How's Everyone Doing in LTL Right Now?

You are absolutely right, I was one of the ones that was employed by both Reddaway and Holland. I had the same health insurance plan with both companies. The only difference was I paid a $50 a month deductible with Reddaway but no Union dues, and with Holland we got the insurance for 100% employer paid but we had $50 union dues. I think Reddaway made us fork over the $50/month to keep the peace with the Unions as most of the company was non-union.

The plan that we had was indeed the Cadillac plan of health insurance, but if you really broke it down, it did not meet the affordability portion of the insurance trinity, at least not for anyone that was not employed by one of the Teamcare companies. We did the math and if you broke it down for a 40 hour work week, it came out to $14/hour, or around $2250 a month. Of course those of us even at the very bottom never saw any of these premiums and our employers absorbed the overwhelming majority of everything.

I found it disgustingly greedy that we were only within $2-$4 behind on pay compared to the competition, yet many of my colleagues complained about this gap. That insurance more than made up for any perceived lack of compensation. Maybe this is a bit too personal, but when my wife had our youngest, it was a complicated birth and our initial bill was well over $24,000. Our Holland insurance covered every single penny of it. It was insane. You know the #1 cause for bankruptcy in the USA is an unexpected medical emergency? I am most definitely glad you guys are financially positioned to get one of the better plans now. You will never find a plan like what we had with Teamcare ....at least not while driving a tractor trailer.

My current employer provides bare bones insurance at $50 a week with some insane annual deductibles, it's also why I go to the VA to at least get some stuff looked at whenever I can.

 

Makes me think about gypos/willamette pass snowy Cheyenne rodeo times!

 

Competition does everyone good in my opinion. I will still use UPS when I absolutely need it delivered quickly, but for those shipping who are not in a rush this could be a big change in the industry. I still don’t see LTL freight being adversely effected, but who really knows.

 

I have a question, appreciate any insight anyone has. Relative of mine who was driving an LTL P&D truck with a hazmat placard had a recent incident in NJ where a civilian RV type vehicle failed to yield at an intersection. Police report says basically that the RV driver was trying to turn at an intersection, did not have enough clearance to make the turn, then began to back up causing him to hit the side of my relative's truck as it was passing by. My relative said the RV had some significant body damage but the report says it wasn't towed. The report says the RV driver failed to yield etc. and says there was nothing whatsoever that my relative did to contribute to the incident. However, the officer did not give the RV driver a formal citation/ticket. My relative says it's a problem that the RV driver wasn't given a ticket, even though the report says there was nothing he personally did to contribute to the incident. He got a solicitation from a lawyer with a copy of the police report, saying they charge a smaller % of successful lawsuits than other firms lol. I'm guessing that if my relative had an injury (he doesn't) a lawsuit in this kind of situation would be a bit of a slam dunk, hence the solicitation. NJ is a no fault insurance state - I don't really understand what that means. Hopefully this will be treated as being non preventable by his company(?) Hopefully my relative's company isn't going to have to pay for damage to the RV? I'm not sure how much damage was done to the truck (hopefully minor if any). They can't be happy if their insurance has to pay for any damage to the truck(?) Thanks again for any insight.

 

If your relative was completely stationary during the incident, then he/she would not be at fault. The other driver should have been cited for improper backing that contributed to a vehicle collision, why he didn't is beyond me.

Your relative should not be held at fault and this should be categorized as "non-preventable" by his employer. Outside of a company safety meeting where photos come up, I find it extremely unlikely that they care about damages to either truck or trailer. Most LTL carriers have equipment that looks like it was involved in a wreck. Any additional dents or scratches add character to their fleet and help the vehicle blend in.

The RV driver really doesn't have much of a case legally against your relative and his insurance will be on the hook to pay for their damaged RV.

Injury lawyers are just being injury lawyers. They read about a collision involving a commercial vehicle and they think there is money to be made.

I honestly would not worey about this situation. I am glad nobody got hurt or that there was some kind of hazmat spill.

 

Spot On:

Most LTL carriers have equipment that looks like it was involved in a wreck. Any additional dents or scratches add character to their fleet and help the vehicle blend in.

Got hit sitting at red light by UPS package van couldn't find damage on rear of trailer, but his transmission cooler / radiator was leaking fluids.
Felt like my foot slipped off the clutch was backing into dock.