ABF road driver position - Little Rock

everything goes by senority,You start out on the extra board ,meaning you get to do all the less than desirable runs that the senior drivers pass on, you will drive mostly at night, you will sleep in a hotel room on layover runs and at your home on turns.. 400 to 450 miles a night, it may take 2 or 3 years to get top pay.. .50 something cents per mile, its a union job ..the first year will be horrible {maybe} you may work 6 nights a week or only two depends on freight.I'm sure they wouldn't hire you if they didn't need you...I would jump all over that ABF job dude ..you get paid for everything you do... Once you have a bid run at top pay 80k a year is the norm..and the bennies are great... This I say as a 15 year YRC LTL driver

 

By the time Im 25 , I hope to get on at ABF myself.

I know a few guys that have retired after 30 years there and they loved it there.

 

LOL cant really say that about ,swift cr, marten..well you get the picture..

 

If you can afford being on the extra board then take it right away. You will do either layovers or turns. Bigdogpile pretty much summed it all up. I'm also a line driver at YRC

 

Concerns me a little that you start off asking that question. Would seem you would have that answer and know how they operate before even talking to HR. That termanal is freakin huge and so many people work there it is not hard to find a friend who knows somebody that drives for them. Heck try FaceBook to find a driver. Or ask here before calling HR. HR wants you to look like you have the job already. There are hundreds who apply for a union job and you want to stand out from that pack, not look foolish.

My Dad retired from there years ago and now spends his live cruising here and there. Have/Had great benifits. Had a friend killed driving a local last year for them. Sadly it was him to blame for driving too fast in the rain.

Good Luck and slow down...all the fuel haulers around here run 90 to nuthin' on 440.

 

Dogpile got most of everything. There are some things I see different though. With the new HoS regs kicking in, you will only run five nights a week. You may be union or you may not depending where you live. If you are union, your pay and benefits will either be greater than, or equal to non-union. I am non-union and talked to another driver that was union and our pay and benefits were identical. Only difference is that I pay the $50 bucks a month for my health care and he does not. He does end up paying that same amount in union dues each month, so it equals out. That is all I will say on that.

Union or non-union, I will agree that you will get the less desireable runs though and are the first one to get called off (I am sitting on my couch right now waiting on my call as I am typing this).

95% of our runs are turns, meaning go out a few hundred miles, meet a driver at either another terminal or turnpoint and then come back home. Most of the time you will start between 6 PM and 11 PM depending how your company has their routes set. If you do run out of hours or they intentionally push you out further, you will stay at a hotel to take your ten hours off. Expect to be out in a hotel maybe two to six times a month. Again. It depends on your company staffing and how many people call in sick.

Most of your runs will be in your homstate or region. I live in a large western state and rarely leave my border. I started at 36 cpm and get an annual raise of 2.5 cpm until I cap out at 50 cpm. Vacation time varies by carrier. Typical setup will be one week paid after a year, then two weeks after three years, then three weeks after twelve years. They just cut our vacation package. Oh well. You should get paid holidays whether you work or not

Hometime should be daily with set weekends off. I am off Sunday and Monday night's.

You will rarely deal with actual customers. Most of your interaction will be dropping off a trailer at a terminal or backing it into a dock. You will get friendly with different dock crews and other linedrivers really really fast. You may get tagged to do some P&D runs in your immediate area if you get back early and your home terminal is short. Then they pay you by the hour. Every once in awhile they ask me to hook to an empty trailer, drive two blocks down the street, have some local bakery load two pallets of bread and then head back. Pretty easy stuff.

Feel free ask about anything else I missed or that you wanna known. I am an open book.

 

@roadrunner you guys got screwed on vacation. I got a year in and got 2 weeks, and we get up to 5 weeks. We get tagged with p/d as well but all drop and hook. Did it last week one day at the capital. All easy, got 8 hours of it lol.

All of ABF is union.

the new HOS isn't affecting me since I only run 5 days a week

 

I'm a road driver for ABF and will try to answer a few questions.
- we are 100% union..top pay .61 CPM...$24.50 hourly rate for anything you do other than driving (drop and hook..waiting time.. breakdown... road closure... fueling..ect) ...I believe you start at 80 or 85% of top scale and takes 2 or 3 years to top out...vacation is 1 week 1year 2/2yr. 3/8yr. 4/15yr. 5/20 yr. 6/25yr...Union dues are 2.5 times your hourly rate per month($62 per month at full scale) covers pension contributions and family health insurance at no cost....8 paid holidays 5 sick days and personal day...

I don't work out of Little Rock so can't speak to specific runs they do. Mostly will stay within 500-600 mile radius. Some turns but most likely majority will be "lay" runs. You stay in motels some nicer than others. Everything is based on seniority. I believe Little Rock calls drivers at 3AM 6AM 9AM noon 3PM 6PM and 9PM and midnight.They take available runs and start with most senior driver and give them choice and work their way down list until nothing left. Sometimes you may get 3-4-5 choices and next time none. After you receive work call you have 2hours to report. Again I don't know much about LR but we normally go out and back. In 15 years longest I've been away from home is 3-4 days. Once you return home you have up to 12 hours before going back on call. After completing 6 trips you hove the option to mark off 48 hours or at 12 trips 72 hours off.

The first couple years will be rough and expect to be laid off during winter months. As far as getting a set schedule it could be a long time at my terminal takes around 10 years. Although that can differ greatly between terminals. If you can stick it out you will be begging for a day off. Most drivers average between 75-100K annually.

Now the bad news if your not aware we have been working under contract extension since April 1. Supposed to vote on new 5yr.deal by July 1. If proposal passes everyone will take 7% cut in pay along with 1 week of vacation lost among other changes. However new hires would start at 90% of full scale and only take them 1 year to top out. Don't expect any hiring before contract is settled.


ABF is extremely picky on who the hire. They want clean MVR and no criminal record. Also no job hoppers. They will verify everything on application so don't lie or leave anything off because they will catch it and your out. Better to tell them the truth and explain it.



ABF recently pulled permits for a $10 million expansion in Memphis. There is a lot of rumor and speculation about downsizing at Little Rock. If you were interested this would be first question I would be asking.

Overall its a good place to work. For the most part if you do your job they leave you alone. Its not as good as it once was but no LTL company is.