Why I went with LTL

To comment on a previous post without quoting... Depending on the bid schedule I'm on, I could very well work a 12-14 hour day. But here's how I look at it. How many blue collar jobs do you know of that will pay 80-100k a year and only have banker's hours? Not many that I can think of. Linehaul jobs are some of the best paying trucking gigs available, if you're with the right company. Even with my mediocre 430 something mile a day run at .57 cpm, I'll still gross around 65k a year. And I don't have to live like a nomad.

I'll work 12 hour days in order to support my family, come home every day, and have a full weekend off. No problem.

 

While you probably weren't referring to my post, I'd like to mention that I never said I only wanted to work 8 hours per day. I don't mind working 10-12's five days per week. It's when it gets into the 13-14 hour days that they get to be too long. Remember, as locals we "bookend" that work day with a commute to and from the job. In my case, it's about 20 minutes each way, so for me it's an extra 40 minutes, but for some it's considerably longer. Add that commute onto the work day, and a 14 hour day pushes 16. After awhile, that CAN get old.

 

I like your post and congrats.

 

I'd say that local driving is for those family oriented drivers.... Being with the family is more precious than anything else in my book.... Sure the family man doesn't have alot of $ but his riches are his /her family
OTR driving is for those lone wolf types, they like the freedom of the road, the solitary of being left alone as a stranger in a strange land.... I imagine they like things like watching a good movie at the truckstop theater or catching a good dinner at the TA buffet or a good conversation on the CB
..... Me I like to hit the ball M thru F, home every afternoon with my beautiful wife & kids & the weekends are for b quing in the backyard or Saturday morning bass busting or such, Sunday mornings are for rounding up the flock to honor the lord at his house and after that the rest of the day just falls in place , kindve like having auto pilot
..... To each his own,just depends on what the driver wants to do with his/her CDL license

 

I haul fuel and share the exact same feelings with the long hours, paid by the load and too much unpaid time doing this job...

Nice being home everyday and weekends, but no life for me with these 12-14 hr days...

 

I do local food service and right now I just applied to run transit my companies version of line haul. I am sick and tired of city driving and traffic lights and all that other fun fun fun stuff. Plus transit pays about the same give or take what I get throwing cases plus I need the experience.

 

^ alternative is winning the lottery or higher education debt. City driving in your AO isn't all that bad. Come 90 minutes to your east and play with the bridges and tunnels.

 

City driving here is more of an annoyance yes Pittsburgh city driving with goofy bridges and hills and tunnels, oh man.

 

Yup. LTL is a great deal. The biggest draw to me was the home time. I did my share of traveling when I was younger and now I'm more of a homebody. I like to sleep in my own bed every night, use my own bathroom, and get to spend evenings and weekends with the GF.

The money isn't bad either. You're not going to get rich doing LTL, but it's pretty much the only gig I can think of where a guy can hope to make ~$50k/year starting out with zero experience and minimal training...while working only M-F.

That being said...there are some downsides. You want a nice/newer tractor? Go with an OTR carrier that rotates their equipment every few years. The tractor I drove the other day has 936,000 miles on it. A lot of those are hard/local miles too. You can't have it all though...

 

When your home more no point in having a nice large car. Hear the whine about equipment all the time. I drive 1 million mile tractors all the time. Not many problems. I turn it in all the time though and find stuff to get fixed. You have to be on it and not have someone hold your hand and check stuff out and be a TRUCK DRIVER. People want new equipment cause they are generally lazy about their pre trip. I can see having nice equipment for Otr cause you live in it. But I live at home 4 days a week and in a hotel the other 3 days. I rather do that then sleep in a truck. Think those guys driving that old overnite trucks for upsf are crying about driving their old tractor making .72cpm? I'm not crying here I make more then I ever did Otr. Give me a daycab and some money and I'm happy.