How's Everyone Doing in LTL Right Now?

You scared me away (jk lol)

 

What part of the country are you in? Out here in the state of ID the local jobs hardly pay anything over $20-24 per hour.

 

Do you not have Albertsons? They should be close to $30/hr. I know there's LTL companies out there, and the big ones all pay around $30 if not higher.

 

Well, I didn't get run off, but life has been keeping me away.

I am currently out of LTL and have been since 2023. As some of you remember, a somewhat noteworthy event happened in the summer of that year were two groups of grown men decided they were no longer getting along. The people that lead the charge and countercharge walked away fairly well off. Everyone else in the middle kinda ended up being unemployed. This had a very profound impact on both my finances and psyche. (Sorry, I am still super salty).

So I moved on and ended up working for a concrete company driving a mixer truck. After about a year of doing that, the lone Class A positioned opened up in the company and now I am driving a pneumatic tanker and occasionally a dump trailer. Of course as usual, I have way more luck than common sense, and a previous layoff at Holland placed me on a farm in Montana driving a pneumatic tanker for a few weeks in 2022. This was enough experience for my boss to give me the position over anyone else. And yes, there were others that were incredibly pissed off that I got that job.

My job consists of driving out an hour, getting live loaded with cement, then bringing the load back where I live unload it by blowing it out into a silo. A round trip with loading and unloading is a 4-5 hour process, so usually I only do two trips a day. Believe me when I say this: THIS IS CAKE WORK. The worst part of my day is having to go over a east and westbound scale; twice a day each, and hope they do not call me in. I love my job. So I now make $25.60 an hour, which is only down a few cents where I was making $26.50 at Holland. The real benefit is that I get at least 10 hours of OT a week where I was basically getting no OT at Holland. People also leave me alone and I can pretty much pick what time I want to come in. There is always something to do. If there isn't enough construction going on, I will drop my pneumatic trailer and just stockpile rocks or sand for my plant.

The other life changing event I had was that when I lost my old job, I followed some advice from a financial guru on the radio. After about 2 years of doing things differently, I managed to pay off all of my debt and I am almost done paying off my house. I have like $46K left on it and I should be able to get it knocked out in three years. I've also made the decision to pack up when the house is paid off and move back West. The South is not for us anymore. I think once I am back in Montana, I'll either stay doing aggregate work or maybe switch over to LTL again.

As always, I hope everyone else is doing well. I know things are shaky but I honestly think that things with the economy are just short term. There is a lot of geopolitical posturing going on between everyone and it is freaking out the markets. The US economy has always made a comeback and this time will be no exception. I know that doesn't help much for people feeling the pain right now, but keep your heads up and keep looking if you are underemployed or out of work entirely.

 

I’m a yard boy now.

they get P&D positions every once in a while, but I tell my supervisor I’m done with that. Did it for cooper for 8-years. I ain’t peddling freight unless I get an electric pallet jack, or I need a job asap.

Touching freight is beyond me - think I forgot how to use a pallet jack.

 

Things have only gotten worse at my barn. Seems to be more linehaul trucks sitting than running every time I visit the yard. I don't know how the city guys are doing, but wild board linehaul drivers are apparently sitting 48+hrs between runs.

Only people running normally are team drivers, of which I'm part of wild team #1. In January/February we were typically called in around 3:30-6:30am, but now it's become 10-11am.

 

Talked to a guy still working at the yard I was laid off from. Line guys are missing a run about every 10 days as an average. Pickup volume is shaping up to be down 12-15%. Delivery is all over the place but almost consistent. Extra board guy is running about 50 hours a week down from hitting his 70. Other combo guy got cut but they hired dock/yard dog guys in at about 10 dollars an hour less.

Not sure if that is the standard for the time being or not. Cut the costly combo dock+driver guys and bring in cut rate dock workers and shuffle the extra P&D onto dedicated P&D guys but that seems like what my former terminal did. Seems like a hell of a morale hit to save a few hundred dollars a week.

But hey, trucking is ruthless and drivers are always just numbers in this business. At least we got laid off and can collect unemployment rather than have our retirement burned at the stake like some weiners.

 

I used to team drive for Watkins Motor Lines. When we missed a run because of no freight, my partner and I both applied for unemployment on those days. Management said nothing but we soon realized we hardly ever got non dispatched.
If an employer has a bad experience rating on unemoloyment claims, thier rates go up. Other drivers didnt file for unemployment, likely did not know you could. This was in Georgia if that makes a difference. Shortly thereafter they were bought out by FedEx.

 

I’m in food service in SoCal with 10 years plus senority and it’s dead slow worse than 2008 recession, the bottom guys are doing 4 hour days if they’re not called to stay home

 

Not LTL but haul fuel and I can confirm we are still slow as well. Sitting a day a week currently.