Full Time Dockworkers

Dock work, especially palletized freight is easy, I have done it for over 20 years. The problem for me is now that I have tasted life on the outside behind the wheel its hard to imagine going back. When I need to go on the docks while delivering or picking up, just the smells of cardboard and propane exhaust fumes fill me with dread.

I was on the Fedex Freight dock in Atlanta recently and nearly had a mini meltdown when i saw their docks. Must have been close to 75 forklifts there. I couldn't get out of there and back to the safety of my air conditioned sleeper fast enough.

Yup, this dog don't dock no more.

 

I love being a linehaul driver for ODFL - one of the best LTL companies. But if I was looking at P&D, or any other hourly position, I might be inclined to look at companies that offer OT and are not afraid to pay it.

 

So now the dockworkers @$95k a year are closing in on the OTRs all earning $100k yearly

 

P&D is Pickup and Delivery, the daytime drivers who deal with actual customers. Linehaul are the mostly nighttime drivers who move freight between terminals to ensure the freight makes its way across the country so the P&D drivers can deliver it to the final destination.

Dayton has full-time dockworkers, but the majority are part time and it takes quite a while to get a full time spot (in Columbus, anyway).

 

Out of curiosity does anyone know what the starting pay is for city drivers at UPSF?

 

That's my thinking as well. FXF is OT after 8/40, which is awesome for those of us on the P&D side. If I lost this gig and went to another LTL outfit, their overtime policy would greatly affect whether I went P&D or line.

 

ODFL has OT set up in a way that they can skirt around it. They do it by the week. So they can get a couple long days out of a driver early in the week and then roll the hours back towards the end of the week.

Whereas FXF, to my understanding, does it per day. So a FXF P&D driver is compensated by a OT policy for a long day. ODFL will cut a driver's weekly hours to skirt around a lame OT policy.

I love ODFL, but their OT is a joke. They would have more integrity for hourly employees if they either offered OT they were willing to pay, or just did away with the current OT policy that clearly is designed to not have to pay OT while still allowing the company to say they "offer" it to potential employees.

 

$17.40
$17.70 after 45 working, not calendar days.

Some terminals start off at $22-23 depending if they are having difficulty finding anyone.

 

They told me as much in an interview.