How's Everyone Doing in LTL Right Now?

Glad that ####s illegal in my state.

trailers and combinations are getting bigger, but not the paychecks

 

I've pulled them like this several times during my Reddaway days in Montana. Typically the front pup is a T/L that was picked up or in the process of being dropped off and the rear long box is either a lift gate or very light/empty. It's one of the few times where you also have to super carefully plan your route out of town based on what turns you may encounter. Left turns only and only if they are wide.

I don't miss those days.

 

Twin 48's pull better than pups. Just take it slow going into tight spots. You'll do fine.

 

No, that weight imbalance was against policy too. I still have my original LCV training materials somewhere, I’ll see if I can find what weight difference I was told is tolerated between a lightly loaded 48’ and a heavy pup.

If I had a rocky set and needed to drop the van on a via, I would just swap it for an empty pup. The other option would be to just single out of there with the loaded pup, but that meant calling in to central dispatch to modify the trip, which was usually a pain.

 

Had to do an incident report about an injury for someone I witnessed.

management tried to get me to lie/reword my report after the fact.

think TM don’t like me now cause I don’t em no. I don’t know what ramifications that could cause for me.

 

Well let me tell you something you won't hear back at your barn (and this is from probably all of us). Thank you for doing the right thing.

Your TM was trying to do damage control for whatever your colleague did, and you basically blew a giant hole into the hull of his battleship. So maybe the ship won't sink in an ocean of liability, but your TM's safety bonus for your barn might.

The biggest problem I have with these little "white lies" or "lies of omission" is that once you do it once, they will expect you to do it again for them down the road. "Come on man, you came through for us back in June of 2025, you can do it again! Not asking you to lie, just you know ... A bit of flexibility in your integrity is all we are asking".

 

Yeah, I think at the end of my apartment lease imma move.

this new manager that transferred is a little sus.

 

Props for having balls

 

I did this once at Reddaway in Salt Lake.

If I didn't do my typical bag run to Denver, they'd have me do one to Missoula. Take a rocky set in, spend my 10 at a hotel, and came back to an empty terminal around 2am. Hopped in a forklift and shoved freight into the long box, closed and sealed it, then hook to the preloaded pup and head for home.

One time the 28' was like 19k and the 48' was maybe 2300lbs. Didn't feel right having my heavy pup sit in the rear, so I hooked the pup to the front. BOY IT DROVE SO WEIRD!! I took right turns so wide you'd think I was driving a cargo ship.