Is LTL the best area of trucking? What's the catch?

They contract for FedEx Ground, which is a completely different company from FedEx Freight.

FedEx Freight is all solo, home daily, company drivers.

 

Yes, FXF hires "new guys". Generally, you need to apply for a position that is listed as a Driver Apprentice if you don't meet their outlined city/road driver requirements in the hiring ad. You'd go through their training course that is designed for people with no experience or CDL, and test out into either a city or road driver position (whatever the apprentice position is posted to cut to). The only difference having your CDL going into the program, is the Instructor isn't taking you to a DOT yard for state license testing. You'll get 40 hour weeks during that time so it isn't like you're slashing your income, and this gives you time to obtain your endorsements as well.

FXF is a great outfit, and if you can get in, it is a pretty good gig if you can hack being low on the list and learning the local barn politics.

 

Yes we hire new drivers, but only if there is a position posted for a Driver Apprentice.

FedEx Freight Website: FedEx Careers

For UPS, use this website: Working at United Parcel Service (UPS) | Jobs and Careers at UPS
The Feeder drivers are the ones who drive tractor trailers for the package side of UPS (like FedEx Ground). The feeder jobs will be on that site with the title “Tractor Trailer Driver.”

If you are interested in the LTL side of UPS, it is now called T-Force Freight. They are still using the UPS jobs website for now, and those positions will have the title “Full Time City Driver” or “Full Time Road Driver.”

 

Generally it's 4 weeks but it can be longer depending on how you progress through the program. If you struggle on certain weeks the instructor might opt to add an additional week to get you further up to speed. I've seen apprentices stay with an instructor for 8 weeks before testing out. Even if they do that, you're still pulling 40hr checks and your seniority date on whatever board you are on (road or city) is determined by the date you began the program, not when you test out or actually start that position.

 

d

do they hire people with experience?

 

I love the LTL life. I have a great balance between work and my personal life. Home every night, with exception to weather or an accident shutting the roads down. Set schedule, two days off. Full benefits and paid vacation and pto.

My checks are $2059 a week. $107K a year.

Most of the good paying LTL’s want 1 or 2 years of experience.

Driving nights was hard for me at first but you get used to it. I bought a sleep mask so I can sleep during the day, take melatonin and advil pm and I get 7.5 - 8 hrs of sleep a night. Occasionally take a 10-15 min power nap along my route when needed.

Running LTL you will start out driving nights, weekends and holidays but the longer you stay, the more seniority you get and you will bid on different runs with better schedules as you move up.

Also, I don’t go terminal to terminal. I do whats called a turn. Meet someone halfway, swap trailers and come back. So basically all I do is hook up a set, drive to the swap point, drop and hook, come back, break my set and fuel up the truck and park it go home. Pre-Trips and Post-Trips as well. Pretty simple and it’s easy money. Us Colorado linehaul drivers really make our money in the winter though. Those winds and ice on the roads in Wyoming are brutal. Tough sledding up on the grades on I-70 going to Grand Junction.

run like hell. They are a lower tier LTL. They don’t pay by the mile, they pay by the run and they are one of the lower paying LTL’s out there.

From best to worst.

1.) UPS (Union)
2.) Old Dominion
3.) FedEx Freight
4.) ABF Freight (Union)
5.) SAIA
6.) Estes Trucking
7.) Yellow Freight
8.) R+L Carriers
9.) FedEx Ground
10.) Reddaway
11.) XPO Logistics


Walgreens also does LTL but I know nothing about them or their pay so I have no idea where to rank them. Pepsi and Dillards do as well but Dillards is on the downhill slide and headed towards Chapter 7 last I heard. Still see a set of doubles running east out of Colorado every now and then.