How's Everyone Doing in LTL Right Now?

naw, ain’t no worker rights in the south. Don’t even have to legally give you a lunch break when you’re a local driver.

Give it a few more years. We’ll pay them to work.

 

Just wondering how often you guys get brand new trucks? I just got a ‘26 International handed to me. It’s not a bad truck, except for all the nanny stuff. It’s pretty much a carbon copy of my original one here.

 

At FedEx it was pretty much every year since I usually bid on a 600 mile linehaul run that slipseated with a 550 mile run.

Current job doesn’t rack up the miles nearly as much and they don’t seem to get rid of anything before 500k, but we’ve got trucks from 2016-2024 model years. So far nothing new this year.

 

I've been in the same truck since it was new in 2016. I could bid a newer one but ive gotten this one the way I want but its almost to the 500k mark. I might bid out of it because its laid down on me twice this year and had to be pulled in on a hook.

 

Everything we had at Reddaway was old. My P&D truck that I had in 2018 was a '97 Freightliner and my Linehaul truck was a 2006 International. Both were in prestine condition given their age since all the drivers we had were there for decades and took care of their stuff. The sister company Holland on the other hand was complete junk. I made multiple videos out of stuff being held together with bungie cords and duct tape. There was one summer were I broke down once every single week. One of those weeks the replacement they wreckered me also broke down on the way in. Their logic was towing and fixing trucks was cheaper than buying new ones.

I still see over 2 dozen Holland trucks in our old vendor's yard as collateral until they pay up their repair fees from two years ago.

 

That vendor is never getting the money, might as well try to get the titles. We had 2 trailers left at the repair company the Dayton Holland terminal used, they still have them. I warned the repair companies and the other small vendor that Dayton Yellow used a couple weeks before and they stopped doing work or sending techs leading up to the bankruptcy. One of the best moments was calling the tow company we always used for a tow out and they refused because we owed them over 20k, ended up having to get approval to use the terminal expense card to pay another tow company we didn't owe money to.

 

Freight seems to be picking up, or at least holding steady out of my SoCal barn. Every time I've called in for a 6th day I get linehaul work, which is nice. Got my wife a new car the day after mine was rear ended by an Excursion a month ago, so I've got bills to pay! My car should be repaired by the other person's insurance by next week.

Team truck has 658k on the clock, hoping to see it replaced before the end of the year. I've noticed our new FL daycabs are coming with DD15s and DT-12s instead of the X15 and Eaton 12 speed. DT-12 is a much better transmission in my experience so should be nice. I'm also seeing a couple of the new facelifted Cascadias on the road, though we don't have any yet.

I can only dream of a brand new Detroit powered Cascadia right now, but I'd also be happy running my current truck for another year. It's been bulletproof since I got it at 300k, likely because the engine was either replaced or overhauled before I got into it.

Overall can't complain too much right now, though my body aches occasionally on my 2 days off. My daughters are into KPop Demon Hunters and I spend a lot of time dancing and singing with them

 

What are you driving now? I have a brand new Freightliner but it's been in shop for 2 weeks. Looks like they have to replace the entire def system. I had one at saia too that had pretty much permanent check engine light. I hope it comes back soon because I am not a fan of the internationals. The cabs small to me and you sit too close to the wheel..

 

The trucks sitting at our old vendor aren't worth printing the titles on. You would have to cannibalize 4 or 5 trucks to get 1 working "beater" truck that is still 8+ years old. Even with them sitting at the shop, the amount of time it would take would make it almost not worth it. I would tell them to donate them all to the local technical colleges and trade schools so people can use them as a learning tool.

God did Yellow pull a number on everyone. Screwed over all the vendors, customers, and employees alike. I am super thankful that I landed on my feet. It took me two months, and it was a super dark two months... But I am glad I found another local driving gig. A lot of people I know got roped into the nose end of this freight recession. I have the luxury of getting off early most days and I roll past some LTL barns on my way home. Quite a few of them have half emtpy parking lots with most of their fleet back. Makes me wonder if I would have been laid off again regardless if Yellow stayed afloat or not.