Looking into LTL

If you’re wanting to mostly just drive, do whatever until you get the minimum experience and go to Walmart out of the Ottawa, KS DC. You’ll love it.

However, if you want to do more work and less driving, and/or be home daily, disregard.

 

Be advised, a linehaul, you basically do the same thing every day, or night. It can be incredibly boring, and about the closest thing to a factory job in driving. To tell the truth, I didn't care for it, and a P&D you get to meet people, even make friends"off camera", and a much better job.

 

LineHaul is perfect for loners or others that don't crave social interaction.

 

Yeah, but driving at night and sleeping during the day (most drivers, and certainly new ones) would not appeal to me at all. Plus driver the same route night after night would drive me crazy. No thanks.

 

The same routine would get the best of me.
I love night driving and sleeping in the daytime though. Reefers was perfect for me.

 

When I was doing linehaul, there was a lot of camaraderie among the drivers and dock workers. You're at the same facility most nights, with the same drivers loading at nearby doors, so you have to make a conscious effort to remain aloof from people you see on a regular basis.

 

Best all around trucking gig I have ever held was running line haul for FedEx Freight. Of course, I didn’t know it at the time or even until a couple years later.

I enjoyed a strong bond on the line board with other drivers. We looked out for each other when we needed help. We went out of our way to protect our coworkers from stupid crap. The senior drivers during the winter time were happy to take a night off to let the bottom of the board guys get some work. Lots of tribal knowledge in the group.

This took away from the routine rut that line drivers can fall into.

If you can find a way into that type of barn… driver, you just hit jackpot.

 

Oh, that's not true and you know it. Linehaul is perfect for people that want a life besides a truck. It has regular hours, like Jamie^ sez, you get to know these people, and not a stranger everywhere you go. I actually had a great social life while doing a linehaul, I parked the truck at the end of the day, plugged it in, if applicable, and could actually DO something, with friends and family. If you ask me, it's the OTR drivers that are the angry loners that can't handle ANY social interaction, and I've met some pretty creepy OTR drivers, where local drivers were generally family folks. We will never see eye to eye on this, my friend, like trying to tell REO they are too old for the job.

 

If you have only small facilities in your area, the job postings will be few and far between. That said, keep an eye out because it’s DEFINITELY worth it you get on at a small terminal running for a major LTL company.

My OD barn has 10 driver, and only 2 of us are linehaul. We have it a lot better than the major hub guys, not that they have it bad. Small terminals are the best place to be for a new driver. I have a scheduled run, so there’s a lot of stability. At the big terminals you’ll be on the wild runs for a while, and your schedule is all over the place.