company for a while they start throwing you some longer runs here and there. They are very fair with pay. They pay all miles loaded or empty city to city miles. They pay detention as well. OTR support is very quick about fixing any issues with the truck or trailer while on the road 24/7. They pay for a hotel if the truck needs to be put into the shop. They also have 24/7 dispatch, so you don’t have to wait on your driver manager until they get to work in the morning if you need something. They are very good about getting you home on time. But, you are only allowed one day off per every week you are out. You are required to stay out 4 weeks at a time or longer. If you stay out longer, you can only get 4 days off. 4 days off is the max. They will get you home sooner if needed for like dr’s appointments, or special events. They are pretty laid back at May. As long as you know what you’re doing and the load is on time, they don’t micro manage you. The trucks are governed at 61 MPH wich is kind of disappointing. They have a whole fleet of freightliner cascadias. And they are all automatic (wich is disappointing also). They are very hard to control in tight spaces. They allow passengers and pets.  Pets require a $600 deposit. And a passenger will cost you $25 per month.  You can also become a mentor here and make .10 cents per mile on top of your pay while you are training entry level drivers (ELD’s). They use QUALCOMM for messaging, load info, and logs. Loads are mostly refrigerated foodstuffs, some dry loads, and even some HAZMAT loads if you have a HAZMAT endorsment on your license (they don’t pay more if you have a HAZMAT endorsment btw)  The refrigerated trailers are 13’6” tall, and the dry vans are 14” tall both 53’ trailers. Dry vans don’t have air ride and you have to pull a handle for the locks on the tandems. Refrigerated trailers are air ride and have a button to pull out to release the locks on the tandems. Some of the older dry vans have duals, but everything else, including the tractors, have super single tires.  You will start off with late night/early morning appt times (12am-4am) until you can prove yourself and move up. At least that’s how it went with me. But it’s like that everywhere you go. You always start out as the low man on the totem pole. And once you’ve worked your way up don’t be surprised if you get a few of those appointment times here and there. That’s just the way refridgerated loads are. You start at .35 cents with 0 experience. In 6 months they give you a penny. In a year you’ll get .39 cents I think. They will give you a raise periodically after that.  And you can make up to .50 cents here at May.   .50 cents is the max.

May Trucking Company (MTC) is an excellent company to work for. The senior management seems to genuinely care about treating their drivers well, even implementing a minimum pay scale to protect drivers from dropping below a certain income due to occasional low miles, while still paying them extra when they earn more based on their mileage rate. What's more, they were willing to give me a chance as an inexperienced student driver when most other companies won't even consider it. In fact, their orientation and training status pay beats everyone else I've investigated, including companies much larger than MTC. 

However, after saying all that, I had a terrible mentoring experience where I was made to feel stupid and incompetent for not already knowing what I was supposed to be learning, everything from using the Qualcom ELD to navigating correct routes (though the mentor never once included me in the route planning process) to safely backing. He seemed to think that I should pick up on all these concepts either by osmosis or after one perfunctory explanation. Isn't it the mentor's responsibility to teach these things using as much repetition as needed? Yet, he taught me very little, and his condescending tone when answering my questions or his frequent prefatory statement, "I've already told you this ten times," (an exaggeration, to be sure) quickly discouraged me from asking any more questions than I felt absolutely necessary to accomplish the job safely. On top of that, he kept asking if I was rethinking becoming a truck driver. I got the distinct and strong impression he felt I was unsuited for the job and that he was doing all he could to discourage and weed me out. His poor instructional method and obvious impatience with my inexperience demonstrates that he has no business whatsoever training new student drivers. 

Even after surviving that ordeal, though my self-confidence took a serious hit, I thought I had mastered everything well enough to have been permitted to solo and begin my trucking career. Nevertheless, the Safety Director would not approve me for solo because he felt my offset and 90 degree backing skills were inadequate, despite the fact that, on my final attempt, I successfully backed the trailer into the allotted space without touching ANY of the barrels or cones. I admit I needed to improve my set-up for backing, but I was doing as well as or better than numerous others I had witnessed at truck stops, including one returning MTC driver who went through orientation with me and knocked over and even dragged multiple barrels on the practice course. Furthermore, when I mentioned this incident to my mentor driver, he admitted that he had mentored that driver, too! 

I was told after two separate attempts to solo on two consecutive days that I would have to practice more before being approved. I was sent home to wait for a call from the OCM who, I expected, would assign a different mentor and allow me to go back out OTR and practice some more. However, after nearly a week without a call and after noting a shortage in my previous week's pay, I called to follow up. It was only then that I learned from the OCM that he had decided to release me from employment to go practice backing elsewhere (WITHIOUT any income, of course!) and then I could return whenever I was ready. I quickly got the impression they just didn't want me working for MTC, so I sought employment with another trucking company. 

During orientation when I asked how long mentor driver training would last, I was told, "As long as it takes." That was a good answer, but it turned out not to be true. I don't want these three very negative experiences to discredit the entire company, but they are the sole reason I chose not to rate MTC with 5 stars. I can still recommend MTC for new and experienced drivers alike, but I certainly hope you have a better student driver training experience than I did.

There is zero reason to drive for May unless you are brand new out of trucking school and need a job to gain some experience with. They have one of the lowest pay scales in the industry and will run you until you collapse, get sick, or your girlfriend leaves you.

They micromanage everything you do. They plan your route, they plan your fuel stops, they'll even make you drive an hour off-route to a Pilot that's out of your way just so they can save a penny per gallon. They use plastic automated Freightliners exclusively, which are governed at a mind-numbing 61 MPH. You read that right. You want to make miles? Well too bad, your governed truck is the slowest thing on the road and it doesn't matter anyway, because May pays drivers a very low daily rate, so forget about CPM; it doesn't matter if you drove 500 miles that day or 50, your paycheck will always be embarrassing.

The management says they care, but to them you're just a slave, another anonymous driver they expect to quit in less than 6 months. May moves cheap freight for anyone they can, which means they drive you hard and give you nothing in return. I've had 2 days at home in the last 6 weeks and they called that "excessive." All their terminals are garbage, mostly small dirt lots with next to no driver facilities. Want to bobtail to dinner away from the truck stop like a real person? Too bad, May has a zero-bobtail policy. So get used to Denny's and Iron Skillet, because that's all you'll have when you park for your truck stop imprisonment for the night.

For the amount of hours spent away from home, actual driving, and all the other duties associated with the job, the compensation equals out to about $3.75 an hour, since technically you're always on duty, always in the truck, always on call. Some of the driver managers are okay, but most are just office drones who have no clue what you're dealing with out on the road unless it's in their computer program. I had violent food poisoning for 3 days, like puking up stomach lining bad, and their only reaction was, "Well can you get to the appointment on time?"

A buddy I graduated trucking school with went with Sw**t since they paid for his schooling, and he's driving a manual Kenworth, a real truck, and is governed at 68. We drive similar distances and he's making twice what I make, and he's been home twice as often as I have. He plans his own fuel stops into his route and doesn't have to deal with any of the redundancies I do, like having to call in for every single load, which is great when you're trying to hurry and no one is answering their phone. Or even better, when the internet and phone in their derelict buildings go down, which happens all. the. time.

Do yourself a favor, and don't listen to the recruiters whose job it is is to blow smoke up your nose. Unless you like driving a glorified RV for slave wages, do some research, talk to real drivers from several companies, and then decide. A couple hours spent at a truck stop talking to the guys who do this day in and day out will open your eyes to the cruel nature of this godforsaken business.

So I want to give a honest review as a new driver for May Trucking. They have pro's and con's, but for a starter company they are ok. I have spoken to may drivers and here's the conclusion I have came up with. 

Pro
As a new driver you will be busy. Most weeks you will come close to maxing or your clocks. 
Their training process can be a blessing or a curse. Some it's smooth and some its drawn out.
Equipment is in decent shape. 

Cons, and it's a long list. 
The driver trainers have a massive ego. They tend to be rude to the students and treat them like they should know all this already. They are brought in with no experience but we should be experts in 4 days? 
Alot of drivers tend to just sit. There are some days I have seen at their main terminal 50+ drivers just sitting and idling waiting for a load. Some have been sitting there for over a week. I feel like this is down to too many new drivers they add every week. Now they are over staffed. 
The pay...... where do i begin with that. Yes the minimum day pay is nice, if you get it. Some dm's will actual fight you about paying you the minimum day pay. Your told all thru the process that if your sitting ready to be dispatched, unless your on home time, and don't have a load for that day you will get the minimum. But that's not the case. 
If you break it down pay wise over the 70 hours your allowed a week is less than minimum wage. 
When you speak to the recruiter you are told western 11 is 2 weeks out, 2 days at home and 48 is 3 weeks out 3 days at home. Then you find out from your dm that's not the case. They want you working almost a month straight before any time off. Some drivers are ok with this, but some drivers who actually have a family and want to see them this is very difficult for them. If they had loads that went in their home area it would make things easier to spend some time at home on their 10's or even their 34's.
The driver managers are where they need the biggest improvement. They speak to you like your an idiot and have no idea what your taking about. The few I have spoken to just the way they have spoken to me has been so disrespectful. Good luck getting ahold of them. 95% of the time you can call them and they won't answer. Even if you leave voice mails they won't call you back. Even if you send them a message it could be upwards of 2 hours before you get a response. For a industry that's so based around hours per day this is extremely frustrating. I can't count how many hours I have lost time waiting for my dm to get back to me. 
They tell you no slip seating but when you ask for home time after a month on the road if it's more than a couple days they threaten you with removing you from your truck and giving it to someone else. 

My overall opinion is get your experience and get out. It's not a career type company, it's basically a school that pays you to work there. The dm's if your new and inexperienced will run you hard and tell you your not doing enough. 

Came for the non-discriminatory pet policy (I have a German Shepherd), the fact that they would hire me as a rookie out of school, and the pay scale considering (flat day rate plus mileage and safety bonuses)
Got in my year, left and will hopefully never look back. Not a bad company, but many older drivers say it’s not what it used to be.

Very safety minded, you are the captain. Training was adequate. Equipment was new and well maintained BUT I couldn’t stand those obnoxious safety features. Now that I’ve driven for companies who have trucks that have some of the features turned off (like that stupid blind spot moniter) I can 100% say that was a huge cause of my stress.
But they hire rookies and insurance companies are a bunch of bloodsucking vultures, so it is what it is.

Very good with hometime, even got me to Montana often even though I don’t even live there (just have family). Most companies won’t even touch Montana.

Day pay and bonuses were nice, and good stable way to get paid starting out as opposed to straight cpm. Sometimes miles can be hard to come by though, almost seems like they “starve you out” so to speak when you’re getting close to hitting your bonus. Wouldn’t recommend staying here longer than a year or two. Good place to get your sea legs, but once you’re experienced they just don’t pay you what you’re worth.

This is a Company that thrives off new drivers. Pay is below avg. This company practices cronyism and nepotism. If you know someone within, you will thrive otherwise you will have to brown-nose your way through and if not you will be on a doodoo list. I Have seen driver trainers with only 2 months exp.  teach student drivers when they themselves are still green. If you can do paperwork , logs and understand hos you can train someone . I was at may for 2 years to allow my self to get enough exp. For a better job as many higher paying jobs  req. at least 2 years. In those 2 years I ran mostly 48 states. When my child was about to be born ( aprox.1 year and 6 mo in with may) they worked with me and had me running the same route from phx to California which I greatly appreciate. In that time running the route from az to ca I encountered many drivers who were considered may veterans or  "lifers" with 5 years ++ but also many new drivers who were assigned that route which was odd because usually there is a waiting list(as I was told when I requested that route 1 year in with may) and it's supposed to be by seniority as to who gets the route. Aside from the lifers these other drivers had between 1 - 6 months driving exp.It Turns out the new drivers  were either related to someone within the co.  or in good with the terminal. At my 2 year mark I decided to leave for a better job. I learned alot from this company I learned how the industry sees drivers and how it works. Appreciated my time here. Could've been waaaay better but dont regret it.

They pay for the flight, ubers, hotel and lunches when they take you to their training course. They are professional and everyone you will encounter in management or as instructor were drivers themselves. Maybe I got lucky, but I was well taken care of, and appreciated that they don't just throw you in the meat grinder. If you need extra time, they will give it.

Their trucks are oldest 3 years and are well maintained and in good condition. Anytime I had a maintenance issue I can get in touch with someone in 15 minutes to get it fixed.

They have like 11 company terminals that you can park for the night with showers, and laundry machines. Also if you need to go to the store you can check out a Van for an hour.

They are very forgiving and understanding of new drivers and the mistakes they make. Never was I reprimanded or punished for my mistakes, but I haven't crashed into anything yet. 

If you are doing the 48 states, they will do their best to get you home when you want to. I have never been declined my time off that I've requested at least. The pay isn't the best from what I've heard but I've gotten a raise every 3 months and the perks of the amenities and over all chill atmosphere make it worth it to me.  You get a daily pay starting at 125$ a day. So if you get stuck at a shipper for 6 hours at least you got paid something and didn't get entirely screwed over as much by your milage being wasted. Also if you want to train people, your pay goes up a lot. After 6 months if you're clearly comfortable you can start mentoring other drivers.

After trucking school you have to work somewhere to get experience. May Trucking is the best of all of the bad choices, but view it as a stepping stone to a real job.

Working for May is an effective way to get the necessary experience; it's an apprenticeship that also provides some walk-around money.

THE GOOD: the equipment is very good, with the exception of their old 5000-series dry trailers. (Those are beginning to get replaced with new Hyundais) You will be driving a nearly new tractor.

They are very patient with newbie mistakes. That's good, because you WILL run into stuff and make costly errors. They won't ever fire you unless you lie, cheat or steal.

Their money is good; they're not going out of business anytime soon.
They are very good about getting you home on time.

THE BAD: The Ops staff treat Drivers like children. They can be rude, especially when you dare ask a simple question.

The May Planners couldn't plan a bowel movement if they tried.
Be prepared to sit and sit and then get a preplan that is hours old that you will be late delivering. It's always the Driver's fault. 

There are some real nitwits in the Safety Department. You will encounter them. They are very annoying.

BOTTOM LINE: You can do a lot worse (C.R. England, Swift, Western Express) but you are only staying there for a year; no more and no less.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Starter Company . Minimum at wages for most

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Driving over snow &  icy mountain passes hauling over 75,000 lbs of frozen foods or dry bulk  for minimum wage. Always stressing about when am i going to finally get the time in and leave

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Work environment is ok. Way i looked at it was . If ur going to low ball my salary then dont slap me in the face on top of that by being disrespectful. U could b pushin for months at a time over the road. Get bac to home terminal walk in an office to ask  a simple ?? Then run into an attitude because the person is sittin at thier DESK looking at a computer screen stuffing thier face with a cupcake doing nuthing and dont want to b bothered

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Its 24 hours a day 7 days a week of contemplating the fact that u spent all that time training and spending money to get a commercial drivers license . U havent been home in 2 months . Then u realize u should have just kept that warehouse job because u went home every night had the weekends off AND made 2 to 4hundred dollars more a week net. Depressing like why did i do this

Where do I begin.. Basically, if your not family or have someone in your family that works here forget making it very far for very long. They are drama, they will talk bad about you, and make sure you fail. They have a bunch of lazy driver managers who do whatever they want all day except take calls or do any work remotely close to their job, but its okay because they are all family and drink outside of work etc. But believe me if your new they will run you like a slave making sure your working even tho again nobody else is.  They are okay with people invading people's privacy, as long as they are family it's okay. They have driver managers that show up high all the time but they don't care because they know they won't be randomly tested as stated in the job description. They only randomly test drivers. I constantly feel like I am walking on eggshells to try and do my job and make sure I am not upsetting anyone. You should also hear the way everyone talks to each other, cussing at each other, making your mom jokes, no respect what so ever is given. This location needs cleaned up for sure. If we make a mistake we get called out and put on blast. I am afraid to mess up or even to keep asking questions. Anyway just be careful and make sure you stay quiet or it will be used against you.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Truck driver 206 salaries reported	$51.26 per hour
Driver manager 2 salaries reported	$22.00 per hour
Night manager 5 salaries reported	$18.50 per hour
Driver 15 salaries reported	$22.70 per hour
Apprentice 6 salaries reported	$19.67 per hour

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