Experience with YRC ( includes YRC, New Penn, USF Reddaway and Holland

Hey ACH I remember you saying while ago you worked at 123... I took this picture last night leaving work, #### scabs still pulling into the parking lot coming to take our freight, this woman driving for crust looked like some creepy gremlin, barely able to see over the steering wheel.

 

LOL was she pulling out or trying to back in?

reminds me of a couple years ago at a CRST team of lady drivers pulled up and couldn't back into a simple dock after about 40 minutes a driver from another company jumped in and backed it in for them on the first try... Pretty scary...

 

She was pulling in, but had to back up so she could turn right and swing a u-turn at the other side of the parking lot to allow her to get back out onto main road and head towards truck entrance of terminal. If you look closely the tractor is missing one of the wind fairings on the side... Tells me she's gotten into a pickle a few times prior. LOL bunch of idiots I tell you

 

So yrc is allowing non union companies to haul yrc freight?

 

That would be correct, we're so short handed in the city... We've been giving away at least 150 bills a week to cartage. On top of full loads going to Schneider, CRST and Covenant Transport daily.

 

Well been at YRC now since 7/2 as a casual dockworker. As of yesterday I got my Class A permit with all endorsements and signed up for driver training program. I'll do 6 hours training 5 days a week since I have the afternoon job I need to be at with fedex. Union steward had mentioned "hopefully" there will be no layoffs by the time I get put on ft city/dock. Another worker mentioned the same thing to me a few weeks ago. Going into October I guess freight slows down and being at the bottom I would be put on call if let go. The bigger issue for the most part, drop in pay back to what I earn now as a casual 11.90 and would have to work 3 shifts a week to maintain the health insurance if I had it. As for the YRC environment, well night and day compared to what I am used to at fedex and what I was doing with Sysco. Really laid back, nice but feels a weird if I'm being honest. It takes a good hour for role call to even complete and everyone to get assignments. Than there are the breaks every 2 hours which is cool cuz as long as you stay busy on the dock the 8 hours goes pretty quick. The steward did say that for road drivers there isn't any layoffs, I could choose when I pass my driving test what side I would like to work on. He mentioned however that even though road drivers can make more money that it can be hard for them to get the assignments if you're a brand new driver. A lot of the experienced guys who go out don't want to go with new drivers longer distances.

 

Just my opinion and suggestion. Run the city/dock if you don't want to live by the phone like the new guys running the road. Running the road as a rookie is tough because you literally have no schedule and live basically on call. If you want Monday-Friday, work the city. Fortunately for me I'm at a break bulk terminal and we only have about 25 guys on the city list... And we're not combo with dock either, so it's really not hard to get 4 days a week minimum when it's slow. Unless you're on a bid like I am then I don't have to worry about walking.

 

What terminal you work at JRB? I'm thinking city and than staying with the pt fedex job for awhile unless another opportunity comes my way that would give me the hours. I'm still seeing how things work around yrc and trying to get used to it. A lot of very helpful people on the dock and when the work does start most of them get in a zone and are quite impressive at how they can unload/load the trailers. Most of them there 20+ years, a lot of overtime lately if they want it, they even offer extra shifts to me usually.

 

If you can tough it out with YRC in 3.5 years when the contract gets reworked could be a good pay raise at least min the 15% will come back. Make close to what most LTL's make and have a laid back work environment. All together YRC + regionals made 57 million this quarter. The best OD is at 73 million. We're not that far off.

 

That's what I'm gonna shoot for. Once put on I will likely be midnights and weekends which is fine and I can stay at fedex pt too for awhile. From what I see and hear a lot of the ot goes to the midnight shift when the freight is backed up. Union steward says the average age at our terminal is 56. Like he said, a lot of these employees will be retiring within 5 years, so I wouldn't have to be on the bottom bottom for too long.