How's Everyone Doing in LTL Right Now?

Didnt know AAA cooper got picked up by the knight/swift monopoly. The more you know!

How are things at an LTL owned by swift? MME is hiring locally 24/7 it seems. I dont think cooper has a yard here. Seems only central has job opening more than MME.

 

Our rule of thumb was that an empty pup weighed 5K and a 48 weighed 10K. So 5K is the difference, but usually you can get away with the back trailer being heavier as long as it didn't exceed it by 2K. Our rational was that it would take an extremely skilled DoT officer to weigh those axles up and spot that the trailers were out of sync.

So, to make my response more confusing. If your pup had up to 7K of cargo, you could pull it behind an empty 48 ft trailer.
If your pup had more than 7K of freight, you would start considering moving it up and ahead of the empty 48 ft
48 ft liftgates would naturally have to be in the back due to them being ...well liftgates.
I would decline to put a light 28 ahead of a 48 liftgate trailer if my weight formula was off.

My dispatcher never fought me when it came to not being able to do something. I ran Butte, Montana and had to go over Homestake Pass to get back home to Three Forks each night. Putting your trailers backwards AND out of weight sync was a good way to go to jail and nailing a lawsuit if I were to get into a wreck coming down this dangerous pass.

The most memorable moments were getting them out of the city. I remember sitting at a left turn lane at a large intersection. Once I got the green arrow I would drive straight across and barely miss the car on the opposite side of the intersection before I would start my left turn. No matter how late I would start my turn, the 48 ft long box's tandems would always nick the edge of the double yellow line a bit. I always made a game out of trying to make a left turn without encroaching the line. I could see people on the opposite side freak out when they see me shooting my truck straight at them before starting my turn.

Fun times for sure.

 

MME and AAA Cooper are owned by Swift. I heard there are some barns in the midwest that house both companies since that's where their service maps overlap.

Central is always hiring from what I've seen, hell, if this tanker gig I am doing doesn't work out for me then I might actually drop an application with them as well.

 

What years did you work for Reddaway? I was based out of Three Forks and did several linehaul runs to SLC. We've might have bumped into each other at one point. I ran out of there from 2012-2018.

 

I'd avoid central at all costs. Every one of their drivers I've met were absolutely miserable.

 

it honestly didn’t change too much. They got better health insurance, and better trucks.

I’d say at least from a worker bee perspective the changes from swift were not noticed.

Still double stacking liftgate deliveries, and flipping freight vertical and throw 30 stops on a truck and wondering why you cant make it back for linehaul cut times with your pickups.

 

I was at Reddaway SLC from November 2018 to June 2019. Spent my first 9 months there at San Diego, and my last month there in Phoenix.

 

It's about the same in the concrete world when you are at the plant. If you rub the plant manager the wrong way, you might as well quit. Otherwise they will make your life hell until you do quit. My old plant manager tried that with me a few months back and I just stayed back and smiled at him the whole time. He became so irate that he started taking things out on everyone else. Unfortunately for him someone took a video of his temper tantrum and send it to HR, and they were less than amused. He then got a job the next day by a rival and was fired again within two weeks of being on the job.

In our world it is not uncommon for a driver/manager to quit/get fired and be picked up by a rival company the next day. This cycle happens three or four times before they end up back at our plant but now a different manager is in charge and things work out better for everyone. It really is just bonkers watching things unfold. We once had a rival plant shut down because their entire shift walked off the job and came to our company. Of course they all went back to their old company within three weeks. Watching people move around is like watching a Rubrik's Cube being solved. Sometimes people end where they start, then sometimes it's a complete scramble.

 

Here I was told I’d be pulling twin 48’s with this new run, and all I’ve pulled are single 53’s, lol.

New run is going good, pulling right around 12hr days. It’s definitely weird going in a few hours earlier than I’m used to.

Also found from a friend, the XPO barn I worked at in West Fargo (XFG), has had some turnover. The manager that was there when I was got fired. The new one transferred in from Minneapolis. Seems like he listens to the drivers more than anyone else there which is good.

Hope everyone is well.