Disregarding MVR, why don’t you work LTL?

I’m Chicago…depends on company but anywhere from $1600 - $ 1900

 

That all depends on if he had roses and wine in his hands or condoms and lube.

 

As with any career, or profession you have to do what you're best suited for based on the lifestyle, hours, pay etc. These are all factors which vary from person to person.
Why aren't all medical doctors brain surgeons?
Why do some teachers prefer teaching kindergarten instead of high school?
Why does a musician prefer certain instruments over others?
Why doesn't everyone who is qualified to be in management choose to be?
These decisions are all based on the individual preferences of different people.
If an OTR driver is unhappy with the lifestyle and money, I would suggest something local, and vice versa. Some people are never happy with their job, no matter what it is.

 

LTL isn't for everyone. City work is bumping multiple stops per day, trailers misloaded, double stacked freight that's smashed and the customer blaming you for it. Once you get some seniority and your own route it gets alot better.

Linehaul is mostly graveyard shift work running the same roads night after night. There are some day runs but alot of guys prefer night because they don't have to deal with daytime traffic.

But the pay is great, the bennies are top notch and you get home every day/night and weekends off. I did $90k last year, paid $0 in medical costs, and slept in my own bed every night.

 

SAIA here in Virginia isn't anywhere close to $2400/wk. Maybe if you run nights and have a good run, but the p&d guys aren't making that. Closest barn to me maxes out currently around $71k a year. I left there in August to run propane at Amerigas and will put earn that while clocking out at 5 every day. On call for a week once every 6 weeks or so sucks, but it is what it is. The trade off of bumping a dozen docks a day is worth it to me. I've done LTL with SAIA, R&L, and Conway (my first ever CDL job out of trucking school, now XPO obviously) I hated all of them for the most part...

 

With LTL city some advantages are:

1. Work in the daytime, mostly. Steady schedule. Home everyday. This means NORMAL SLEEP. Easy to co-ordinate picking someone up or dropping someone off at soccer practice, etc. This is basically like a "normal job" like working in an office etc. This is P+D. i'll get into linehaul in a moment.
2. No need to worry about finding a parking space at a truckstop at the end of your day. With LTL, there is always a spot for you.

Now, for some people, #1 is EVERYTHING. Sleep is so important.

One thing i don't think anyone has mentioned is the actual WORK that is involved with LTL:

1) Pushing a 1000lb pallet on completely flat, smooth concrete floor is one thing. However, trying to push it on even a 1 or 2% grade is really too much and really isn't sustainable long-term. You're not going to get the smooth flat warehouse floors most of the time,unless you're lucky. Pallets are only getting heavier because heavier pallets = more money $$$. So, that's not going away.

Now, some companies do have electric jacks. We do not. And you should not count on having an electric jack at this point. So this is one large factor to consider. Moving pallets manually is HARD WORK, make no mistake.

2) Inside deliveries:
There are still some customers, who just can't accommodate a pallet. They may pay for "inside delivery," in which case, you're taking each and every box inside. Some customers, who didn't pay for the service, may pester you into taking it in. Now, you have to play kindergarten teacher / use your discretion etc.

Fortunately, inside deliveries are NOT too common at least where i'm at, but they still exist. Now, this is not nowhere as nearly bad as FOOD SERVICE, where each and every delivery IS an inside delivery. i would say maybe 3-4 a week at the most is what i'm currently seeing. And with those it's often one item---like a chair. Or at the most one pallet.

3) Traffic:
This IS NOT fun. Now, automatic transmission are become the norm, so it's much better. But even with an automagic, it's still a pain. Also, keep in mind that there are still many manual transmission trucks still around. So not only is it a double pain in stop and go traffic, but think about how many times you are actually shifting throughout the day?

Another important factor to consider is, whenever you see a driver with a leg problem or a limp, why is it always the left leg and not the right?

In some ways LTL is more strenous to health than OTR.

If i didn't need to be home, i would switch back to OTR.

 

So I've written some pretty good posts on this subject from time to time. I was watching a popular YouTuber tonight who used to drive for Estes and his channel actually got really popular while he was at Estes (he was there for years I think). This guy generally stays pretty positive and upbeat about things and you can tell he really likes the LTL industry in general, so it's not like he's on of those YouTubers that just complains all the time.

I wrote about the slip seating mess between P&D drivers and linehaul drivers. I also wrote about how certain drivers got special priviledges over newer drivers - I'm not talking about seniority pay or "set runs", I'm talking about priviledges that shouldn't exist like the long term seniority guys not following terminal rules such as P&D guys asking permission to go home after a 10 hour shift instead of just leaving. I wrote about the garbage equipment. All these things that I wrote about, this guy had the exact same experience.

Anyways, just hilarious to hear how this guy in a completely different terminal and a completely different state than me had the same BS experience at Estes with all those issues that I talked about. So for you guys asking the question:

"Disregarding MVR, why don’t you work LTL?"

You all can watch his video and then read my posts, both will give you a pretty good idea of the cons of working LTL and how it's not a paradise by any stretch of the imagination. And also keep in mind my posts were spread out, so it wasn't like I was constantly spamming complaints on this forum lol. And for the record in my posts I usually mentioned that LTL pays great and I would recommend that sector of the industry to other drivers. I'm not bitter about anything, I just posted my thoughts on the subject from time to time when the subject came up on the forum. Just getting all that out there lol.



My post on working in LTL a while ago:

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

 

Here's another one of my old posts from another thread, I'll link it too:

Where is the money at?

 

Last one lol

ESTES Express (1 Year Review)