Your Thoughs on working for ABF

I build most of my sets on the weekends.

 

I didnt know ABF had line-haul guys work the dock... thought they were similar to YRC and with the NMFA. A hotel I did layovers at in Portland ME I spoke to a few guys from ABF their and they said they didnt touch anything

 

In some places. They're called UE drivers.

 

Good on you, We didn't work weekends.

From what I was told. from my terminal to his destination and back to my terminal was 200-300 miles. He had to offload and load his own freight.
his fat jolly ### 400 pounder working a forklift must of been funny.

 

Ok we had that at YRC. it's similar to what I do know at UPSF.

 

A ue is a "city" driver that runs next day freight between terminals. The 4 day 10 hour bids and you work your freight at the terminal and then return back. You get 1.00 more an hour for this (usually senior guys)

They will hire with no experience. You will work the dock for approximately 60 days then be sent to fort smith for four weeks of cdl training with the university of Arkansas. You'll be checked out by corporate safety and upon your return you'll be ready to go(unless you don't have cdl then they'll take you locally for road test with dmv then you'll be ready to go)

I wouldn't worry too much about lifting most stuff is by forklift and people will help you if not.

 

I hope the "you can't make any money driving" fools all read this thread . . .
Good info. I learned more new stuff.

 

Yes Chinatown, it's 5 years to be vested. And yes, pay and benefits for LTL don't get any better than ABF. When I was there as a casual I was under the old contract. I heard that with the new contract some wages were reduced, I'm not sure on that though. Under the old contract pay in the Western Region topped out around 25 an hour (senior pay) and it only took you 2 years to get there. OT was paid after 8 hours and if you didn't want to work more than 8 hours you put your name on a white board at the start of the day's operation, the (no OT board). I'm reading out of the Union book and for every hour worked ABF has to contribute $5.13 to the worker's pension. For a line haul driver ABF contributes 11 hours per day towards the pension. So in reality, the worker is making around 30 per hour in pay and pension. This doesn't include health benefits. The most impressive thing about ABF was the attitude of the employees and employer. Workers were not afraid of management; in fact, management actually had fear of breaking union rules and therefore always thought about the consequences of their actions. All in all everyone seemed happy. Oh yeah, uniforms are not required either, city drivers do not fuel their trucks and line drivers do not put together their sets, that is done by a city driver. Sure there is a lot of union BS that goes with the job and their city equipment isn't very good. But most LTL equipment sucks anyway. Tell me what company even comes close to the pay and benefits that ABF has? Sure there are other ones, OD, FedEx Freight etc... but ABF is still at the top, at least in the western region.

 

OMG Can't lift 60 lbs?

I promise you, even the skinniest woman can bend down and lift a 60lb item. Lifting is breathing, proper body position, and a mental will that connects with muscle; all that together is called technique and technique allows people to lift heavier things than most think is even possible.

Just stretch your back and legs good and keep that weight close to your legs and hips. Don't forget to breathe, muscle needs oxygen for power. No air; no power.