Question about LTL/P&D Jobs

Food service is probably the hardest facet of trucking. I'd have to think, if you have semi experience and food service too, you'd be a perfect hire for anybody. You can do LTL, but it will be similar to what you are doing, just none of the leg work. You may have to restack some pallets, or hand it off the back with no dock, but it pays well, and you're home . Otherwise, on the opposite end of the spectrum from food service, would be line haul, drop and hook, by far the easiest trucking job there is,,,BUT, it's also the most boring, and why there's so many wrecks with line hauls. Let us know where you are, and a member here named Chinatown can help you.

 

LTL gigs are all 100% driven by seniority, which means you being the new guy will have a very real possibility of being stuck with the residential deliveries where you are handbombing tile and flooring to the customer. But, even in the worst of scenarios as a City Driver, I still think your physical labor work load will still be consistently less than food service.

Paywise, if you are getting into the better LTL companies, you should be starting north of $22/hr with the ability to top out at almost $30/hr.

"semi" retired is spot on. Linehaul however (for me) is where it's at, money wise, stress levels and job satisfaction. Ymmv though.

ETA: Central Transport is considered one of the bottom of the barrel companies. Depending on where you are, I'd look for FedEx Freight, UPS Freight, Old Dominion, Estes, AAA Cooper, or Dayton Freight. All have their differences and quirks but by and large offer a good quality of life for their drivers.

 

if you’d like to work 50 hours a week, but make $24/hr, then go to Estes. You’ll get a raise every six months for three years, when you’ll be at top pay. Also, you’ll get a cost of living raise each year. As of this year (2019) the top out pay for P&D at Estes is $29. I believe Old Dominion is near $32.

You will unload freight, although it may not be a full trailer load, and you’ll go to shippers and pick up freight to bring back to the yard. It’s not too difficult. I was trained on it when I hired in, but I got a Linehaul/extraboard gig (basically, OTR pulling doubles terminal-to-terminal, 100% drop-and-hook). I love what I do, but it’s not quite as physical as P&D.

 

City p&d is night and day easier vs Foodservice. You’ll be extremely shocked how easier it is. Me and buddy left Mclane at the same time he went to city and i went to linehaul. He couldn’t believe how easy city was vs unloading trailers by hand in Foodservice. Now linehaul is about as easy as it gets. We have drivers that get worked up when having to unhook and rehook trailers. It sucks when it’s a last minute thing but It only eats up 15 mins and it still beats unloading trailers. Plus my days at McLane were setup for 14hrs. I work 9.5-11hrs now.

 

True.

I'm shocked at what my fellow linehaul drivers complain about. Guys like that would suck in the city and would never be able to handle a foodservice job.

 

I would personally dig the hell out of running line-haul. That aside, I can definitely see line-haul guys complaining about such trivial things that other drivers (food-service) for instance wouldn't bat an eye at.

Why? Because they've gotten used to having it so easy, that once they have to do something like a last minute unhook and re-hook as Radman put it, they are thrown for a loop. Reminds me of how SOME guys with years and years and years of experience will bad mouth newer drivers, even if said "newer" driver is all around a good hand. It's easy to get so comfortable and used to doing things a certain way, that you forget how fortunate you are, or what it took the get to said position. It's all perspective at the end of the day.

 

I was able to eat like a horse bulling cases off a truck from sun up to sun down and I never gained an ounce. In my new gig as a line haul driver I better learn to embrace intermittent fasting.