Could someone please explain...

Ltl isn't everything, just a FYI.

 

Regional: You cover several states. Example: Northeast Region typically covers PA/NJ and states north.
Dedicated: You pull for one customer.
Line haul: Generally the national fleet.
P&D: Pickup and delivery.
Local: What you'd expect. Probably home every night.

 

Hi yankeefan, line haul LTL is kind of a contradiction of terms.(I think) Line haul generally means, you take a full trailer (or 2) to the same place everyday (or night) over the same route with no other pickups or deliveries, where LTL you make many stops picking up a pallet here, a pallet there.

 

Well, kind of.

Take FedEx for an example. They're an LTL company. They take a bunch of little boxes from a bunch of places, put them into a big box (truck or plane), then take them out to go to a bunch of different places. LTL Line haul for them would be taking a full trailer between regional facilities, like NJ -> TN.

 

LTL just means Less than Truckload. A multi drop or pickup , putting multiplr customers in the same trailer. Line Haul is not LTL. It could be but not till it gets sorted out at the Fedx dock.

I generaly like LtL regional or 11 west pays more for the extra stops.

 

I think some may be splitting hairs. Line haul for the company I used to work for was part of their LTL operation. I left my home terminal every night, took a trailer full of individual shipments (LTL) to a relay point or terminal, dropped that, hooked to another trailer full of individual shipments, returned to home terminal and went home for the day. Fed Ex ground, who I'm working for now runs their LTL line haul the same way. And some times the LTL line haul gets to visit multiple terminals throughout the course of a shift. I may have a pup for Fed Ex ground in Detroit and a pup for Fed Ex home delivery in Detroit as well so, I go to ground, drop my tail, hook up an empty, go to home delivery, bust every thing apart, drop their pup, grab an empty, hook everything back together and go back to my home terminal. My second run could be close to the same or just a simple one stop out and back.

Now some companies run their line haul differently. I know Dayton Freight runs much of their line haul operation more as system line haul deal, they do also have some out and back homes daily. A buddy of mine would leave out Monday night and visit 5 or 6 different terminals throughout the Midwest during his week and stay in motels every night and come back Saturday morning. But they still are LTL as they haul multiple shipments on their full trailers.

I've also done a dedicated produce LTL where I left from the same home terminal and went to between 3-4 three drops in Cleveland, OH, 1 drop in Pittsburgh, PA, 2-3 drops in Harrisburg, PA, 1-2 drops at the Philadelphia, PA market, and my final in Cherry Hill, NJ. I was going to the same customers every stop, thus the calling it dedicated. Sometimes I'd get a back haul out of NJ and return to the home terminal for some one else to deliver that or sometimes I'd deliver it before I went back out for my second round trip of the week and sometimes, not usually, I'd dead head all the way back.

So what I'm really saying with all this is that it doesn't really matter what definition some put on particular jobs, you still have to "read the fine print" to find out the details of what a particular job entails no matter what they call it.

 

What grumppy said. And if you dont know what you like see if they would give you the option of switching out after 6 months or year, (gotta go through a winter before you really know)