1 Year Anniversary - Michael's Dedicated Marten Job

There haven't been many Marten drivers here over the years so I will give an update on our son Michael's job at Marten. He started at Marten on 3/29/2021 (orientation for first two days, I think). He drives a on a dedicated Nestle account pulling a reefer , mostly between northern California and Utah and southern California but sometimes to Idaho and Oregon and Washington (only a few times and not too much recently. He sometimes pulls other loads, as needed when other fleets have a pressing need. Prior to that he drove for CR England for seven months.

He is on a schedule of 12 days on, 2 days off. He came home about noon last Wednesday and left Saturday morning at about 0500. For his first 52 weeks he grossed $77,857.

He started out at for the first six months at 49 CPM plus 2 CPM "premium pay" (getting deliveries on time, no refused loads, not taking more than two days off every two weeks). At six months that increased to 52 CPM plus 9 CPM premium pay and then two months later it increased to 54 CPM plus 9 CPM premium pay (that was probably a company-wide raise, he doesn't know). His guaranteed weekly pay started out at $1,175 and after six months increased to $1,425. His gross pay for the first 14 months of 2022 has averaged $1,640.24, so he is on a pace to earn $85,292 for 2022. He does not seem to push hard and there are sometimes long waits because of picking up a load, driving 750 miles, and a delivery time of more than 48 hours after he picked it up. He does get paid detention pay for bad weather and excessive waits at a receiver even if he is clocked out as off duty not driving (got paid $250 for a seven hour wait a few weeks ago). Marten had said in a newsletter that they charge the customers a penalty for these long waits and they share that with their drivers (FWIW).

Overall, Michael seems extremely happy with this job and still says he "loves it". I thought he might get bored after a while but he likes the routine. Since we have safe parking on our farm he is allowed to bring his tractor home when he is on home time. He has a dog with him to keep him company. He had to wait a couple of months until his truck had 150,000 miles on it as Marten does not allow a dog on trucks newer than that. He drives a Kenworth T680 and likes it.

He gets along very well with his manager, she sometimes refers to him as "hon" (honey). When she calls when he is on home time I overhear some calls and he seems to make things flexible for her (he told her yesterday he was okay with getting out of the house at whatever time she wanted that he would make it work).

Michael is 24 and admits that he doesn't care too much about the money but he understands when we tell him that someday he will appreciate that he is doing well.

Great milestone for Michael. At 24 years old many college grads would envy that income level. Tell him to keep up the great work!

To each their own. About 10 years ago the FMCSA announced that they were considering implementing sleep apnea requirements to the DOT physical. Ultimately, they decided that it was too problematic to implement universal standards. Unfortunately, some companies decided to implement their own sleep apnea standards. Most abandoned these standards after the FMCSA decided not to implement a sleep apnea standard. Sadly, Marten has their standards to this day.

As part of their hiring process you will be asked to go to a clinic and do some simple exercises (ie lift a milk crate filled with weights up to a shelf about shoulder level). At some point the evaluator will measure your neck diameter with a tape. If your neck is 17" or greater you will be flagged. What does that mean? You will be given a release to sign authorizing a sleep clinic in Mondrovi, WI to have access to all of your medical records. You will be given a sleep apnea self-assessment questionnaire to fill out. After working for Marten for ~6 weeks you will be given a bus ticket to go to Mondrovi Wisconsin for a mandatory sleep study. Your choices are go to Mondrovi or be terminated based solely on the size of your neck. Note: Marten's headquarters are in Mondrovi, WI. There, you will be diagnosed with sleep apnea. Whether you have sleep apnea or not is beside the point. At a minimum you will be diagnosed with mild sleep apnea and required to use a CPAP machine. Many drivers have reported being diagnosed with mild sleep apnea in Mondrovi only to find their personal physician or a local sleep center said they did not have sleep apnea.

Marten will generously pay for your Greyhound ticket to and from the sleep center in Mondrovi, you hotel stay, your, "sleep study" and your CPAP machine BUT if you choose to leave their employment within 5 years for any reason the amounts paid (about $10K) become immediately due and payable.

Congrats to you, and Michael, proud papa!

I've counted the hubby's milestones throughout the years, too!! .. now, kicking 'my' kids in directions of their choosing, as well. Who knows, the youngest may 'still' opt this route...he's not old enough yet. Dabbling in 'college' classes; we shall see!

Always enjoyed chatting and the updates!! (Good for you, Michael!!! )

KUDOS, FROM OHIO!

~ Anne & Tom ~

ps: High Fives to Linda, as well! The 'trucker mom/wife' has a part in this too, ya know ?!?

Congratulations

Congratulations Michael.

Michael called this morning to say he had survived his first drive with snow chains, lol.

Michael had a slow unload in San Jose, CA start at about 0200 yesterday and another slow unload in Tracy, CA at 1100 and then grabbed another load to head east out of California over the mountains to Utah. If it wasn't for his slow unloads, he would have made it over the mountains easily. He stopped for night at a fairly low elevation when he ran out of hours. He got up at about 0240 this morning to continue but didn't get far before chain controls started. Marten doesn't want him driving with chains if at all possible but he would have had to put on chains just to get turned around to go back to where he had left. Took him 89 minutes to go 34 miles. He had called after hours dispatch and they said they could not tell him to drive with chains but to use his best judgement. He said his DM was pretty alarmed when she came on duty just because of heavy emphasis on safety but she was okay with it after they talked. Up to this point, Michael had only installed chains twice, once in school with CRE in Loredo, TX when it was over 100F and then again last fall when at home to make sure he had everything he needed. Michael is usually pretty critical of how things operate here in California but he said that CalTrans had the chain areas set up very well and that everything worked out well except he was slow at installing and he needed some different gloves. His winter gloves were too awkward and he used his fueling gloves which got soaked.

He should get detention pay for the two slow unloads as well as inclement weather pay but he mostly seemed excited about the experience of getting through a new challenge.

Weather has been strange here, we had some very warm weather and then things cooled down. We had some frost around here Tuesday morning though not bad at our place but only 3-4 miles away I saw this morning hundreds of acres of vineyards were severely burned back by the frost. This is the latest frost I can think of for over 50 years. My mom was raised in North Dakota and a friend showed me the crazy weather he had yesterday (travel shut down across the state) so this is nice weather for shorts for some of you, I know.

Hopefully, he has a couple 2x4s to roll onto, with his inside wheels, to make chain installation wayyyy easier lol

Harvey why do you think Michael’s driver leader reacted with alarm?

I seriously doubt Marten’s Safety management would have approved of him chaining up to advance his load. I know of no reputable company that condones chain use for any purpose other than getting to a safe place to park and shut down.

I have a lot more to say regarding this... I doubt you’ll like any of it.

It’s time. Michael really needs to develop his own relationship within this forum... had he reached out to us, the overwhelming majority of us would have advised him to shut down or take an alternate route around the weather. Assuming he crossed mountains (guessing Sierras), he got very lucky.

There were no chain requirements when he left the rest stop and the requirements went in place while he was driving. There are no places to stop at the top of the Sierra-Nevada, all trucks were chaining up. The next area to stop was beyond the chain control area.

The reason Marten has chains supplied is for the reason Michael used them, he got into an area unexpectedly. Weather forecast called for less than an inch of snow and he said that there was maybe an inch on the road.

One of the members here drives from Modesto to Reno daily and chains up frequently, sometimes twice since he is a day driver making it a round-trip.