Random LTL Rants (all are welcomed)

Well, first week back into linehaul in training. I’m definitely liking it. Just cruising making $$$. I don’t see what all the bad hype was about Saia. Everyone is pretty chill. Yeah they are very safety orientated. They got cameras. Just can’t be an aggressive truck driver tailgating and swerving around traffic flipping everyone off and you’ll be fine. They are supposed to bring back Bluetooth I’m hearing. Also if you get caught on the cell they’ll give you a lot of chances. I’ve done two runs and the camera hasn’t set off. The new trucks have Bluetooth in the stereo system you can pair to. I’ve been pretty impressed honestly. Everyone’s been very cool a lot of people have been helpful. Plenty of work. Equipment is top notch. Just my honest opinion.

 

It seems like a lot of people have said Saia isn’t as bad as everyone says.

It’s like J.B. Hunt gets a bad wrap, but I’ve heard a lot of people say J B Hunt isn’t as bad as they have been made out to be.

 

Did everyone have a good Halloween?
I think I ended up giving out about 70 pieces of candy so that’s about 65-70 kids.

 

211 kids got candy before we ran out. Wife has one of those click counter things to keep track of them. Ran out about 10 minutes before 8:00. City set the time from 6:00 to 8:00.

Wife stayed home giving out candy, I took the daughter on a two hour walk around the neighborhood. All in all, a good evening.

 

From what I gathered during my initial job search, SAIA was such a good job that they sniffed at inexperience. One TM certainly sniffed at me pre-DFC's. Then the C-suite decided to install DFC's and get tough on minor lapses, now they aren't in a choosy position any longer. The next TM I met with welcomed me and took time to speak frankly with me about the DFC situation. At that time his small terminal had 3 current updated ads on Craigslist, which we also know as Desperation Point.

Terminal levels of management aren't happy about it because they lost nominally good drivers and because it's hard to meet service levels with not enough hands.

Observation from the past few weeks...
I've been in a position where I run a stretch of interstate, big engine, no fuel economy concerns or governing. Been passing every LTL's linehaul guys all day, it's 75/80 mph out here. The only LTL driver I've seen without hands on the wheel was a SAIA driver steering with elbows while doing something with his hands in front of the wheel. He wasn't veering like the FxG guys typically do even with hands on the wheel, he was running true as an engineer's ruler. He had apparently figured out how to deal with the DFC and the safety people. SAIA may yet get really good drivers, they'll be the stealthy adaptable ones.

 

I'll say this about saia I watch the job market pretty close and I haven't ever seen saia or dayton hiring in my area. Now old dominion, ups, FedEx, estes and abf do on occasion. Xpo, yrc and central have constant ads out. makes you wonder if they just have a good group of guys or they aren't expanding business or what.

 

SAIA and the other LTL's except Central only post on Craigslist out of desperation, it's not a good indicator of their needs except wen they're dying. This link shows 171 openings, 2 in St Louis, both linehaul ads so maybe the same position.

 

I could be mistaken I see they have a local pd driver opening in Springfield where I'm located just in the past I haven't seen them advertise like the other freight companies in town