Curious about R&L out of Richmond VA

My experience in LTL is when times are busy, holy Jesus are they

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bittersweet

. When times are slow, holy Jesus tap dancing Christ they are

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miserable

.

When we were running wide open last year I was being sent to other terminals to in hotels for a month at a time with all of that per diem, 70 hours a week, as much line as I could squeeze in, taking home 10k dollars a month after taxes with the per diem. But I spent a month in a tiny hotel room turning on my 10s and 34s. No freetime and nothing to do but work.

Over the winter and up until I got laid off it was 20-25 hours a week. No extra line on the weekend. Mandatory off days but without any predictability. On call 24/7. Sleeping 3-4 hours a night as various dispatchers and managers texted me saying they might need something or not and cancelling constantly. Driving an hour into work only to show up and be told wait a couple hours without clocking in and sit in the break room until the trailer or customer was ready. Being called in to work at 5:30 AM and being delayed an hour 5-10 times in a day until I finally got told to come in at 9pm to work the dock for 2 ####ing hours and turn around and drive an hour home. Then at 5am the next day my phone would be going off about not needing to come into work, only for it to go off 3 hours later saying I was needed for a 3 hour shift.

You never had time off on either side of things because of being on call or being too busy. I'd have to plan month in advance and often use PTO time just to get a haircut. But when times are good you making an absolute killing. Just don't get used to that money until you've been there for a decade and have the seniority to always run even in the slow times.

Being at a mid sized yard sucks. It's far worse being in a combo position at one.

 

wtf wtf wtf

 

Did you work for ABF? Sounded like what things would look like up here in Portland

 

The other big green meanie.

Of course, I'm not the typical "type A" trucker personality with boisterous claims of quitting the second the slightest inconvenience comes my way. I am very quiet at work and don't rock the boat. Unfortunately at every trucking job I've been this gets you #### on relentlessly until you reach a breaking point. Meanwhile the crybabies get the cakewalks just to shut them up.

I'd have had a lot better time had I went to the boss to complain like most everyone else did.

Kind of figured with ABF being union that kind of jerking folks around wouldn't have been common. Idk

 

I applied in Portland a few months ago and that is basically what they told me would be the case. Linehaul guys have 4 check in times at like midnight, 0600,noon, and 1800. I’m not into that. And also no set days off. Just time off when your clock runs out.

 

I heard od was that way years back for extra board linehaul. You got a 10 until you got a 34 and you ran whenever and wherever dispatch said. But the turnover rate was so high they went to 5 days whenever wherever with 2 set days off to keep guys from jumping ship.

I tried like hell to get over to line but to no avail. I didn't mind running line on call but dock and P&D on call whenever to wherever drove me nuts. Especially with the:

"Start now, no wait, okay maybe in a couple hours, no we don't need you today, oh #### emergency! We need you now!"

On top of dealing with that ######## and seeing a check of ~850 bucks for the week before taxes. Whole week of sitting by the phone, driving halfway in and turning around and going back home for a couple hours for a few hundred dollars.

 

F that. Certain point better off learning to say Thankyou for shopping at Walmart.

 

Pulling in the kind of money when times were busy is second to none. There are line guys there pulling 130k+ a year. It's hard to shake off those golden handcuffs. I wish I could have made it to line there, my life would be a lot different than the direction it's heading now. I hated being in that spot but I saw greener pastures in the future.

.90cpm to just drive the same turn endlessly for a decade can give you that coveted 40 year old retirement if you live frugally.

I don't even give a #### about a direction in life now. Gonna be car livin' for a while and exploring the US and Canada. Maybe find some other direction. I gave up all of my 20s and youth to work hard and stare out a windshield. I've got a down payment for a house saved up and a lot of neat pictures. That's about it.