Random LTL Rants (all are welcomed)

I don't blame you. As much as I enjoy working for FxF, the dockwork just burns me out eventually. I would love it if I could just do turns all night, raking in the money on all those drops and hooks. I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum now, averaging 580 miles a night, but running the bottom in the lane so I'm getting killed with delays at the hub and last-minute bs vias. I worked 69 hours in 5 days this week, which will also burn me out if that keeps up.

Something else that I've noticed is a lot of larger EOL centers seem to be cutting big mile runs (mostly meets) and instead sending that freight into the closest hub. It's absolutely crushing if you've been on a dock bid for years, patiently waiting, only for a bunch of great runs to get removed from the bid. Even if OD doesn't work out, you can come back to FxF without losing much.

 

FedEx could do so much better for themselves and their drivers if they really wanted to consider some big changes.

They need way more dock workers to start. If they can get hundreds of package handlers for Ground, there's no reason why they can't get dozens of freight handlers for $5+ more per hour.

They also need to blur the line between road and city, and potentially take steps toward allowing transfers with a temporary loss in seniority. This way it will hurt less when they have road drivers keep busy by running swaps, rails, and light P&D routes before/after their short road run. Any run under 150 miles each way should be a double turn and anything under 75 miles should be a triple turn (run priority breakers first, then direct loads, and then econ), whenever possible.

With these few steps, they could eliminate the driver shortage problem, get more use out of the trucks, and lower payroll costs on the dock.

 

Yeah but you know very well that not every driver is like you...every barn has that one (or ten) driver who will absolutely lose his mind if things don’t go his way.

 

I've worked for OD almost 4 years now at one of the Chicagoland terminals and have not touched the dock yet and do not plan on it. Here most Linehaul drivers don't work the dock, like they say" we pay drivers to drive."

 

I have 3 of "those" drivers. They BYITCH the loudest, and get what they want because they make it impossible to do anything if they don't' get what they want RIGHT ##### NOW.
To the point that I'm about ready to tell ONE of them that if he thinks he has such a great lock at another carrier (local fuel gig) he should go, NOW. He's caused so many head aches that when he walked off last time, he was told it was the last time he'd be brought back. For any reason. He thinks he untouchable, because he's the owners friend, and he's REALLY good at his job. He's also EXTREMELY talented at being an ###.

 

There's an electric jack coming down the liftgate at 30 seconds into the recruitment video. Does that mean a city driver bought that?