So ya wanna drive a day cab. (The beginners company guide to ltl)

Thanks for reminding me of them!!

 

I have some more info about LTL trucking at XPO Logistics that I should add, though much of this will apply to LTL in general.
I currently am doing 9 A.M. start time for my P&D run. At my location they keep me routed to the same general vicinity every day. When I report to the terminal for work, I am given a stack of freight bills, which are sorted in order according to the way my stops are routed. A computer system sets up the delivery route and tells the dock workers which order to load my freight prior to my arrival at work. Most mornings, my trailers are loaded and ready to be hooked, but sometimes the loading is behind and I will go out to the dock and help finish loading. Once that's done, I'm assigned a tractor and go out and hook doubles or triples off of the dock depending on the day(rarely on a light day, I will have only one trailer).
When I'm hooked and ready to go, I will be dispatched in the computer system to a P&D route. The stops will populate in my handheld device for the day, then if there are additional stops(pick ups) they will notify me through the device.
I drive about 50 miles to the town where most of my deliveries will be and once I arrive I break my trailers apart in a central location. I can now begin my delivery route. Many of the customers I deal with are regulars, therefore I know exactly where to pull in and park for unloading. Ideally when delivering to these customers it takes about 10-15 minutes to unload a pallet or 2, have them inspected for damage and the bill(s) signed, then on to the next stop.
Some deliveries are to unfamiliar customers who don't regularly have trucks delivering to them. This is where it becomes a little more time consuming. I have to park, and find someone to check in with. Usually it's a receptionist who has no idea what to do. Once I find out where to pull around to, and who can unload me, it gets taken care of. It just takes a bit more time. Then there are those customers who do not have a forklift to unload. This usually means hand unloading if it's something that can be broken down from the pallet and carried off the trailer. I should say that hand unloading is a small percentage of of my typical work week, so it's nothing compared to some delivery jobs, i.e. foodservice.
Sometimes I will have residential deliveries or schools. The residential stops usually require me to call ahead to the customer with an ETA so someone can meet me for the delivery. The schools can be a real hassle too, because it almost always involves trying to find a place to park, then checking in, then hand unloading a pallet of books or something and bringing them inside the school.
Some deliveries require the use of a liftgate for unloading, unfortunately my terminal has only a few of these available, so we don't always get one. Typically if a shipper has ordered a liftgate service for the delivery, I will have one. If there is no liftgate, and I can't unload the shipment safely, I call dispatch and tell them. Then I will bring the freight back for re-delivery the next day with the proper equipment.
After I finish 1 trailer, I go back to my other dropped trailer(s), and repeat.
During the course of the day, I will also be dispatched to various customers to pick up shipments. This can be done in the middle of the delivery route, but I have to be sure I can then work around the freight to get the rest of my deliveries done. Usually I will wait until I have at least 1 empty trailer before picking up anything, unless I know for sure I can easily get to the rest of deliveries on the trailer.
All of this usually has to be done by 5 p.m. or sooner because customers start closing up or stop shipping and receiving.
Once I've finished all of my stops for the day, I return to my dropped trailers and hook them for the return trip...
Just a snapshot of P&D life with a typical LTL company. I hope anyone who is curious can read this to get a better understanding of what's expected of a city delivery driver...
Thanks for reading!

 

If you had a side loader that sat low to the ground it was nice and you could work fast but mine was pretty high off the ground and pain to work off the top bays.

 

I've heard of P&D drivers taking a set of doubles out, but triples is nuts! How many stops do you typically have if you take triples on your route? And where do you break them down? Also, how do you determine the trailer weights so you know which order to hook them when you finish your pickups?

 

Doubles and triples was how we rolled into town. You can easily burn up 2 hours a day hooking/breaking and switching trailers, but the operational benefits where overwhelming vs pulling a single trailer.

If you had three different peddle trailers, it would be a long crappy day. But more often than not, I had a trailer load in the front that I could break away and drop off at a customers location and let them deal with it at their convenience. Second trailer would have deliveries for one side of town while my third trailer was usually a liftgate for another side of town. Sometimes my last trailer was empty and I would take it to a customer to be loaded and then picked up later. Some days I would take the heavy trailer that was dropped to be unloaded and move it to another customer to be reloaded. The options were endless.

It was common practice for us to leave all the paperwork that was specific to that trailer inside on the tail (with a rock on top so it doesn't fly off when you opened the door). We did this so any other driver could step in and work that trailer if you broke down or fell behind. Each driver carried at least five combo locks with each having the same four digit combination (which happened to be the last four digits of dispatches phone number) so we could all secure and access each other's trailers. We all had mailbox slots back at the barn and everyone was very courteous about returning each other's locks.

Looking back it was an overwhelming amount of work compared to what I do now. You'd have to average 4-5 stops an hour to make it work. But you could move much faster with a pup than a long box. I was also constantly on my company phone planning my drops 3 stops in advance.

Oddly enough I found a picture of a train I pulled on my FB timeline. Back box is a liftgate if you zoom in.

 

14 to 25 stops is what I averaged a day. There was a established drop lot where we would break and rehook. In one instance, there was a Flying J that everyone would break at. ODFL and XPO would all use the back dirt lot. We all staggered out and kept our equipment segregated so we wouldn't block each other. The owner was cool with us as long as we bought his fuel. In other cases, a unused side street would also work. The catchy thing with triples is you can only venture into town for 2 miles. Anything more and you could get a ticket.

Figuring weight was easy. You never did your T/L PU on your liftgate. So if you had triples, you could look over your BOL if you lost track or we would browes our handhelds to tell us what we entered for each trailer. If it was within 2k lbs, I wouldn't care what order I rehooked. It would take a very skilled weigh station officer to spot the difference, especially if you drove a tandem truck.

I found this picture of our old drop lot we used so you get an idea how much space we needed

 

@road_runner, you said it all. I bump into Reddaway drivers all of the time along the course of my day, we even share the side street where we drop & hook.

 

Mind if I asked what state?