So ya wanna drive a day cab. (The beginners company guide to ltl)

Come to the pnw and you'll see them all over the place. In fact I believe similar setups are common all along the northern border states.

 

No, no heavy equipment. Heavy haul dry van freight only. As far as I know, we’re in the one area of the country where it’s legal. Wa/OR/ID/MT/UT are the only states that allow it without special permits, you simply license in each state for their maximum allowable weight. With the 8 axle setups, we can haul up to 105,500 (106,000 in Idaho). That’s approximately 65,000 of freight. If you’ve never seen it, @scottied67 and I met up in North Bend, WA at the T/A awhile back where I give a little tour while I’m fueling up. It’s the very first part of the video.

 

That max gross wt of 105500 is a big one for us guys pulling triple trains. We are allowed a max net of 55k. This puts us just under the allowable gross limit...
With single screw power units and single axle duals on our trailers and converter dollies, we can only be at 20k per axle. It can be a little tricky at times when loading a heavy pup to make sure you balance the load so you don't go over on the axles.

 

Any local jobs for new drivers in the Syracuse, NY area?

 

CDL Truck Driver Jobs, Employment in Syracuse, NY | Indeed.com
https://www.indeed.com/q-CDL-Truck-Driver-l-Syracuse,-NY-jobs.html

 

I've been wanting to start a new thread but it basically would have been the same info you are finding on here. So rather than stepping over @FlaSwampRat toes, I will just add what I wanted to say on to his thread in hopes this will be beneficial to someone.

I am going to post an image which I want you guys to read. 80% of the information is the meat and potatoes of LTL. There is some fluff in there but it kinda ties back into the job. The following is an excerpt from my resume that landed me my last gig. I am acting on good faith and hope you guys can reuse this information and maybe plug in your own numbers without plagiarizing the content in its entirety.



OTR companies probably don't require a resume. Many LTL companies prefer one. My company required it and printed it out and questioned me against it during the interview.

Average attention span of a HR manager is 17 seconds. That's a fact. They will read 17 seconds or less into your resume before they make a decision to finish reading it or lose interest in it. I put all my "wow factors" in at the very top and then taper things down as they get to the bottom.

Read the job opening carefully, then tailor your resume to match that information. If you happen to be off the field for a year or two managing a warehouse, leave your managerial skills out. It's not relevant to the job you are applying for. I have a degree in transportation and logistics management. I never brought it up since it had nothing to do with the job.

A resume should be one page for each five years in the workforce. Keep the first page with your personal info as a header, objective, skills, and certifications. That's it for that page. Second page should be your work history starting with the most recent job working its way down previous jobs. Your job history should contain information that makes you a qualified applicant for your current job. Standard is 10 years, I dug back 12 years to include my job at Walmart driving forklifts.

Assuming you been around for 10+ years, you could start a third page (or try to fit things in on page #2 if you have less time in the workforce). The bottom section is your schooling and or training. Don't worry about high school or some college unless you learned something there that pertains for your prospective job. CDL school, Smith System, fire safety, OSHA courses... Anything like that should be noted. The idea is that once the HR person gets to the end, they are so wowed by your resume that the bottom is just icing on the cake.

Taper your ends. Fit everything into a single line if possible under Skills. These are bullet points. If you got a second line with five words or less, start abbreviating stuff to bring that line back up. People hate a bunch of blank space and it looks unprofessional.

Anyway, hope this helps. I got a bunch of other stuff I will add later. Gotta bounce and the threads don't have a save feature.

@MACK E-6 @McUzi @Cardfan89

 

And what the hell happened to @FlaSwampRat ? Hasn't been on here since Feb.

Either way, @road_runner 's dissertation is spot on. OTR companies don't care about resumes. They care about you having a clean/decent MVR/PSP record because at the volume of drivers they bring on, they are looking to minimize any negative impact to their CSA score.

LTL companies ARE interested in resumes, because of turnover... specifically, lack thereof. LTL compared to the industry has a far better retention record. Most everyone with time at the wheel knows that LTL guys are walking money bags as far as company drivers go, generally with superior benefits and of course, being home every day, so LTL is typically a coveted industry for drivers. LTL carriers have an afforded luxury of being able to be picky about whom they hire. OTR... meat in the seat.

Put some actual time into your resume, people! I keep 5 copies of my resume on my computer handy at all times, and every time I learn something new, am trained on a new skill etc, I consider how I can add that or should I add that to the resumes for the future. Each of the resumes are geared toward specific industries... tank, hazmat, ltl, oversize/flatbed and a generic resume that is easily tailored to something else that I could need.

 

I was wondering what happened to him. He was one of my favorite regulars on here. Hopefully he will return to the forum one day.

 

@McUzi is spot on as usual. LTL companies get to be picky cause turnover is significantly lower than OTR. I think there are only a handful of exceptions to the rule. Walmart is one of the few ones that comes to mind, their turnover is less than 5%.

The key factor to the higher pay and benefits is that LTL has higher profit margins. OTR truck will pick up a single shipment and move it from point A to B. They might make a few stops in between but traditionally they go straight from shipper to receiver. A single shipment will run around $2-$3 a mile? With the big LTL you will have like 40+ shipments and that truck is making $5+ a mile. Higher profit margins means they can splurge a bit on their drivers. You know, trash companies have that same phenomenon. Their profit margins sit around 25-40%. They can splurge on their labour. Their wages have zero to do with "it's a job nobody wants to do". You are a product of your productivity. But that's a whole new conversation.

5 resumes in file? You obviously have more diverse experience than me. I am at three, each one being esoteric to the fields I am experienced in. Won't advertise a specific site, but they got them out there where you can build your resume using their software. I think I coughed up $7 back in 2012 and got lifetime access and storage to my resumes. I update all of mine once a quarter or when I think things are going south with my company. It really doesn't hurt to have an active resume or five on file.

To elaborate my colleagues statement about being picky. We don't run from point A to B. You might run A to W on a typical day, then go back to E-K to do pickups. Anyone can run 11 hours on the interstate. It takes a special person that is constantly backing into places and dealing with the same people over and over again.

To further elaborate, let's say you come to a stop where you have a complex backing setup. Could be crossing multiple lanes and blocking traffic... Or just a tight squeeze and it's difficult to get it in. If there are 9 coworkers that can get in, you don't want to be the 10th man who can't and brings the freight back. You are making yourself as an employee fall into a category called undesirable. If you can't get into areas that everyone else can get into, we don't want you. Has nothing to do with you as a person, but you clearly lack the skills to run with us.

Next point is you will personally go through your trailer and touch freight. I can't speak for everyone else but my company will run a credit check. People get butt hurt about this, but if you got 8 open lines of credit and each one is maxed out and are running single digits on your credit score, we will deny you. Obviously you suck at managing your personal finance and there is too much temptation when you have access to several pallets of flat screen TVs.