How’s the LTL sector doing where you’re at?

I don’t mind dock work for extra hours. In fact, I love getting 55 hours a week with ot pay after 40. And it’s the same pay as p&d.

 

It's not that most of us hate working the dock, although dock work can really suck if you get a bad trailer to break out, but using one of my past jobs as a example there can be a upside and downside to driver/dockwork, CWX was a overtime after 8 company, so p&d drivers that worked the dock after coming back from their routes accumulated overtime, all fine and good, but linehaul drivers who had reship runs, would be paid milage for driving from their terminal to the bulk break and then go on the clock for their dock hours, then go back on milage for their return trip home, the issue was though that even those days ended being 15 hour days back then, it was all paid straight time, no over time, and yes you did loose money on the hourly portion, you were better off knocking out a 500 mile run as opposed to getting 300 miles and five hours of dock work.

 

You like being out in the cold for hours at 17 degrees?
You like the constant stress of trying to avoid collisions with other forklifts, most dockworkers MEAN business, which is good for productivity though.

i don't like it because it's boring because "management" doesn't set it up right. It's inefficient.

Now, outbound i actually enjoy because it's exciting----you're setting the freight we picked up during the day to it's final destinations. Plus, afterwards you know you're going home vs. hub work----after you've been thru controlled insanity for a few hours, now you have to make it back to your home terminal thru the night and then meet up with rush hour traffic----then try to sleep while the sun is out.

i liked it better at NEMF----NO DOCKWORK UNLESS YOU WANTED TO.

 

It takes a special breed to work the dock especially in the middle of the night in all sorts of bad weather.

Most of them work fast+furiously. Good for productivity, not necessarily good for worker relations......

So i say, let dockworkers work the dock, let drivers drive? If we would set it up more efficiently the drivers could take their DOT break hook to the outbound trailer (if you used vans instead of ##### around with pups) do a pre-trip and pretty soon the trailer is ready and they're on their way.

But whatever.........

 

I’m thankful for my 500+ mile turn.. I want no part of that dock.

 

I loathe working the dock myself. Absolutely want no part of it.

 

I work the dock about 30-35 hours a week ever since it slowed down. I work the outbound at my center drive 60 miles then work the dock more. I’m used to it because I feel I’m payed well to drive a forklift but every now and then I get a good run then I’m miserable the next couple days because I remember how much I enjoy driving. Doing what I got to do to keep a decent check every week. I’m thankful for what I’m still bringing home with all that’s going on. I’ve been doing this since before the red flu started.

 

I don't mind kicking a few skids off the tail enroute to a destination terminal, but I agree: I don't want hours and hours of dock time.

As was mentioned before--at my company, dock time could be good for hourly P&D drivers in terms of padding hours for more overtime, but for linehaul drivers we make less money per hour on the dock than on the road, and none of it is considered OT no matter how many total hours we work (hours on the road paid mileage don't count toward OT).

 

Not all of us hate it. Some of the most senior drivers will bid on morning dock with no driving. They'd come in 4 AM and be off by noon.

The reason why I don't like it is cause they got us on a soft layoff and they have us working outbound dock with a PM start time. I can't stand it because I won't be clocking out until 10:30 PM tonight and won't be home until past 11:00.

As some of the other guys pointed out, you are constantly dodging each other. It's quite remarkable how you have 12 lifts going at the same time in a confined area without people killing each other. Then you got the constant noise and you are yelling at each other. The more skilled drivers are constantly frustrated with us city drivers filling in.

It's not a terrible gig if you have one or two friends (or people you get along with) and you work together and tag team a trailer. That's the best case scenario when you look busy, are busy, kill time, and stay in your own bubble.