FFE linehaul

I’m out of the Rocky Mount NC terminal. When I do a linehaul load, I ONLY go to the Lithonia GA terminal. We can go to Xenia OH, Burlington NJ or Lithonia GA out of Rocky Mount. I live 2 hours away from my terminal, unlike most of the drivers who live in or near the terminal so I stay in my truck at the terminal all week while they go home every night. I mostly run the I-95 corridor as far up as Alexandria VA and the Hampton Roads area of VA. I’d much rather run down into SC, but that’s not how it’s set up. Dispatch here is set up a lot differently. There are only 3-one handles VA, one handles western NC and some SC and the third handles local NC and extreme eastern SC. At least I think that’s how it is. Dispatch here is only M-F from 9-ish to 5-ish - maybe - so it’s hard to figure out who does what sometimes. I know my dispatcher only handles VA. GA dispatch is good and 24/7, but it’s a small terminal with no amenities. Keep checking once you get hired if you decide you want regional. They may eventually have an opening. FFE seems to be a company where drivers stay. I’ve met quite a few who have 15+ years here. Good luck to you!

 

So on the line haul, I’m near the Lancaster terminal, what kind of miles could I expect here? How much does it pay to deliver the local loads? If you work at it how much could you expect to make weekly? Some will pay you while you’re off. Does FFE pay you for your off days like KLLM?

 

FFE does NOT pay for your off days, even on the road. Hourly pay for local loads and linehaul cpm pays according to your experience. I cannot speak for Lancaster for local as I have not done local there. I did talk to a driver who is out of Lancaster a while ago who said she had to go back to linehaul because she didn’t make enough on local. As for linehaul, it is what you make it AND depends a lot on when you arrive at the terminals. Monday-Wednesday linehaul loads are not usually loaded at any terminal, only local loads. Had I known KLLM paid more, I probably would’ve gone there, but once I talked to FFE, KLLM said they couldn’t talk with me until I had been with FFE for a year. I can tell you I make pretty decent money here.

 

what sort of miles can you expect? And thank you for all that info! That’s weird that they shut down loading trailers for a few days. That doesn’t seem like it would be good for drivers. What do you do from Sunday to Wednesday?

 

Since you drove for them, there was this Pink 359 back in the mid 80’s that I kept seeing in the LA Commiefornia area like twice a week. Was pulling FFE trailer. I’m sure that was there route, always had there CB radio on. The truck stuck out like a sore thumb but I mean it was clean. Did you know anything about them ?

 

I think I ran an average of 2800 miles per week when I was on linehaul.

They don’t shut down loading trailers, they just don’t load linehaul. During the week, local/regional drivers deliver the freight that comes into the terminal on linehaul drivers over the weekend (Thursday-Sunday) and also pick up freight in the area that goes on those end of the week linehaul loads to be shuttled to other terminals. The freight is brought to the terminal, unloaded, put into stock, and earmarked for whatever terminal is close to the customer it is destined for. Then, once there is enough freight for a load, linehaul creates the load on their end for the linehaul drivers. Local/regional drivers don’t work on the weekends 99% of the time. Linehaul drivers have the option to run local/regional loads if there are any extra while they wait for a linehaul load. So, the freight gets picked up M-F by local drivers and goes out Th-Su on linehaul drivers. That’s just the way FFE does things. The why and whatnot is above my pay grade.

 

So it sounds like it’s possible to make $1600 a week linehaul or more?

 

Depends on how hard you run, but pretty much.

 

Did you ever work for Lisa/MTC? I used to back in the mid 90's until 2003