How hard is it getting into LTL?

Those are never updated though. If they have hiring ads on NEW trailers, then that might be a problem.

 

Don’t take this to Heart what i’m about to say , but 2 years experience otr and a clean driving record in these times where it’s extremely slow and an election year Is probably the bare minimum for qualifying for any decent good paying ltl or even local driving positions. Like everyone has said it’s an Employers market right now and you can guarantee that they are cherry picking who they call for interviews. Ie a driver who like me has 16 years local experience and some ltl , driving around a big city and a clean commercial driving record . will probably have a better shot at getting an interview then a 2 year experience otr guy . Not saying your experience doesn’t mean much but in these times that’s how it works or you have to know someone who works for the company. Even i’m not getting calls back on jobs i’ve applied for , just keep trying and be sure to ask about layoffs especially in the LTL world

 

Not necessarily. I’m at a small ODFL terminal, and we just hired a new P&D driver with about 18 months experience. They want newer drivers who will adapt, instead of older drivers stuck in their ways. It all depends on the location and manager.

 

Dude, Holland had hiring ads on their trailers and websites the week Yellow sank everyone. Upper management decorates the back of the trailers with those ads during good economical times of anticipated growth and leaves them up.

 

Not at Estes. You're not coming in top scale no matter what's going on lol

 

The reason is because it's free advertising, so why wouldn't they? If they have to pay for billboards or radio ads, that's different - then they're either growing rapidly or have high turnover.

 

Just two years ago I got callbacks within 2-3 days from OD/Saia/Estes/ABF/R&L. Just my luck I got a bid and decided to stay at Yellow. What a bad move. Now I don't getany response from those same companies at all anymore. The job market right now is seriously awful. All I see on Indeed are absolute trash companies paying 0.55~0.62 CPM. I'm honestly considering just going into a trade.

 

I keep an eye on job postings just to see what's out there, and I came across a listing for a local job hauling milk, in a manual transmission truck...for $19/hr. Another one was doing overnight linehaul, minimum 3yrs experience required, for $300-340 per day as a 1099 contractor.

 

I've heard the same over at OD from a former coworker who got hired on there. He's a little annoyed with the combo position they're running him on. He also didn't start at top pay with like 5-6 years exp. He's a solid dude with a lot of varied experience, runs hard and will blow away most fat slob drivers. He says the past 3 months he's done nothing but dock. Hasn't even sat in a truck. He says OD definitely wants you to toe the company line 24/7. Seems strange to me to be paying exclusively dock workers like 25/hr and to be having a trucker work dock everyday at 33 or so an hour.

I got into P&D at a big ltl a couple months ago. Have a lot of experience and work hard/not 300lbs. It's up and down a lot. Took me months to find any decent driving job. ABF didn't even call me about my application until 3 months after applying. The big mega carriers and OTR companies wouldn't take me, probably because I'm not a greenhorn. Food service wouldn't even call back. I have heard some of the mega's are paying .40-.45 cpm nowadays. Don't even know how someone survives on that now unless they just live homeless in the truck. My rent is 1800/Mo for a studio apartment.

I'm in the same mindset. My company is saying I might be bumped to dock work if things slow down much more. I was out of work for 3 months and had to do crappy odd jobs just to make some money until I got picked up into ltl. I want linehaul but you know how it goes, seniority etc. One of the things about ltl is that seniority game. I've spent many years paying my dues eating #### day after day for years and working miserable trucking jobs for garbage pay. It's really, really tough coming into the ltl game and being back to square one and being told by management it might be 5 years before I get something decent. It's really quite grating when you see these other guys coming up to you #####ing and moaning about nitpicking nonsense like not airing down the seat when you get out a truck at the end of the day and talking to you like it's the first day of CDL school when you know these babied linehaul drivers who were dock to driver guys would #### their pants if they had to take a truck where you've taken one. But it's all that company seniority that makes them high and righteous. Nevermind these fat turds have never thrown a 150lb iced up tarp in a blizzard in Wyoming in 80mph winds or had a chemical hose rupture because the company won't buy new hoses and get sprayed with acid.

Meanwhile the management always come around with a scornful look and dangle the threat of layoffs Infront of everybody to scare them. I can't speak for other ltl companies but so far I'll say that there is definitely a price to pay to be the highest paid drivers and not have to do back breaking manual labor. I wish OTR paid even remotely decent these days. If I could make around .70 cpm and get 2500+ miles a week and work a 4 week on, 1 week off schedule I'd be gone in a second. Boy I would love to not have to talk to people and make enough money to pay the bills. That's the worst part about P&D, the incessant banal conversations about nothing. I want to say shut up, take these stupid pallets and let me go to the next stop so I can go home and be alone.

 

…tow the line on the dock? Yeah, that makes sense. There’s standards for loading and unloading for a reason. They don’t just dump it in there and slam the doors like cheaper carriers. As far as driving, I’ve been here a year and a half, and no one has said so much as “boo” to me. Even had a rather large mechanical/brake problem with a trash loaner Volvo, and they commended me for “saving the load” (it wasn’t hard to do). We have two combo drivers who have delivery runs, daily, and pick up linehaul weekends if they want it.