Looking into LTL

^^ this small terminals are where it’s at! Just hope we don’t get shut down lol doubt it though bc we cover a large area. Sure is slow though.

 

Fortunately, we have a couple major accounts that distribute out of this terminal. Outbound is always stacked, but there’s nights when we only have 4-5 pups inbound.

 

From everything I've reading on the board I'm picking up that linehaul is mostly just driving, mostly at night and often the same run every time.

Is that pretty close? I could see where some would be totally fine with that kind of routine.

 

Depends on the length of the run. A lot of places will have you work the dock for a couple of hours. It's really not hard work and 95% of it is forklift work.

 

No dock work at OD. I’m not sure about FXF, but I assume they don’t either.

If you have a bid run, yeah, pretty much the same thing every night. If you’re extra board, or wild board (whatever your company calls it), you will do different things, and cover for bid guys when they’re on vacation or whatever. At most terminals you will do that for a while, like a couple years until you build enough seniority to get a scheduled run if that’s what you want. There’s senior guys at the main hub here who stay on wild runs just because of the money. Also, don’t assume that your only choice will be nights just because you’re new. There’s new guys on wild runs at the main hub in Rialto who do day runs, so it really just depends on where you land.

Some companies will have you break freight like another member here has said, but the good ones will keep you off the dock.

 

FXF does but it's not forced. If you want to go into the break room and sit for 2 or 3 hours you can. Meanwhile you're walking away from $500 +/- a week.

 

XPO is the same way, you don’t have to work the dock but it’s a big money loss per week.

All our guys who go to XMP, choose to work the dock for the extra money.

 

I would shoot for OD. Don’t sweat the unknowns. Get a foot in the door. Working 12 hrs, 5 days is a breeze compared OTR. Staying busy, the hours fly by. Unlike an inside job that seems to drag on forever. The OT is where you make the money. I wouldn’t work anywhere that didn’t have OT available. Do the math. 40 hrs $1000. 60 hrs $1750. That’s at $25 an hr. Probably make more than that. I enjoyed running wild. My time card had wild written right on it. I knew all the metro areas. Always got 60 hrs in 5 days. It never got boring. No gps, no fm radio, no p.s. no a/c no nothing. Just my calculator to play with for entertainment. Lol. Had enough on my mind to keep me focused. Don’t sweat the details. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that nothing lasts forever. You can always change your mind. Do something different. Don’t have to think in terms of forever. It rarely plays out that way. Just go for it. Give it a try, you have everything to gain.

 

Where were you working with no ac? No radio? I was at yellow and had no radio but it was in the contract we had ac