Conway LTL

Thanks for all the info, but as you work on the dock do you still make the as and still get the hours in. Im doing otr for 6 months now and money is great but its hard on the family. i have been looking at ltl for conway but my only worries are not making enough at the bottom.

So what im asking is do you work 12-14 hours 5 days a week at the dock and driving? And when do benefits kick in? When your working the dock do you just load and unload trucks?

 

I'm not sure how long it takes for benefits. It can be real hard to determine how many hours you'll work when you're new because there are too many variables.

I do work about 62 to 68 hours per week driving about 500 miles per night but I'm high enough up that I can bid that run and do it every night all year long. Working the dock is pretty much unloading trailers and reloading the freight into the proper terminals trailer to take home.

 

Ok and another thing is im guessing my otr experience isn't worth anything is it. Just wasting time

 

It is for you. It won't really matter getting hired by an LTL company though.

 

Keep in mind ltl isn't for everyone. I thought being in ltl was gonna get me home all the time. It won't happen on the extra board. Years ago when I had a bid run at Estes and they hooked and unhooked my sets, life was good. I never did any dock work. Had a set schedule. Now, at Reddaway they call me in after being home for 8 hours. I'm home just enough to sleep. I put in 15 hours a day and run 500+ miles a day. It isn't as easy as people think. My days off are sporadic and usually just enough to get a restart. I actually have less time to get the things done I wanted to otr. Benefits of ltl are good pay, and eventually a good bid run. For me anyway. I don't mind hooking and breaking sets but when I do vias it takes up a lot of time.

 

Yeah that will vary by company a little though. Here and at fxf you are home everyday with weekends off. We always do our own drop/hook stuff other than hooked sets passing through and yard dogs taking care of your kite.

 

you need 10 hrs off and if they interrupt that the clock resets

 

Well, while they don't do it all the time, they have been lately. They will call at 8 or 9 hours off to give me 2 hours to get there. Sometime they ask me if I can work and other times they say we need you here asap. I'm one to always go in though, guess I really shouldn't complain about that. I know the laws and could throw that at them if I wanted. I just had a bad week. I'll quit my whining lol

 

You only do turns at fxf? That's cool. I heard you guys have to work the dock sometimes. Is that true?

 

I work for CWF not FXF . At FedEx Freight it depends on the length of your run. They do not run only meets though. I ran a meet last year at CWF that was a common point for all of the big LTL carriers and the FXF drivers coming in there all had 20+ years with Watkins or American Freight long before FXF was a company. Big mileage meet and turns are the holy grail of LTL - especially on days.