Mr. City Driver

P&D jobs are usually easier to get and pay by the hour. It's normal 9-5 for the most part since you're dealing with the customers. Line is usually night shift and paid by the mile. Typically it pays a bit better and are more exclusive positions but it's tough to generalize. P&D is fast paced go-go-go all over town not unlike a UPS package car driver, but not quite that frantic. Line is more like a day in the life of an OTR driver except you don't sleep in the truck. All interstate. Scales, logbooks, all that.

 

If you have issues or problems with night driving, perhaps you may want to go into a different line of work altogether, give up on the idea of driving any commercial vehicles altogether. Many companies require night driving regardless of whether they are trucks, buses, limousines, or taxi cabs. It could very well be that you are NOT cut out to drive for a living.

God bless every American and their families! God bless the U.S.A.!

 

Are you for real. I hope you have experience to be giving advice like that

 

Granted, I only have experience with one LTL carrier and it's P & D operation, but it is NOT anywhere close to a 9-5 job, figure a 10 hour day minimum and you won't be disappointed, this is trucking, not banking. Yes, you are home every night, for what that's sometimes worth, enough to get your 10 & sometimes with your commute included in that 10, then back at it. My wife currently works for the same LTL that I did and she gets 52-55 hours per week. Many LTLs do not pay overtime right away either, at my former one it took 3 years to get to top rate and OT. As far as bid runs, my wife bids an area, currently she's running Holly, Waterford, Pontiac, etc., MI out of Toledo, OH, but that doesn't mean that she ONLY runs that area, it depends upon the freight. I don't know what other LTLs do, but I would imagine a similar scenario. I guess like any job in this industry, it's what one makes of it. Some like humping freight, dealing with traffic and annoying customers, some don't. Keep in mind, running LTL, you will share a truck and you may have to slip seat as well. Generally though, P & D isn't hard work, physically, unless you're driving a straight truck or pulling a lift gate trailer & even then it's still not that hard. The pay is pretty good, not as much as line haul, but decent, my wife is making $20.95/hr with her Class B. Tractor trailer P & D drivers there are at $22.85/hr. When I ran line haul I averaged @$28/hr, but I had enough seniority to run 600 miles a night with no BS (stopping at other terminals, deliveries, etc.) attached so I could roll out to my relay point, switch trailers and get back to the yard, not all the line haul runs paid that well, but overall the line haul side averaged @$25/hr.

How is someone who doesn't like to drive at night deal with the winter time when it gets dark by 5:00 p.m.?

 

I am NOT the first person to suggest that the OP look for a different line of work due to his issues or problems with night driving. If anything, it makes a whole lot of sense. Also, I have never driven professionally. However, I have spent years working graveyard shifts. Quite often I had to be outside in poorly lit areas. If one's night vision is poor to non-existent, one should NOT be driving for a living. It is a matter of both health and safety.

God bless every American and their families! God bless the U.S.A.!

 

Yea with P/D I was averaging 10-14 hours a night. On line-haul now I still average that, sometimes less. I like working at night better as there are less idiots n the road. I have thought of returning to school as well, but would take online classes this way Im not rushing to get to class.

Also I like line-haul better as I dont have to deal with customers all day... Plus being the bottom man expect a lot of time with a straight truck or liftgate trailer and inside deliveries. Once you get senority you will have easier days.

I was on day linehaul for 4 months... I HATED IT. I finally got a night shift, getting about 150 more miles as well. I guess im just a night person though, been working nights since I was 18

 

There is absolutely NO SUCH THING as Daytime specific--even at a full blown Teamster LTL barn and YOU are senior man--with local bids(and there are #### few of them)Please tell me in the Dead of winter when days are barely 8 hours long--How you would NOT be driving at night at some point?
And if YOU aren't comfortable w/normal night driving--just wait till you have 2-3-4more pick ups to make--during rush hour--after dark--aint like jus runnin down the road after dark--traffic and the places you have to get into doing local P&D can get real exciting--then add a little weather--and if you have already been workin 7-8-9hours that day--Ive done LTL all my life--and it IS much more than you may think.especially as the new guy at a freight company..there is PLENTY that goes on all hours of day and night
I hope you find what you are looking for---Best of luck

 

I work the morning dock, and have a lot of 'juniority', so my days start between 4 and 5 AM. Average day is dock until 9 or 10, then leave the terminal with 12-ish deliveries, start picking up around 2 or 3, get back to terminal by 5 or 6. I don't have a specific run (juniority again), and our company has no formal bidding system. Some days its the easy industrial/commerce park areas, some days it's downtown, some days its a really goofy run based on guaranteed delivery times. Occasionally, when the freight is slow, I'll work the dock all day.

I am home every night, and average 55-60 hours/week.

I like being active--in and out of the truck all day. I like that the days fly by. I do enjoy working the dock too. I dislike sort and segregate, mall deliveries, Rent-A-Centers, and construction sites.