Dayton Freight

Discussion in 'LTL and Local Delivery Trucking Forum' started by Chucky5502, Aug 29, 2019.

  1. Chucky5502

    Chucky5502 Bobtail Member

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    I saw a pic on Google of a Dayton Freight sleeper truck. I also been seeing a quite few of their sleepers especially near Lowell, Indiana. Is Dayton Freight doing OTR now or something?
     
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  3. jmz

    jmz Road Train Member

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  4. Bob Dobalina

    Bob Dobalina Road Train Member

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    @jmz answered that question extremely well haha!

    We have a terminal in Lowell. You might have been spotting some of our system drivers coming and going from there. Those rebranded Kelley trucks are only being used because they had too much life in them to prematurely get rid of them. I would guess that once those trucks are retired all of our system drivers are going to go back to driving daycabs.
     
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  5. EuropeanTrucker

    EuropeanTrucker Medium Load Member

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    Haha. I thought they were owner operators that are leased to Dayton Freight. I saw them in Tomah, Wi.

    Seems like a good gig. Driving from terminal to terminal with a sleeper. You can just sleep at any Terminal and don’t have to worry about parking at truck stops.
     
  6. jmz

    jmz Road Train Member

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    I remembered that question being asked and answered not long ago so I dug up the replies. I think it’s pretty awesome they still let those drivers sleep in hotels every night.
     
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  7. sometimes given the hotel you're in it's nicer to sleep in the truck if they put you in the bed bug inn
     
  8. Bob Dobalina

    Bob Dobalina Road Train Member

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    From what I hear most of the hotels are pretty nice, but our system guy said the sleeper was nice to have one night when there was a big event and all of the nearby hotels were full. It saved him from having a huge "commute" after his shift. I could see it also being nice in the winter time when you make it to your destination and you're just done and don't even want to drive a few more miles to the hotel.
     
  9. Bob Dobalina

    Bob Dobalina Road Train Member

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    We also got a bunch of swing door trailers when Kelley shut down. Those aren't ever used for city peddle runs, but we do use them sometimes for linehaul and I think occasionally also for spotting trailers at volume shippers.
     
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  10. Lazer

    Lazer Road Train Member

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    when did they shut down Kelly? did they offer those drivers a spot at Dayton, or were they s.o.l.?
     
  11. Bob Dobalina

    Bob Dobalina Road Train Member

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    Those who wanted to stay became Dayton system drivers. They went to the bottom of the board for bidding seniority. I'm not sure if they started at the bottom of the pay scale or not. Even if they did it would've still been a healthy raise for those guys though.

    I can't remember exactly when it shut down, but I'm thinking it was at least a year ago at this point. Apparently they weren't making any money and I think someone said they only had around 15 drivers at the end. I'm not sure how many came to Dayton Freight, but I know the Kelley guy who was domiciled at my terminal didn't. Some of them hated when they had to pull our extra linehaul trailers because of the forced nights and stricter schedules. Not to mention the fact that they were being paid much less to pull those trailers than we were. I thought it would be a no-brainer to walk into a good job, but apparently some didn't. Nighttime linehaul definitely isn't for everyone.
     
    Last edited: Sep 8, 2019
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