Experience with your LTL company

They're all the same, man.

Different colours and logos on the trucks/trailers, that's all.

 

Been with my present LTL carrier for almost 17 years. Peddle local in the same area for 14 years. The good: Never need a map, know most of the customers by first name basis, pretty much know what time i will be home everyday, usually dont have to wait to be loaded or unloaded, dont slip seat drive the same single axle CH. The bad: it gets old!

 

That's a good dog Mark. I have on just like it w/o the fairings and one more axle.....

 

14 years @ YRC would not do anything else LTL is the only way to do trucking...

 

Two and a half months into working with USF Reddaway. I got about two weeks left of probation. I am a linehaul driver, and this is my first commercial driving job since getting my CDL. So far I love it.

 

The good: Good job, pay is ok, benefits are paid for, mostly work nights, management is the best.

The bad: Not crazy about hooking doubles and rarely triples, starting to get old or I'm getting more lazy. Sick of the extra board and waiting to be called into work. Scared of lay offs come winter. Sick and I mean really sick of running the I-5 from Socal to Norcal!!! Going insane from it! Send me to Vegas or AZ for crying out loud!

 

Yes, doing linehaul is easy money but man I'm sick of going to medford every day. Is I guess I should stop complaining though it pays the bills.

 

One thing you folks who are complaining about being bored, might want to remember - at least you are TRUCKING. You could be working the dock, or a warehouse or production line some where. Or even worse, in a cubicle.

This is exactly what YOU make of it. In driving, we have all that windshield time that often turns into worry time, or day dreaming time. Sometimes, it is way to easy to get the old "what ifs" or "if onlys." This isn't so true with the local P&D folks as their time is mostly spent paying attention to the job.

But when you are line haul and do the same run all the time, it is really easy to fall into this rut. It's also easy to become a victim of "highway hypnosis."

Some of the things I liked the most about my job, was the same things that I hated the worst. THE CUSTOMER. Most of them were really pretty good folks, but the jack arses that were there, made up for the good ones. And you deal with them just about every day, sometimes more than once a day.

I worked for a fairly small company, so I had a whole lot of different stuff going on. We had a pretty big, and mostly rural area, with just a few drivers to cover it. So a typical day could find me with everything from pups to '53s to sets.

Pretty much stayed with the same assigned tractor though. Unless I had to take a smaller straight truck for some reason.

 

I'm mostly upset at 2 things with my job. There is lots of road construction on the I-5 in Los angeles and on the Grapevine. Both north and south bound sides. Sometimes I'm lucky enough to sit in it for 3 hours total. Kills a lot of time. Being on call gets to me. Can't help it.