How's Everyone Doing in LTL Right Now?

Buddy in Houston works for ACT. He said the company has them down to 10hrs per day max. And he also said there dock is nowhere near as busy as it use to be. However another buddy that works at estes. Said that they are extremely busy. And he's getting all kinds of overtime.

 

I’ve been working about 6 hrs a night lately. Last week I did about 1500 miles total. Lowest amount of miles in a week for me in my driving career.

 

Estes can be random like that. My region is slow but I'm sure Estes in Albuquerque somewhere is crazy. Last I was there they couldn't get extra drivers to come that far. They had 12 sets on the yard needing to be moved.

 

Some wrinkles in the new partnership. It'll get ironed out eventually.

 

Hey guys.

Today marks my 3rd week of being unceremoniously layed off by Holland (Yellow). I literally grabbed what I could out of the house and made the difficult decision to leave my wife and kids behind and drove 32 hours straight from South Carolina to Montana with about 3 hours of sleep in the backseat of my small SUV in freezing temperatures.

I was hired on the spot as a driver for a farm doing local pickups and mainly deliveries of animal feed.

Cliff Notes:
Starts at $24, tops out at $30 hour (owners discretion) all straight pay with no time & half. 50 hours a week minimum, 60 hours standard, 70 hours encouraged, 80+ hours appreciated. Decent benefits, no logs, generous Christmas cash bonus, and half a cow for every employee.

Job is fairly easy. Workload is heavy but slow paced and stress free. You pick your own start time but are free to leave at 5 PM. There are no uniforms, name tags, or even time cards. You keep track of what time you came in and what time you left and turn this in every two weeks on an honor system.

Most of us stay well past 5 PM to work on our trucks in an enclosed heated shop. And yes, once all the engines are off, there usually is beer in the shop fridge to go around.

My first paycheck as an Aggy was nearly double than my best at Holland (albeit much longer hours), without any of the stress of my workflow chirping at me and balancing closing times and traffic.

Our equipment varies greatly. One day you could run Rocky Mountain pneumatic tankers or flatbed doubles, the next day you are in a pickup truck pulling a 20 ft gooseneck trailer.

Life is good. Not sure if or how I would go back to the old life. My plan is to fly back down and pick up my family in a month or two.

Hope everyone else is doing well.

 

Good for you man! Glad it’s working out.

 

Man you are the definition of a hustler and a go getter. I thought you were leaving them for good.

I wish you well. Be safe and stay warm!

 

You know, I am 39, and I've been in the workforce for 22 years. I've always knew where my next meal would come from and that the lights in the house would stay on.

So that Friday (Veterans Day out of all days) when I was told that that would be my last shift was a huge punch in the gut for me. I am a competent and confident driver that is well respected by my peers and management. This layoff came without warning or any form of severance. They willy nilly kicked ten of us to the curb with directions to the unemployment office so we could collect our $387/week benefits.

Quite a eye opening Sunday morning wakeup when you realize that next week's check is up to you to figure out cause Holland is don'e paying you.

But to your point... It was surreal waking up Thursday without a response from any of the job applications I put in, with my only option to go work for my brother-in-law's dad out in Montana. It sucks just walking out the door for a final time with your 4 year old kid waving at you, expecting me to come back before he goes to bed at 8. I made it all the way to Augusta Georgia (my delivery route for the past 3 years), looking off the interstate, passing by businesses I used to deliver to. And I was like "wtf am I doing out here? The sun is going down and I am out here 70 miles from home and I got everyone at home waiting on me". I almost spun around.

Once I got out of Augusta things started to look more foreign to me... That's when things got just a bit easier and the realization that "this was happening and there is no turning back " sank in.

This whole thing was a raw deal. I ended up using #3 of my 9 lives and landed on my feet once again. I do not wish any of this to happen to anyone reading this. And there are many of my colleagues that didn't fare as well as I did. It's one thing to screw up and get the boot. It's another to do everything right and unexpectedly get placed out of work.

If you are reading this and are just a TTR lurker that happens to be in the same boat as me; keep your head up. Things will seem hopeless and the sudden loss of a job are about as mentally tough as losing a family member or going through a divorce. But somewhere out there, there will be someone that needs you. And you may not have to drive all the way to Montana to find them.

Sorry for making this so long.