Dedicated Route Inquiry

Dedicated routes aren't for everyone.
Some drivers are content and happy doing the same route every day or week and doing that for decades.
Some of us prefer 'irregular route OTR' trucking, which means you never know from one load to the next where you'll be heading; may be anywhere in the USA.

 

Hello, welcome aboard. That's not entirely true, fact is, many new drivers are assigned to dedicated routes until they get their sea legs. It burns you out the quickest, and always a high turnover. The best thing with a dedicated route, is you can't get lost, you get to meet cool people that you see everyday, week ( or whatever) the down side, is it's incredibly boring, trucking, for most, is all about adventure,,or was. Far as risk of crashes in a dedicated route, isn't true either, again, fact is, it's actually safer, because you aren't concerned with trying to find some place new in a strange place, you are familiar with the route, hopefully knowing where a hazard may be. If I did it again, ( when pigs fly) I'd most certainly go for a dedicated route. Good luck.

 

The dedicated account I worked on for 18 years kept the customer for all that time. Approximately every 12 months the trucking company posted all of the available runs, ditto for all of the tractors we drove. Starting with the most senior driver, we each picked which run (usually 1-4 customers and associated appointments/locations) that were not already picked by someone more senior. Then we each picked which truck to drive. The runs were paired with another run, one day run and the other a night run. The first/most senior driver to pick a truck decided the truck choice for the paired run. For example, if the most senior driver selected run #11 Day in truck 2512, then whichever driver selected run #11 Night would be driving truck 2512. Each driver selected in order, with each more junior driver having less available runs &btrucks to choose from.

Occasionally, or often, the customer would add/delete runs or appointment times. Management would make changes to accommodate those by adjusting the start times, the customers, or appointment times.

I started as Seniority #35. I got hired first in a group of 30 new-hires. This effectively gave me seniority over them. For various reasons, including great advice from my dad Seniority #2, I picked night schedules. This allowed me to choose great night runs, starting when I wanted and going to good shippers. I avoided thecshippers with frequent late shipments, or going to high traffic areas, or finishing at convenient times. All of the good day runs were taken. All of the night runs were open. I wound up working nights for my whole stay at the company. It was great until the customer demands meant working mandatory 6 day weeks with nobody getting 2 weekend days off. Most drivers got a Friday or Saturday or Sunday off plus one weekday off. Some of the shippers wouldn't work a 6th day so choosing that customer meant a day off.

Companies can assign dedicated runs any ol' way they want. And trucking companies gain/lose dedicated customers frequently. You can hire into a dedicated account that has been secure for 20 years only to watch the customer move to another trucking company next week. You cannot know if it will happen or not. The only thingvstable in trucking is that customers need freight moved and there is always a trucking company willing to work cheaper than your company.

 

Apply to a LTL linehaul driving job.

 

I had a friend that had a dedicated route out of Patrick Cudahy, it was maybe a 10 stop deal to Ohio, and he did that for at least 20 years. I did the route for a couple of weeks for him while he went on vacation, and I could see why. The people were great, if you had a problem at a stop, you could call the next stop, and they were totally cool. Some great people in Ohio. It sucks being a stranger all the time.

 

I found after 3 years doing the same schedule and customer I needed to change to another one. If I lingered for more time I started acting like the shipper was working for me, rather than me for them. Atbthe endcI kept going to the same customer for 5 years, as it was the easiest customer, one round-trip per night, and most of the miles were rural.

It's nice learning the ins & outs of a route and seeing the same people, if they are nice. New guys got stuck going to crappy customers until they quit.

 

To the op, dedicated work is sometimes the hardest work out there because you become very complacent in your driving and routines. I have a bunch of dedicated routes and I have to rotate drivers because they easily get burned out.