How's Everyone Doing in LTL Right Now?

They did the same thing with e-logs when they came out. It was meant to keep everyone safe by only allowing you to drive when you had legal hours. I am almost certain that the language tjhat the FMCSA used was that carriers were not supposed to use it to abuse their drivers. And that's literally the first thing every dispatcher I've ever seen did. Dispatchers could now view all of our logs on their computers and they knew who had how much legal work time left. And they squezed every work minute out of us. There was no more coming back early cause you had something to take care of after work. First in, first one to go right back out. Doesn't matter if you had 10, 12, or 13 hours already in. The way they saw it, you could work 16 hours at least one time a week. What was supposed to be rules for driver's discretion ended up as carrier convenience.

 

Even if your organized it still happens.

 

unions add a whole new level to (petty) workplace douchebaggery.

 

The one union job I worked (Teamsters) was probably the best job I've worked as far as how the drivers were treated. If the pay was better and I also wasn't ran into the ground when a couple guys quit and retired I would have never left.

I'd go back at this point but they don't have any openings. Even though it means losing all my seniority, getting the crap equipment, and sucky routes.

Job market so bad right now a spotless record, fully endorsed, and a lot of experience has gotten me a job making 23-24hr, no OT, garbage benefits/PTO, rotating night schedule, 60-70hrs a week, hauling fuel. Oh and they cheat on my paychecks at minimum of 100 dollars a week. Up to 450 bucks so far. My old LTL contacts say they are starving for hours or getting line runs cancelled. One guy just had his bid temporarily closed and is down to 3-4 nights a week of 50-150 mile turns.

 

Applied to 45 job postings here btw in the past couple months. Saia's ####### recruiter said I needed more than 6 months exp to work there. Despite having a half dozen CDL Class A jobs with none less than a year at. Another local outfit said .38cpm on a 1099 OTR 4 weeks out min. Needed to speak Russian to talk to management/dispatchers as well.

And that was it other than this crap fuel gig I'm running now.

 

LTL things are so-so here in great lakes territory. hasnt affected our linehaul yet. still can't buy a day off.

 

My hours have been cut to the base 40, so basically 4 days a week for the past year. I did enjoy OT as the money was great but the extra time off is also nice and decent money..DFW area.. when the market was up , roughly 60 plus hours a week and an extra grand roughly.

 

Ever thought about a Cement truck ?

 

I was a dispatcher / ops manager / terminal manager for several years. I can honestly say that I never once dispatched someone for petty reasons......NOT ONE TIME.
That said, there's a lot of bouncing balls and spinning plates to deal with. You don't always know. Joey has to go home early to take care of his sick wife or to make it to his birthday party.......whatever. The point is, you're managing several people and several different issues and playing petty politics is just a waste of time.
The majority of my time was spent appeasing all the smart people in HQ. I never once screwed someone over because I didn't like them. The union shop at Roadway was an entirely different situation, however.
We would get loads of packaged sod or mulch. If they didn't like someone, they would tell them that the trailer was over by 1000 pounds in the nose and make them carry 50 or whatever bags from the front to the rear......crawling over the top........in 100 degree south Georgia heat. Then when they got done, they would say that it was over on the rear and make them tote 25 bags back to the front. Those people were complete ***holes. That said, the union gave as good as they got.
It was just silly and totally nonproductive.

My point is this; you may think that they're screwing you over, but at the end of the day, they're just trying to get the job done......nothing more, nothing less. It ain't always about you.