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

McUzi · Oct 25, 2021

kidz bop said: ↑

d

do they hire people with experience?
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Why wouldn’t they?

John Joel Glanton · Oct 25, 2021

ColoradoLinehaul said: ↑

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.
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Great info. I really appreciate the write up.

Sent apps to R+L and UPS. Who knows what will come of that.

Old Dominion said they want experience, and they're not training new guys at the moment. But I see they're running an ad for their "dock to driver" program in my area. Not sure what's going on. I will call them again. They were my top choice.

The FedEx website is not letting me fill out the app for some reason. I will take a ride over there and knock on the door.

Fresh Point / Sysco is also hiring in my area. I know it's hard work. I hear it's good money. We shall see. Have a good week everyone.

MACK E-6 · Oct 25, 2021

John Joel Glanton said: ↑

R+L came into my school recruiting new drivers even though their online job ad says 1 year experience. I am considering them now. Will keep this updated.
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They have a couple good points. If you land in a single screw you won’t be sharing it, and once you land a bid run it’s yours to keep until you bid on another and get it.

expedite_it · Oct 25, 2021

John Joel Glanton said: ↑

I will have my CDL next month. I'm reading that a new trucker fresh out of CDL school can crack $100,000 his first year and be home most days. Also, as a line haul driver you are just going from terminal to terminal and not dealing with customers for the most part.

I think Line haul is mostly nights, for the new guys anyways... But I'm wondering what's the catch? Why would someone do OTR for a mega carrier and sleep at truck stops for less money?

Is LTL as good as it seems? I am looking at options for my first job. Thank you.
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The catch is you have to work nights. You have to have doubles & triples endorsement and frequently tanker endorsement. You have to deal with a dolly and hooking and disassembling sets of pup trailers. LTL is harder work, but pays better than OTR.

EuropeanTrucker · Oct 26, 2021

Radman said: ↑

Only people that quit LTL jobs are bottom seniority guys cause of the schedule and they have no time invested so they’ll hop to another LTL or try something else. 3-4 day paid holiday weekends are nice also if your on a bid. Rather be home then at a truckstop for 3 days on a holiday weekend waiting for a shipper to open.
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I recently got hired by LTL company and being on buttom of seniority list is not THAT bad. I often cover guys that are sick/call off/vacation so sometimes I get 600+ mile runs but I might get a 300 mile run too once in a while. I volunteer to run weekend if I had a lot of short runs that week. Haven’t grossed less than $1800 since I started.

John Joel Glanton · Oct 26, 2021

MACK E-6 said: ↑

They have a couple good points. If you land in a single screw you won’t be sharing it, and once you land a bid run it’s yours to keep until you bid on another and get it.
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My options at this point are Line Haul nights for R+L. Schneider OTR. And I have a phone interview with UPS about a "feeder driver" position.

R+L is home daily. But they don't pay by the mile or the hour. It's by the route. He said I could expect $1,100-$1,600 per week. There are also OTR positions available.

Really I want to go OTR. Still undecided. Will keep this updated.

LPjunior1970 · Oct 27, 2021

John Joel Glanton said: ↑

My options at this point are Line Haul nights for R+L. Schneider OTR. And I have a phone interview with UPS about a "feeder driver" position.

R+L is home daily. But they don't pay by the mile or the hour. It's by the route. He said I could expect $1,100-$1,600 per week. There are also OTR positions available.

Really I want to go OTR. Still undecided. Will keep this updated.
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Is that feeder position at a UPS hub?

John Joel Glanton · Oct 27, 2021

LPjunior1970 said: ↑

Is that feeder position at a UPS hub?
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I think so. They were supposed to call me 20 minutes ago for the interview. So I just called them and the nice Indian lady told me to wait for their call. We shall see...

LeGendofSeven · Oct 27, 2021

jgarciajr40 said: ↑

I still think it’s bull crap LTL don’t use electric pallet jacks. I even offered my boss to give me all the bullcrap freight if I could buy an electric Toyota jack, and was told “no”.

no logical reason electric pallet jacks aren’t used; heck they always wanna talk about a driver shortage let the old farts stay longer… GIVE THEM AN ELECTRIC JACK

some other bullcrap they don’t tell you is you’re gonna have a delivery on a main road like palm beach boulevard, which was probably built in the late 1800s and you have to park right on the road with you hazards on praying no illegals hit you or your truck and they don’t have a forklift so now you have to walk the pallet to them.

Oh, and don’t forget about them cul-de-sac deliveries.

They’re gonna given you the last house on a cul de sac so you’re gonna have to attempt a “3-point” reverse into the dead end street while continuing to reverse down a residential for a mile or more.

Oh, you can’t fit or reverse down the street? Start walking that pallet to them

welcome to Naples Florida
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Idk why they wont use electric jacks. I worked for fresenius manufacturing (delivering regional / local to kidney patients and clinics) and we had electric jacks. It was sweet especially for pallet drop stops (the electric jack is fun and ez to use,)

MACK E-6 · Oct 27, 2021

LeGendofSeven said: ↑

Idk why they wont use electric jacks. I worked for fresenius manufacturing (delivering regional / local to kidney patients and clinics) and we had electric jacks. It was sweet especially for pallet drop stops (the electric jack is fun and ez to use,)
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That’s one garbage account I’m glad we lost. Most of those clinics are in lousy locations for truck access.

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