Maverick Transportation Review by Anonymous, January 17, 2009

• Pay
• Benefits
• Home Time
• Mileage
• Equipment
• Respect
• Overall Rating

I can speak from experience that in most cases Maverick can get someone into orientation a lot faster if they already have their CDL rather than someone going to their school. I was on the waiting list for their school and went ahead and got my CDL on my own instead. Once I had the CDL in hand, I was able to get right in to orientation. Got it on a Thursday and could have started the following Sunday, but chose to hold off a week to clean some things up at home first. The problem is that they only take so many people each week. They do not take just anybody and they have no problem sending people back home if they don’t fit the bill. Give them a call and they’ll let you know how soon they can get you in. Maverick pays based upon HHG miles, but personally I look for them to go to practical miles soon. However, I’ve talked to a few drivers who work for other companies paying practical miles and they’ve told me it’s not a tremendous difference in paid miles anyway. Also, you may ask for the routing, but it is not forced. Their goal is to keep Out of Route miles under 10%. I usually follow the quickest route and not necessarily the shortest. They way I see it, if the shortest route takes you across pig-trails that take you an hour longer because of all of the stop lights and small towns are you making more money than you would’ve if you went out of route 50 miles on the Interstate and got their an hour earlier? Absolutely not. The faster I get there and get unloaded, the faster I get the next dispatch and get down the road to make more money. What do I care if I was paid for 2800 miles and I drove 3000? If I took the slower route I would still only be paid for the same miles and possibly less because I may not get there in time for the next dispatch. nStudents are governed at 65 mph for the first 3 months and then the truck is raised to 70. I haven’t found this to be an issue either as very few states allow trucks to run 70 mph. In 4 weeks I have averaged 2750 miles and that includes one week where I only got 2200 because they gave me an extra day at home for Easter weekend. My average pay has been right at $1000/week will only go up once I get the 4 cpm raise in October. Also, I could average higher miles, but I would probably have to give up hometime to do it. I usually get home Friday afternoon and leave out either Sunday evening or Monday morning. This past week I had 2752 paid miles and $40 tarp pay for a total of $1003.20. I left the house Monday morning around 6 AM and I got home last night around 8 PM. Would have been home around 5, but the customer in Detroit decided to have me sit around for 5 hours before unloading me yesterday morning. It’s all in what you make of it. The opportunity is definitely there!