Please help...I don't see how this is a good career

So many seem to believe the lie that they can't get a local job,...

And the big crappy companies don't want them to know the truth,...

 

Thank you for this information. I finally see some hope for me in the trucking biz! This is the kind of info I have been looking for.

 

I never bought into it! That is why I am on TTR just about everyday looking at what people say about trucking and researching everything about this business so I can make smart decisions about what direction to go in. I just dont see how people can live on .25 cpm to start out? I would lose my house on that kind of pay. I know you have to start somewhere but not at the bottom of the barrel. At least not me anyway.

 

I appreciate all of you LTL line haul guys chiming in and giving hope to the possibly hopeless. However! Please tell me that it takes skill and talent to do what you do. I want to say that the LTL companies make new guys do P and D for at least a YEAR before they could even bid on a run. I have seen the graveyard of doubles on I-80 and it's not a pretty sight! Two UPS trucks colide with each other! Fedex Freights piled up in the median. Line haul at the big bucks comes with a price of dues paid. I do NOT want a fresh raw green rookie running over Elk side by side with me on his first winter UNDER DOUBLES AND A SINGLE SCREW! He needs to get his experience as we all do. There is no reason mentioning experienced line haul yearly pay to the wife of a man who couldn't or wouldn't stick out fireman or police pay. That is cruel false hope....

 

he can get his experience running line haul, there is no need to stick out garbage pay for "experience". why do you seem to think that there is some advantage to irregular route otr trucking, or p&d for that matter, when it comes to getting some experience? I think it would be better to start a guy out on a simple linehaul run than throw him into the city doing Pickup and Delivery work with no experience backing! However, you are right in the fact that MOST LTL companies require more experience for linehaul drivers.

not EVERY linehaul driver is pulling pups, my company only pulls doubles on I90 in new york and mass, and they are thruway doubles, dual 53' and 48' trailers. very stable, and seperate yards to break and build sets as well.

 

I believe the OP mentioned they were in UTAH. That's the home of the Rocky Mountain doubles, too. Being in the West lends it's own set of hazards that the well groomed toll roads of the East coast don't experience.

I was under the impression that line haul was the gravy of LTL. That the easier routes were bid on by drivers with long seniority. The newbies get P&D, filll in, or routes that have "issues". No matter what trailer or set you pull on any day, I imagine you have to be ready for the worst.

You're pulling turnpike doubles? Hope they pay you huge, cause you're doing the work of two drivers!

 

Thanks for this information. Still trying to decide if this is what I want do do. I can live very well making $40,000 - $50,000. Need enough home time to please the wife and daughter.

 

No its a crappy job but it is the foot in the door to better things a year or two with them if he keeps his record will open doors to good jobs like $25hr home every day gigs
truckin has been very good to me and many others but just like anything one must pay there dues and for most that means starting just like he is

 

He might want to look into Class B driving jobs also. Trash trucks, Dump Trucks, Concrete Trucks, etc.

 

its not bad where i work, its comparable to other companies that pull thruway doubles, all the drivers that do it every day don't #####, and most of them came from Ward Trucking.