Your Thoughs on working for ABF

Wait, what? What does that mean?

Does that mean the crusty old goats with the most seniority don't look at noobs like they are Joe Biden at a gun and knife show?
Because sometimes I get that feeling. It's not cool.

 

working the dock- Moving product from A trailer to floor- Floor - to B trailer. anything in between using forklift/pallets/dunage/boogers/sweat/hand jacks and blood.

AKA moving inbound product to outbound. or just let product sit for days and no one has clue where it goes lol

A union is between a female and male.

 

Senior guys helped a noob to wipe his nose

 

Don't forget to mention you are transgender Asian/African/Italian and need a special restroom.

 

I run linehaul for ABF. With ABF you don't have to start off on docks to run linehaul. If you apply for linehaul and get hired then you're linehaul. We have had dock/city drivers transfer to linehaul, but it's not required.

As far as having no experience, I know ABF will hire and train for dock/city, but never heard of them training for linehaul. You may want to get clarification on that.

To answer you're question between unions and non-unions. At ABF we have a contract with ABF, that contract details what and how we get paid. The rules that ABF and the union must abide by. It also details how our healthcare and pension is paid and how much.
And that contract is legal binding. Non-union companies don't have such contracts.

Being vested means after 5 years you are guaranteed the pension you have built up to that point. If you leave ABF for whatever reason before your fifth year anniversary, you get no pension.
Now the employee pays nothing for the pension, but ABF pays $7.72 per hour you work into pension.

 

The least to worry is lifting. pushing /pulling for P&D will get you spooked if scared about lifting for gravy dock. then figuring out your real estate on the trailer. learn as you go. hence seniors wipe your nose. ( Trainers )

ABF they treat you as a veteran. Not a fresh off the boat hehehehehee I can barely speak english mega carrier driver

 

you dont need any experience to be hired with ABF. They will put you in driving school for a few weeks, BUT you will have a contract having to work for them for 2 years or you have to pay them back. I rejected the job at the time when I heard that. Line-haul you have to be 25 which you are so thats clear.

If your a road driver for ABF you wont have to touch the dock but will most likely need to move a converter dolley around and they tend to be heavy. If you take a city or p/d position then you would have to work the dock, which consists of using a forklift 95% of the time. Also with P/D some customers wont help you ad you would have to move that heavy pallet with a manual pallet jack by yourself, especially for residentials. Dont mean to scare you but ive done this, hence why I stopped doing P/D and went Line-haul.

I have worked both non-union and union and will say one thing... if I have the choice I would never work non-union again. The good non-union companys have the cons, but also treat the drivers well enough they dont try to get the union in. With the union you also always have someone fighting for your job if you make a mistake, and unless your completely mess up you have a chance to get your job back. Theres a lot more perks to it and if you want to know more message me... dont want to turn this into a non-u vs u thread lol.

Yes ABF took a 7% pay cut for this contract. BUT they they are getting a small % back every year over the next five years, so by the end of the contract you will be at regular rate. To be honest I wouldve went to ABF if they were hiring by me, but were only for P/D. I can never find Road driver positions through them.

 

At my terminal. The Line haul driver sat in the break room. Did nothing, but complain about his toys was also our Union Rep.
Never touched the dolly or Did a PM lol. But he did work his butt off at the dock at the next destination.

Every location is different.
Everyone helped out and knew how to work a forklift/pallet jack, no matter of seniority.