How's Everyone Doing in LTL Right Now?

What company was that at?

I wished I could have gotten a line run when I was LTL. Even at 1 run a week I'd been able to make ends meet. But I don't let lifestyle creep happen. Even the months where I'd take home after takes 10k, I'd not blow it. Was always wild to me how these 20 year seniority line guys would would be cut 1 single run a month and be talking about how they didn't know how they were gonna pay some bill or some nonsense.

 

Well I worked for Reddaway as well in a non union barn, and aside from a constant driver shortage; they ran really well. I was a peddle driver that covered Butte, MT and I had to fight to get that route. One day our operations supervisor went on vacation and I begged our senior driver that was in charge to "put me in coach". He reluctantly gave me the stack of bills and told me not to #### it up. Came back with everything dropped off and didn't miss any pickups. After a week of getting everything done management talked to themselves and I got the route.

With the bid system at USF Holland (and I am explaining this to everyone else) it went strictly by seniority. You could do an awesome job and run a city inside and out, and if some senior driver wanted it, they would kick you out of it. It was asinine since management really couldn't do anything about it either cause it was in the contract. Merit would get you a pat on the shoulder and a warm thank you from your loader for not bringing anything back.

Oh, and that was the other thing. Sometimes there would be weekend work which consisted of doing a trailer swap. I always signed up for it but the senior driver bumped me. It was fine if he wants it, but he would then NOT show up for the run. My dispatcher would then call me to see if I wanted to go and I would decline out of pure principle. This happened pretty much every weekend that there was work. We would sign up and the same person would bump everyone off the run. The same stupidity would extend to time off. You could put in for vacation a year in advance, and the only way you were guranteed to get the time off was to take the full week off. I could never plan on anything cause there were 52 other senior drivers above me that could bump me that day.

The amount of pettyness was absurd. I came in early one day to enjoy my breakfast before I clocked in. After sitting there my shop steward sat down accross from me. He pulled out a piece of paper and started scribbling some stuff down pausing only to get my employee number. "Too much to hope that this is for a raise?".

- No R/R, our raises are in the contract, you should know this by now. Your colleage is filing a grievance against you and I need your info. He outranks you and you came in early. If anyone gets to come in early it is him.

"I came in early to enjoy my three egg omlette breakfast. Not only are you spoiling my food, but also my mood when I clock in"

- Oooooohhhhh, I thought they let you clock in early.

I am telling you, the amount of bickering and pettyness was unreal. I could not imagine being a TM or supervisor and having to deal with these Karens.

 

This was all at Holland. I toally hear you on maintaining your finances. I got too used to always having a paycheck at Holland, even during layoffs I still stuck around and got more hours. Then when everything went POOF; so did my finances. Took me 18 months to get my credit card paid off and get completely out of debt once I found my new job. I followed Dave Ramsey's 7 Step program to get myself on track. Oddly enough, I very recently finally won my battle with the VA after meeting two of their doctors to discuss some injuries. You would think dealing with an explosion and getting injured would expedite things, but the VA is not really known for being timely. Either way I am also now getting paid from them so I also am losing my motivation to get OT. I am bringing home just under 6 figures now and rather rebalance my scales to spend more time with my family.

Some of those linehaul guys you mention really are a mystery as well. The ones I knew lived a fairly ....fullfilling life. I know one had a massive fifth-wheel camper, boat, and a super nice bike. I honestly think he has way too much faith in his fellow man to be on a bike in SC, but I digress. So I would guess some of them really are squezing out their checks and are broke by payday. My only real theory is they were just trying to impress each other with the crap they bought, and it probably ended with at least one or two repo trucks when Holland abruptly went bankrupt.

 

There's a ton of insecure guys running in the linehaul world it seems. Guess the big paychecks draws them in. I know guys with 1000hp Jeeps, boats, jetskis, side by sides, sports cars, giant houses, kids in private school, snow machines, giant shops, country club memberships, etc. Literally blowing as much money as they possibly could. No 401(k) contributions aside from what the company put in and just buying a sea of depreciating assets.

These guys #####ed about how boring 70 hours of the same turn every night were and how they could never enjoy their expensive toys and how their wife was unhappy and the kids hated them. How much of a raw deal it was when they got divorced, sometimes multiple times etc.

These guys been making insane money for over 20 years and had the gravy train job. They had the opportunity to buy a house after the housing crash for cheap and refinance to a 3% or less mortgage rate. They could have plowed all that money into blue chip investments for 10 years and been set for life.

Nah, gotta buy a boat in a place where the water temps dont get above 60 degrees but for a couple months out of the year. My family hates me for never being around and I exist as an insecure walking ATM.

If I could have made it to a line run, you'd see me for about 7-10 more years and I'd be dust in the wind. Vanish to a cheap cabin in the woods and maybe do a few handyman odd jobs here and there. Sadly, I'm running 65-70 hours a week for a pissly 25 bucks an hour, no OT. At least I got out before the real #### hits and we are covered in out of work experienced drivers. More than we are now at least.

 

They all hate the job but spend too much to be able to afford any sort of pay cut. Stuck forever lol

 

You might consider me one of them. My finances are tight but I'm in the middle of realigning everything, cutting unnecessary spending and paying things off. Wife and kids are as good as can be expected, and I genuinely love running linehaul.

But I do want a new Tacoma. And a bunch of car parts. And maybe a trailer to pull my sports car to track day events. Maybe a new computer.. but before all that I gotta fix my money. I'm only 32, I've got time.. I think.

 

Listen to me now and hear me later. Set some money aside for emergencies. Ideally 2-3 months of your monthly expenses if you have to go on a skeleton budget to keep your lights on. Enjoy things while you are still young-ish. Once you hit 40, your body's warranty is expired and things will start breaking down.

What's up with everyone driving Tacomas? Four of my coworkers have them and I've also been eyeing one when my beater car finally breaks down.

 

I wish I was making that up to. The run was a trailer swap to get the trailer in the yard so it is ready for Monday. They usually load 30-50 bills on it and it not only gives the outbound crew something to do when they come in, but it also saves us from sending a driver out there to make a seperate late swap.

The problem was due to the whole contract thing, they would have to at least offer him the run. Let's say my old dispatcher made a secret squirrel deal with me to grab it and then the other guy found out; he could technically file a grievance against the company that I jumped seniority. My old company would then be on the hook to also pay him the hours I worked. It is just one out of a thousand reasons why I would not go back to another union company again. Between the constant layoffs and the internal politics, it really was not worth the headache.

 

They had that discussion one time in the break room about how we are supposed to be a "brotherhood" and take care of one another, and stick up for each other even when they are wrong and blah blah blah. I couldn't help but laugh given that there were three drivers beneath me on hard layoff status cause there wasn't enough freight. Plenty of OT for the senior drivers, but not enough freight.

With friends like that you don't need enemies.