Random LTL Rants (all are welcomed)

With my employer, they try to assign the truck to the route. Because not all of us here are equally qualified (only a few of us have HazMat, Tanker and Class A licenses). So I tend to drive a different truck depending on what route I'm on.
The amount of "free" time I have also varies greatly depending on the route and the freight volume. It might be as much as 30 minutes a day. But most often is far less than that.

 

Oh... I should have said it differently... By "free" time I mean, from the time you are done with your shift and go home till the time you are back at work... If that's how you work... I don't know...

 

I usually have 13 to 16 hours off (I work 8 to 11-hour days).

 

Do you work day shift only or does that change? How many days a week do you work? Do all your co-workers work the same way or does it vary? Do you do line haul?

 

I do day shift P&D M-F and couldn't work a weekend if I wanted to. Same with the other P&D drivers, the only difference being our start times. At my terminal, all our linehaul drivers run nights, home mornings.

 

Is there a bad time to get hired on at one of these LTL companies? Buddy of mine told me alot of them like to lay off drivers in the slow season...

Im OTR for about 3 years... clean record full endorsements etc... Looking into ABF sometime early next spring.

 

Spring time next year is perfect. This year has been a crap shoot. Up and down especially for bottom guys. It's getting busy but winter until this election is over would be worry some as a bottom guy. Election year has screwed a lot up like it usually does.

 

I drive the same truck every day, unless it's out of service for a repair or PM inspection. However, I share that tractor with another driver that works "opposite" from me. Fortunately he's a great guy, keeps the interior clean and garbage free, does the windows every day, and has no problem with me using his Sirius radio. Most of our drivers share power equipment, it stinks to get a subpar partner. Most of our people are pretty good, but there's always 1 or 2 rotten eggs.

I currently work afternoon shifts, we "bid" our schedules and runs. I work Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday at 4:00pm. Wednesday and Friday are 3:00pm start times, naturally I'm off Thursdays and Saturdays. My runs average 9 hours, so I'm generally off 14 hours between shifts if you include commute time. This is my choice, some folks want longer days for more $$$. I prefer the time off.

 

Same here.
Sometimes (very rarely) I will work as few as 5-6, or as many as 12 -14.