TransAm Trucking Reviews

Pros

Like any other company or relationship, in order to be successful, it's going to take a great deal of communication. Communication and patience is key.

Cons

You sign up for what's in the writing, if you don't communicate your concerns nothing is going to make sense.

Pros

No real pros in my experience

Cons

Want to waist your time with a company that can't communicate with their drivers? transam is the place for you! no safety features, no cameras in the trucks and you're not allowed to have your own, it's a fireable offense, they throw new drivers without no experience out on the road with no trainer and expect drivers to be successful, they pay new drivers coming on with less than a year below industry level pay and if your more experienced then you won't get the milage, waiting a days to get loaded or unloaded. They treat their drivers as numbers to run their freight as cheap as possible while they pocket the difference, dispatch takes hours to return your phone call, they expect you to learn everything out the gate and dispatch just gives you attitude if you are in need of help. Csa score is terrible as well that's why the trucks are only limited to 62 mph

Pros

Its a place to get started but a after you get your experience move on to something better

Cons

There are a lot of cons about the place they don't pay well they don't talk to the drivers and you can never get in touch with anybody you always have to leave a voicemail

Pros

They are a second chance company and will hire former felons with violent felonies. There are other companies close to their terminal so when you quit you don't have to go too far to start with your next company.

Cons

There are so many so bear with me as I list them. The pay is horrible - starting at 31 CPM for new drivers and those that have an accident or tickets. The trucks are governored at 62 mph some of the slowest trucks on the road. Driving 11 hours a day I never got more than 649 miles and that was driving hard with the minimum 30 minute break. Dispatch is horrible. Sometimes when you call in you may spend an hour on hold waiting to speak to a DM(driver manager or dispatch) The phone system malfunctions 90% of the time when it asks if you would like a call back and doesn't acknowledge your request for a call back so you must remain on hold. DMs will try to bully you and threaten you with service failures (which can lead to termination) for things beyond your control, including things approved by a different DM. DM will threaten you with a service failure if you refuse to operate in unsafe conditions, such as weather, fatigue, sick, etc. My new employer has a policy that "You are the captain of your ship." and it's against company policy for anyone to try to change your mind if you say you don't feel safe driving at the moment. Do not expect to be respected or valued by the office staff. Trip planners can be extremely slow to get you dispatched. One time it took them 6 hours to find me a load even though I could see loads within 45 miles on DAT One board. They had me deadhead 360 to pickup a load - they pay loaded or unloaded but it's poor management. They do not pay you when deadheading home. They had me deadhead 300 miles for hometime saying there were no outbound loads near my home. Their tractors are decently maintained but their trailers are horrible. In 3 weeks of my employment I encountered 5 trailers which the brakes were so far out of adjustment that I either took them in for service or put them out of service. Once loaded you couldn't slide the tandems because the trailer brakes would not hold the tandems and the tandems would roll freely with the trailer brakes set. The guy at Love's shop said he had to turn the brake adjustment 3 times as much as the typical trailer requiring brake service. Understand that if the DOT finds your equipment unsafe it goes against your DMR and the driver pays the fine. TransAm doesn't care about your CDL because they don't expect you to stay there that long. They can get your license so jacked up no company will be able to afford to insure you. Terminals are old and dingy. I would never shower at a TransAm terminal. No drivers lounge. They have a coin-operated laundrymat - my new employer has free washers and dryers and provide free laundry detergent too. They will not pay for a truck wash. They told us it will get washed when it rains. You are allowed one wash at a terminal each month, but they try to keep you away from a terminal, because they know all their drivers are on the verge of quitting. A female driver that I talk to daily told her DM that she was quitting and needed to be routed to a terminal to turn her truck in. On her way to the terminal she had to stop for her 10 hour reset. The next morning her truck wouldn't start - they turned her truck off and had the local Kenworth dealer impound it. I suspect that they will falsely report abandonment of equipment on her DMR. This past weekend I spoke to a driver that was leasing a truck from TransAm (not lease to purchase - you will never own it) This driver only had two months of total driving experience and they talked him into signing a lease. He told me he is making $200 a week after expenses. I've never met a leased operator that has seen more $700 on a weekly check. TransAm hopscotches from one truckstop to the next for the cheapest fuel so you will never earn free unlimited showers at any chain of truckstops. They told me it wasn't a problem for most of their drivers because they were not concerned with showering everyday. My new employer pays for every driver to have Diamond status at Love's regardless of how much fuel the individual driver buys from Love's so I'm guaranteed free showers and drink refills at Love's(coffee, cappuccino, tea, lemonade and sodas - that's a huge savings for a driver) Should I have I have to pay for a shower, my new employer will reimburse me up to $15 for each paid shower without limitation. I mention benefits provided by my new employer without naming them because I don't want you to mistakenly assume all trucking companies operate like TransAm. TransAm is one of the absolute worst trucking companies in an industry full of unscrupulous operators. There are a lot of good companies out there that will hire people with no experience, accidents, felony records, SAP drivers, etc. Do not lie to yourself that you must accept their behavior because some of the highest paying companies will not hire you. Independent recruiters can be awesome because they will know if you qualify for a particular company before you waste time applying. They can pre-qualify you before submitting your application to a company.

Pros

really none all no trust all calling back to back about your reffer

Cons

low pay lies about starting cpm

Pros

Nice trucks, not old ones

Cons

Very slow, out to long on road

Pros

Start driving solo after 7 days

Cons

Horrible driver dispatch with no consideration of drastic changes to when the driver can sleep. Additionally, mistakes in routing sent by planning will be in the wrong direction of the trip. The GPS and ELD malfunctions and will ask for tasks already completed or call out incorrectly upcoming turns. The company has no way to communicate with HR and plans on a high attrition rate. As a company driver you have forced dispatch and when it comes to time off you're told it's at the company's discretion. Most of orientation time is waiting for an opportunity to demonstrate you have some basic driving skills. This becomes problematic when you first dispatch because you have to learn as you go the different procedures and policies that need to be followed and if you need to call dispatch for guidance you're likely to wait 30 minutes to as long as an hour and a half before somebody might reach out to you. If the truck or trailer have maintenance issues while you're on the road you will be expected to wait at a repair station on your time without compensation to deal with it. It seems like most drivers try to ignore issues with the trailers passing the burden on to the next driver. In retrospect I wish I had not ignored the reviews. This company truly has no consideration for the drivers.

Pros

None, the company is a complete detriment to the trucking industry. Their reputation amongst drivers is at the lowest level of driver understanding and compassion.

Cons

Slave wages, lack of leadership, lack of driver understanding and compassion. Outdated tracking, dispatching, fueling, maintenance and pay software systems.

Pros

* If you like to learn independently then this is the company for you * They have some decent trucks * Average starter company, if you don't have any experience and don't want to be a mentor * They accept people from a variety of backgrounds and are very diverse I must say. *Put you in nice hotels during orientation and break down issues. * Pay for your flights to ensure you arrive at the terminal safe

Cons

* Dispatchers are unorganized *Lack of communication between dispatch and drivers * Trucks are new, but be prepared to be in the shop often * Dispatchers don't have direct lines and prefer to speak solely through Garmin(text) it's easy to misinterpret information when receiving five different emails back to back. * You are only as successful as your driver manager allows you to be * Some of the driver managers/ supervisors have a strong unprofessional approach.

Pros

Only pro is that their trucks are reliable

Cons

They don’t value their drivers AT ALL. They don’t invest in trainers for new cdl holders. Getting in contact with them when needed is a hassle. They don’t care about you as a driver or as a individual human being. They only care that their freight gets delivered on time. They give service failures for just about ANYTHING, even if there’s communication on their end. They’re always going to look for ways to pay you the least amount of money they can pay you for your HARD work.