What's line haul training like?

not the answer to your question, but fellow food service here.

The first few months SUCKED for me. You don't know product, you don't know where you are going, everything breaks and you don't know how/why/what to fix/not fix.

About 3 months in it started to click and it wasn't just hard work trying to get thru the day. (and I got the same route two weeks in a row, that was an eye opener) You start learning where to go, where to stop, what products etc. How to load the two wheeler (convertibles suck, get rid of that POS and only lift the stuff ONCE), how to make it go and not having to think about everything.

I'm 7 months in and it's really starting to click. Big loads (1400/1500 cases on a truck) don't bother me nearly as bad. Oh sure, the warehouse people are still stupid, but I feel I can work thru it and still stay on schedule. I recognize product at a glance (and we do a LOT of different chains out of my warehouse, makes it hard) and really without running just working at a usual pace I can put in 200/250 cases an hour on a two wheeler. (easy)

It will click, stay with it. Give it at least 3 months.

I won't lie, there were days where I literally had to go sit in the trailer for a few minutes to decide if I was going to stay employed that day or not. (and sometimes it's a good thing I was 500 miles from home).

Plus, remember, they are short drivers (everyone is), you can always be employed tomorrow.

One guy I rode with told me something interesting. The job isn't driving the truck and it isn't delivering food. The job is emptying the trailer. Once the trailer is empty you can go home. So you just keep plugging away to get the trailer empty and get it done so you can go home.

HTH

 

i did nite line haul years ago and there were a lota things i really liked about it ..good pay , good benefits , regular route , friends and little traffic .
the things i just couldnt deal with were my sleep being jacked up the first nite back to work fighting to stay awake or if i stayed on the daytime sleep pattern on my days off had to listen to my wife at the time complaining .
but if your a nite owl and dont have a witch for a wife go for it !

 

oh yeah, one more thing. About the new year I figured out that it's all about seniority. Doesn't matter how hard you work, how good of a job you do, the guy with more seniority is going to get choice before you. So, until you move up the list, there's no real point in killing yourself. The point is simply to survive.

I started pushing back. Before then I worked A LOT. At one point I worked for 21 straight days (rolling hours). I made money but not great money because the routes sucked and until you've been there a year you don't make 100% of rate. So, about January I started saying "no, can't do it". I'm on the extra board, so I have no assigned routes necessarily so saying no isn't a refusal. I only work 5 days now (and one of those I"m home by 10am usually.). I make pretty good money (and one hard route pays extremely well and nobody wants it because it's hard) and I"m not getting unhappy and wanting to quit because I'm tired and doing tons of loads. And I"m moving up the board (well I will be when someone who's burnt out quits).

You can always say No if you're on the extra board. Remember, you can always be employed tomorrow, they still won't have anyone to drive the truck.

 

You wont be doing the same thing everyday running linehaul either.....at least not for a while. You're gonna be waiting by the phone for a year maybe more.

 

i work the xtra board and comps are so short of drivers you shouldnt be waiting for anything.xtra board is good money if you are a runner.

 

That all depends on how many extra board drivers there are and how many extra loads the company has. One can go broke on the extra board too runner or not.