Are LTL drivers real truckers??

Some guys try to make everyone think LTL is a little dream world...some of us know better. Some guys are azzholes no matter if they are OTR or LTL, they are real easy to spot. All you got to do is watch and listen lol.

 

Very little hand freight. At least where I am. Great money and benefits though.

 

I'm a real generous guy and dont mind sharing. if you need some hand unload/inside delivery freight i can let you have some of mine

 

I personally see all truckers as truckers, no matter what they are doing. If you can get a good paying local job, more power to you. In my experience most local jobs won't support me or my family, and I really don't like driving the same roads everyday. If you are lucky enough to get a GOOD paying steady job through the teamsters, great. They didn't do much for me, so I quit a long time ago. FYI the teamsters are one of the organizations pushing for our HOS to be cut.

 

I try to turn on my CB every once in a while, but seems like within 5 minutes or so you will get a trucker or half dozen or so that sound like they just got prematurely released from an insane asylum take over. Kinda the same with waving, I used to wave at drivers but maby one out of twenty or so would wave back.

Same mentality on the road, seems like a third of truckers wont even dim there brights, probably half cut you off when passing putting there trailer bumper about 50 feet in front of my front bumper ets.

The problem as I see it is: The mega carriers pulling people out of homeless shelters and cardboard boxes they were living in and immediately sticking them behind the wheel of a big rig is the problem. The CRE CDL mill as I am I am pretty sure all CDL mills do, cheat you threw all aspects of training, even have a DMV certified tester give road test, which is almost impossible to fail.

 

The way I see trucking is like building a house. You got the carpenders who put up the walls, then comes the plumbers, electricians, roofers, drywallers ets. If it were not for roofers, the electricians would have a hell of a lot harder time, having to roof and wire a house, if it were not for the plumbers the roofers would be hating life, ets.. Its all of our differences in preference for moving different types of freight or taking on different aspects of freight delivery that make each others job easier. Is a carpender any beter on some level than an electrician, electrician better than a plumber or roofer? No its just different strokes, all the same deal, all equally important to moving freight.

 

I know what you're talking about as I've done both: 6 years OTR (vans/reefer) + 5 years LTL working dock/city/road.
That's just the PERCEPTION I found in many cases...not all, tho.
Of course, as you said reality can be quite different.

 

Man, you ran Pittsburgh for 4 years?
That's a tough place to peddle freight!
But yeah...guys would get pissed off about getting in-and-out but it was like "look dude, I've got 2 skids here and 15 more stops to get off, so chill out!"
Of course, some didn't see it that way...and there'd be times I'd catch alot of grief.
Road was another thing...one time I got stuck on a hill pulling mt's in the winter and big riggers getting all pissed off.
Hey don't blame me, blame PA for not plowing the road!

 

I think this all is based upon definitions and folks perceptions of such. If one defines being a truck driver as a driver whom lives in a truck for at least a week at a time or MORE, or one whom has to drive all night after sitting at a dock all day for FREE to keep dispatchers and customers happy and to keep getting their miles so they don't starve to death, then heck, they are right, I am NOT a truck driver. If one defines a truck driver as a driver whom runs in ALL weather conditions, including snow storms that most others stop and get into the bunk, then heck, I guess I am a truck driver! If one defines truck driver as a driver whom moves a load of goods from point A to point B, then, I guess I'm still a truck driver.

I don't care one way or the other what others think of me, I really don't. In fact I prefer to NOT be called a truck driver because I don't have to work as hard as "real" truck drivers and I make more money than MOST of them. The hardest part of my job is driving in the crappy weather a couple months of the year in northern Ohio and western Pennsylvania and dropping/hooking 2 trailers a night. Sometimes staying awake is a little tough too if we did too much while we are at home everyday, but we can take a 30-45 minute nap to refresh without getting our chops busted. A rest break is actually factored into all of our run times
I do understand the angst felt by OTR drivers when at docks and an LTL guy just pulls up and backs in and is gone 15 minutes later, I've been there and done that. But instead of whining, complaining, and having a bad attitude about it and those whom do it, I got one of those LTL jobs so I didn't have to sit at docks for free anymore. Then I heard of the line haul operation before I hired on...... My conversation with the TM that hired me.

Me-"So you're telling me, I hook to a trailer in the evening, leave the yard, get to point B, drop that trailer, hook to a trailer coming back home, get back home, drop trailer in our dock or yard and then go home?! That's all there is to it? And you're going to pay me 52 cpm (top rate after 3 years) to do that and pay me hourly (#$22/hr) IF I work a dock, or IF I break down, or IF I get caught behind a wreck on the road?"

TM-"Yes"

Me-"Sign me up!"

My 10 year anniversary here is approaching in April and I haven't been happier.

 

Even some OTR's hate other OTR's. See below.

There's definitely a hierarchy out here amongst the OTR. Some would say those at the bottom (affectionately known as 'bottomfeeder' companies) would be company and glorified company (lease or 'fleece') drivers for the big outfits which haul 'cheap freight'. The next step up is the large 'bottomfeeder' company's drivers who haul flatbed freight. The next step up would be the true O/O who owns his truck but is leased onto the 'bottomfeeder' company, little more respect, but still sneered at by some.


Then we start getting into the owner operator side of it-- the O/O who hauls Landstar dry freight but is still in a neutered truck is lower than the bull hauler who can run 100 miles an hour who is lower than the O/O reefer driver who is part vampire-- runs all night with bright chicken lights that can be seen from outer space and sleeps with aluminum foil over all the windows. Next up is the O/O who runs a flatbed but is looked down upon by those who have a single drop who is in turn looked down upon by the double drop RGN guy who in turn are all spat upon by the true heavy haul owner operator who doesn't get out of bed for less than $15 a mile pulling the space shuttle around.

Meanwhile all these guys hate the LTL guys lol.

You sold out to the MAN.