ABF City Driver New Career Info Please Good Sirs.

I personally think ABF would be a wonderful opportunity for a Newbie to start a CAREER. Yes, you'll have to mess around at the bottom of the seniority list for a while, but it sure beats the alternative of living in a truck for 30 cents a mile and not getting paid to load/unload.

Do some research on here, most Mega Carriers abuse the new drivers and the common advice is, "get a year in and move on..." If you start at ABF, get your 30 years in and retire...

 

Your smart getting a certificate from an independent school and not attending their in house driving school as I have heard some insurance companies do not recognize in house training programs (even good programs like ABF's), in the event you want do something else in the future. Make sure you take the time to make friends with guys on the dock, as they will be loading your trailer every morning...... a poorly loaded trailer can make for a very bad day! You will become a very good backer or you will not be there.......they will teach you techniques that work great for an extended 5th wheel day cab and pup trailer, that would never work driving a conventional sleeper and 53' trailer (most of the industry). I saw guys that had been over the road for many years, that could not adapt to this style of driving and pace. It will be some good experience, they will teach you to safely and quickly hit a dock......they focus on efficiency and you will be on the run each day. If you don't like a fast pace and heavy supervision (sometimes people who have never driven a truck but have all the answers), stay away from this kind of driving. When you have been there for a while you will get a regular route and less supervision, but in the beginning dispatch will wear you out.

 

You would be best advised to talk to someone that works at the North Little Rock NLR004 terminal to see how things work there. At my terminal you get some training on the dock then you are booted to the street because the highest seniority guys want to work the dock rather then mess with driving in city traffic or driving in residential neighborhoods. Other terminals could be the exact opposite.

 

That is excellent advice! I know when I did an occasional line haul, I would see how different each terminal in our system managed day to day operations.

 

Interested in this too, just applied to ABF's driver trainee as well..

Gonna give them a call tomorrow