Auto Truck Transport

Can anybody give any current information about Auto Truck Transport?

I read the old ATT thread (all 29 pages). But most of that information is 10 - 15 years old. I would love to know what the current situation is.

Does the Portland, OR location have good runs? Are the Portland runs mostly to Canada and to the East Coast? Any good money there?

I briefly talked to an ATT recruiter a few weeks ago who threw the $75k/year at me. I assumed when he said that that was mostly aspirational thinking. So we're probably looking at what? $50-65?

He also told me ATT is mostly east coast and Canada. I was under the impression they delivered in all 48 states and the lower Canadian Provinces. Does he know what he's talking about?

I'm an ex-Yellow Teamster. I need something that will get me to retirement in approximately 10 years.

I'm thinking if I have to go OTR anyway, and if I have to be out 3-4 weeks at a time with 2-3 days off (what Prime tried to sell me), I might as well go with ATT and drive mostly daylight, avoiding truck stops, going interesting places, and doing it without a dashcam. I'm used to crappy hotels and absurd union hassles.

Any thoughts?

 

Thanks for the response. Those are all very much up my alley way.

Unfortunately, I have 2 tickets on my MVR in the last 3 years. For that reason UPS, FedEx, Walmart, USPS, etc. won't even look at me, even though I have over 2 million safe miles and previous to those 2 tickets I had a 15 year clean record.

The smaller regional freight/tanker companies are scared of ex-Teamsters.

Unionized Food and beverage distributors won't consider me because of my age. (57)

Which seems to only leave large OTR outfits desperate for drivers as possible options.

Next year my oldest traffic ticket will fall off my record. But in the mean time? I don't know.

With my experience and my endorsements it seems unfair that I'm struggling to find anything. But there it is.

 

Thanks for all the good suggestions. I found a 600 mile dedicated run with a non-union TL carrier that I'm gonna try. It's no-touch freight and goes right by my house so hopefully I'll be able to take some of my 10 hr breaks and 34 hr resets at home. Depending on traffic, I may even be able to turn it most days. The pay has the potential to be better then NMFA, (and much better than ATT) however the benefits suck. Which is often the case nowadays. We'll see how it goes. Of course, it's non-union so they can pull the rug out from under me at anytime and force me into regional work, which I fully expect them to do. But even then, apart from being away from home, it's easy work and pays well.

I have 30 years paid into the Teamster Pension so my retirement is mostly secure (although politics can change). Killing myself to continue to pay into the Teamster pension gains me little at this point. After 30 yrs of paying in, the pay out doesn't get appreciably bigger. It would be better to start paying into a separate pension, like, say, UPS, USPS, (or some other gvmnt job) to sublimate the Teamster pension. I'm gonna continue to look for a way to do that.

I don't live in OR. I live in So Cal. There is a lot of non-union intermodal work here (CRST offered me $22/hr), as well as Teamster food/beverage distributors. I think it'd be foolish to go to Portland for ATT, although it is union and delivering new trucks appeals to me.

I'm gonna do this TL thing for awhile until the current glut of ex-Yellow employees works its way thru the system. I interviewed with a Teamster food distributor who told me he was also interviewing 5 other drivers for the same part-time, night-time job. He didn't tell me how many had applied, but he said right now hiring is easy.