Highest paying LTL trucking company

Yes this helps thanks!

not sure what my next step will be after my 1 year of OTR. Do I grind for a few years and try to make bank? Am I in it for the long haul?

I don't know. I know I can't do OTR if I ever want a family, which I do. Not unless it was my absolute last choice and even then, yeah probably not.

Despite me not knowing what (if any) direction to take my cdl in, I am grateful that I can go into so many paths with this license.

LTL would be a good choice I think if I'm in it for the long haul. The teaming thing 4 days a week and 3 days home actually sounds kind of doable and sounds 100X better than teaming OTR and being out for 4 - 6 weeks at time. Would I still need 2 years experience for that?

What about other LTL companies, would they take me on with just a year experience?

 

I'm DEFINITELY not cut out for OTR. So I'm with you on that.

I'm not sure about other LTL companies that hire with one year of experience, and I'm not sure about their starting pay. The landscape is always changing out there, even by us.

 

Estes, Old dominion, RL carriers..that UPS pay sounds great and these other LTLs pay good too

 

No. I’d say more like 1100-1600 average. @Russian Rabbit has been documenting his pay stubs at UPSF from the beginning in his thread if you want a detailed insight to how pay might look starting off and progressing over time.

To be clear, UPS feeder drivers do run linehaul but they do not work for an LTL carrier. Most actual LTL places will take you after a year, some require more, some will take less and put you in a training program.

 

It's funny hearing you say that because when I decided I wanted to drive again I was pissed when I found out I live too far from abf to make it work. I was gonna go sit at their front door until they gave me a job lol.

 

And in other areas of the country, that is a premium job. Possibly one of the best jobs you could have. But at my terminal, it was run like a meat grinder. I'd hear about how much time off the other terminals gave, and it would literally depress me.

I recently saw an old post I made on social media. It said, "The top driver at my terminal has been here since 1985. Never have I felt so bad for someone who has made so much money." Lol

 

No. What I was referring to is top scale pay at most LTL freight carriers working 5-day bids, home every day.

Not 6 day workaholics, like Rabbit was referring to. Not extraboard/system drivers who stay out all week in hotels. Not team drivers, and not UPS feeder drivers. All of the above will make more at top scale.

There are exceptions, too. Estes in my city has fairly short bid runs. I talked to their #1 or #2 senior guy not that long ago and he said his bid grossed him less than $80k the prior year. The reason being it's a short run and he prefers that over running extraboard and being gone all week. Then you have a company like Holland, whose "OTR" (extraboard) drivers would be lucky to make $100k even though they are gone all week because of their contract paying substandard mileage rates compared to most other carriers.

My point is that pay and job responsibility runs a wide gamut. For example, don't look at @McUzi 's experience at FedEx Freight and assume that's the norm at all locations. I know a couple of guys who left them because they were at a small terminal and all they did was drive a short distance to a hub, work the dock for the bulk of the night, then drive back. They were literally on forklifts longer than they were in the truck, and they didn't make the kind of money that we've been talking about.

It all depends on company, region, terminal, and job classification. Where are you located? Research all your options and, if possible, talk to drivers from the different companies who work out of your local terminal. They will give you a better idea of what it'll be like to be a bottom man at that specific place and what the future opportunities actually are there. The rest of us can only speak to our individual experiences at our specific terminals.

 

I couldn't agree more. My center and my situation is quite an anomaly. For example, there are 3 high volume hubs that my terminal goes to. You could start at one of them and run to all three of them in a loop and only do 321 miles. This means every single one of their drivers that are bidded to run to another hub are dock workers that drive to their fork job, short of being bidded into extra board and getting kick outs to terminals like mine when there is an overage of freight vs. the outload plan or being bidded to a meet and turn or something similar. Hubs typically don't have any drivers bidded to run to end of line centers..

It's a catch 22, because at the hubs there are long seniority lists, so you'll be working the dock quite a bit, but there is generally not a shortage of work of any kind until the really slow seasons. Hubs get the newest and best equipment the company purchases. Hubs are also under the most corporate scrutiny because of the huge amount of costs associated with running it.

End of line service centers generally only get new equipment to replace aging equipment being retired to the city, and it always comes from a hub. The EOL centers however, have the highest probability for long runs.

If I had to do it all over again, I'd move somewhere in the middle of the country like Aurora, NE where the shortest run is over 500 miles and consists of nothing but meets because of it being a relay yard.

 

But the main point being, that earning that 1100-1600 starting out would be working 5 days a week with 10-12 hour days, and with 2 days (or a 34 hour reset) off. Right?

Rather than the 7 days OTR for a month straight no day off (or maybe one 34 in there) with 8.5 - 10 hour days on paper, but really longer when you include all the waiting around/checking in and out of the warehouses, fueling and pre/post trip.

And then for the drivers who do stay out OTR for some nights, they get a hotel.

On paper LTL sounds way better work wise, money wise and lifestyle wise.

Another question: How long is training usually at LTL companies (I know each are different)?

For example, even if I had to go OTR with a trainer again, we would be staying overnights in a hotel and not in a truck, yeah? Which would make that part way better I think.

How long is LTL training usually for before they let you run solo?

Would you guys say the training process is much easier with LTL than when I first got my CDl and went OTR with my trainer for a month straight? I'm thinking it must be so much easier not living with your trainer 24/7.

I have my doubles and triples and tanker endorsements. I'm assuming I would need my hazmat endorsement too, right? I would be a bit nervous about messing up on my placards or not hooking my doubles correctly, I would definitely have to study up on those things again. Though I'm assuming they would train me up good.

 

You are much better off with almost any LTL job than OTR.
Once you get a full year under your belt you should be able to land an LTL job.
Just keep your record clean.