Adventures With Melton

Haven't posted to awful much here but I figured I would try to document my time with Melton Truck Lines since there is so little information about this company. When I first applied with Melton I was contacted by a recruiter that was very helpful and professional. There was a sense of honesty that I didn't get from many other recruiters. After I made a commitment with them I was contacted around twice a week just to check up and make sure everything was still ok or if I had any new questions. The week before orientation my bus ticket and hotel room was booked.

Yesterday, Sunday, I arrived here in Tulsa, OK for orientation. Melton put us up in the Wyndham Hotel. Very nice. much better than some of the roach motels I've heard some companies put folks in. The hotel provides shuttle service from the bus station and to and from the terminal. They also shuttle you around town, something like 5 or 10 mile radius. The hotel provides breakfast which was a sausage and egg burrito, fruit, juice and a honeybun. Not the greatest, but not to bad either.

Orientation started at 7am. Today was a good deal of paperwork, videos, physical and road test. The instructors are pretty good guys and seem to be upfront and honest about everything and tell it like it is. They definitely let you know what life will be like as a truck driver and don't gloss over anything. Lunch was provided, sandwich, chips and fruit. Was actually a pretty good sandwich. All we have to do is buy our own supper. On that note, I highly suggest the burrito truck that is near the hotel. Great food and good prices. I haven't looked at the restaurant in the hotel but another driver said he ate there and it wasn't all that great for what he paid.

Well, time for me to go relax and get ready for tomorrow. I'll try to keep up with this daily through orientation, not sure how often I will be able to post once I'm on the trainer's truck.

Day 2 down. Went over load securement and tarping. Just enough to familiarize us a bit, will be doing much more later in the week. Not to much else to add. We did lose a few guys though. So far we have lost 7, one voluntarily the rest for various legitimate issues. More classroom work tomorrow. Covering some CSA stuff, Smith system and other safety type stuff.

Check in tomorrow.

Where is that hotel? My wife is from that area.

Where is that hotel? My wife is from that area.

It's on E 41st St, near I-44,

We are glad you have started this thread. Right now, Melton looks like the one that fits us best at this moment. Hope you continue to like them and we look forward to hearing your adventures :)

Not much today, mostly class work. Logs, Smith system, trip planning. That sort of thing.

Tomorrow more load securement, tarping, and driving for those that need a little work.

I know I haven't checked in for the last few days, been fairly busy. Well, today we finished orientation. Got my Melton hat and waiting on a trainer to show up. The weekend was mostly working on load securement and tarping along with more paperwork and such. Then today we had a final exam which was basically doing a trip plan, but I can't go into to much detail on that.

We had 23 start and 11 finish. We lost 1 yesterday and 1 today. Both said they got calls about local jobs back home. The rest were for various things. From what I have heard it was all legitimate. Despite what you may hear nobody was let go just because one of the instructors didn't like them.

Not sure how often I will be able to check in once I hit the road but I will do my best.

Thanks for the update. Melton has said they are going to keep in touch with my husband until the first of the year when he can line up his orientation. Anxious to hear how it continues to go for you.

Just wondering how it is going Southernjourneyman. Hope you are enjoying your job/training so far. You logging a good bit of hours?

Haven't had much time to update since I've been on the truck. So far things have been going great. Getting a decent number of miles, around 2100 last week. Would have been a bit more for this week but we can't deliver the laid till Monday. So we've been sitting a couple miles up the road all weekend. I ended up with a good trainer. He doesn't cut no slack, but he's fair. Said if it was up to him I would get off early and get my own truck. Most of our runs have been southeast but this one brought us up to Kentucky. I'll update again when I can.