Why don’t more people want to work in the LTL industry?

OTR is an adventure.
LTL is a job.

 

Even as an owner op I think LTL is the way to go personally, as much as I hate pulling a reefer, I cannot make any where near the amount of money with my bucket or flat bed. Usually 4-10 stops and out 2 nights a week, although I have no problem bouncing out somewhere to cover someone on vacation/broken down

 

So I've written a few posts about this topic. I went back and found one of them, and I'll copy and paste it below (it's a list of some general pros and cons of LTL):

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

 

Residential liftgate deliveries. Liftgate deliveries in general. I left after 10 years at R&L with an 0900 start on a bid city run. LTL used to be fun when most of your deliveries were to a place of business as even if you did have to fingerprint some freight generally there was help or easy access. Braking down 4 skids/ 250 cartons or more to two wheel into Cosmoprof stores got old too. The resi’s really suck. Gun safes, hot tubs,pool kits on a skid all stuff that needs several people to move they want you too with a pallet Jack and a liftgate. And yes I know that most are supposed to be curbside deliveries and believe me I left stuff at the curb with ticked off customers but I just don’t need to listen to them whine and complain. If I wanted that I’d have been a bed bugger
As far as line haul, nights Monday through Friday then trying to reverse to have time with the family on the weekend will tear you up too. Slip seating is for the birds as well

 

I started as an LTL job working daily in a city, it was 100% commission based on how much I could pick up.

Needless to say I worked tirelessly to gain new customer and after my first year of setting up my roots I was the highest paid driver at the company grossing $175k / year.

I got it down to a science where I went to work between 9-10am and was finishing up around 6pm Monday to Friday.

I got my run so busy it started to wear on me and that’s eventually when I quit…. I wanted to slow down…. And that’s when I went to the oilfield hahah.

 

Just as @Opus mentioned, LTL is a job.
If I were to give up delivering loads in a flattop, big diesel, trucker lifestyle I would just go and do a non driving job. Some are out here for work, plain and simple. Some are out here because they live the life style. Their kids grow up accepting it as their families culture and sometimes even build on the legacy. And then, some are out here and don’t know why, and probably shouldn’t.

 

LTL doesn't pay well enough where I live, certainly not enough for the extra hassle involved with local P&D work which are the only positions I ever see advertised. I currently make as much if not more doing OTR.

A few years back I thought I would at least give it a try, the extra physical labor involved would be good for me etc. I applied to a few companies, only Estes and XPO ever got back to me and that was to tell me they don't hire drivers with no P&D experience. Years of accident free OTR meant nothing to them.

I don't mind nights, I have doubles experience and the steady routine of linehaul would suit me, but I've never seen those positions available.

So.....that's why I don't do LTL.

 

I thought about this ever since I read it on break. You're right. Absolutely right. I got to see some THINGS when I was OTR, both good and bad. But adventure has its downsides, too. Not knowing how to get in and out of shippers, getting lost, etc.

It was valuable experience, but it definitely showed me I'm a homebody. Maybe I have a "job" in a lot of people's eyes because I gave up that sense of adventure, but I wouldn't trade it for the highest paying OTR gig.

I go to the same place every day. I go home and play with my dogs. I wake up and drink coffee with the wife every afternoon. I have a life.

We're all cut out for different things. After 12 years of chaos, I was prepared to REVEL in routine. Can't say I can complain, even if it sounds like hell to a lot of drivers.

 

I’ll add this as well. I make more doing what I’m doing now which most would consider regional Monday through Friday out zero to three or 4 nights depending on how I want to run. I can take wife or kids with me, heck I got to train my boy to drive here. He has his CDL though is intrastate restricted as he’s not 21. When I want time off I tell the boss what days and it’s never a problem.
R&Al would have a fit if I punched in two minutes late. Ran 11-13 hours a day day in a day out. Taking time off was next to impossible and I only had Two weeks vacation and 4 personal days which you couldn’t use on Monday or Friday UNLESS you were the terminal managers buddy, then it was no problem. Work hard to try to get off in 9 hours? No problem, they’d add deliveries or pickups out of area to your route/work plan. Then there was the commute, 45 minutes each way. I currently park my tractor in my driveway or at a lot two miles away. Long day and bad weather when it’s time to go in or go home? Be there at R&L or get written up. In this case I either don’t go out if it’s bad or if on the way in I just find somewhere to hole up and go to bed. LTL used to be the goose that laid the golden egg, it’s now the ugly ducking that craps in your yard. I started off with Carolina Freight Carriers back in the day and had a short stint with Consolidated Freightways so in addition to the 10 years at R&L I feel I’m pretty well equipped to comment on how LTL has changed over the last three decades. Like trucking in general it has not gotten better except for the industry wide acceptance that the power units should have A/C and air ride as standard equipment