How's Everyone Doing in LTL Right Now?

LOL...I encourage every trouble maker that I see to move out of California. It's like being on a mission.
Actually, my part of the state has always struggled economically and unless a person has good connections or a professional degree they'll have a hard time.
After they cross the state line headed east or north I'm no longer responsible for them. They moved here from the last place that they flunked out in life skills and they'll carry their fancy ideas and discontent wherever they go.
Maybe Texas, being more firmly rooted in reality, can straiten them out. Somebody, sooner or later, will have to.

 

NOPE

 

I was on dedicated run from Midwest to San Francisco and all I remember is that I hated going through Donners Pass. lol

 

Yes, but they all live in the State of Jefferson.

 

Donner is an asphalt nightmare from hell. It's suffocatingly narrow, the turns are dizzyingly sharp and it seems to go on forever. And when it's snowing, forget it. The Grapevine from LA to Bakersfield and Cajon from San Bernardino to Hesperia are cake walks compared to Donner. Hell I'd rather drive Cabbage in Oregon!

 

Donner really isn’t that bad. I remember being terrified to run it solo when I first started, and then being pretty underwhelmed after I did it a few times. It’s a nice drive, and take ###### near forever when you’re close to 80K.

A friends of mine is in her late 50’s and runs it every day no matter the conditions. It’s like any other grade in the west. A little common sense and you’ll be fine.

 

So, I am not doing LTL at the moment. It's a bit of a long story that ended in July with a company called Yellow.

I did have this buddy of mine that I worked with that quit two weeks before the ship went down. He was supposed to start his two weeks of vacation on Monday, and they laid him off the previous Friday and canceled his vacation in the process. He got pissed and put in his two weeks and they refused to cash out his vacation and sick days.

He ended up getting a soft landing at ABF.

The first few weeks of being unemployed I was kinda hating on him. He had the same insurance but better pay while the rest of us were scrambling for new jobs. After I got my new gig, I finally thought to myself how Matty has been getting screwed left and right for the past few years; seeing how he was the very bottom driver. Maybe he did deserve that break and I should be happy for him.

15 weeks go by and I get a text from Matty, asking how things are on my end. I gave him the whole ordeal and filled him in on a few of our former colleagues. Turns out my buddy got laid off from ABF a few weeks after he started. He now can't get work and is worse off than I was.

I was a bit shocked, but apparently the LTL market in the South isn't doing so well. I hope everyone else is doing better.

 

To your point @road_runner, for the longest time I would receive regular posting alerts from FXF for positions via email. It’s been pretty quiet lately.

ETA: Just looked at FXF’s website, no job postings of any kind from my zip code or my buddy’s (he’s about 60 miles to the west of me) for a 200 mile radius. That’s pretty crazy when you realize a 200 mile radius of those two zip codes encompasses the New England hubs.

 

When do you guys think it would be a good time to upgrade from fxg to an upstanding outfit, job postings permitting?