LTL Hours and Company Expectations

I dunno about your state but Tennessee is every 8 years renewal on CDL and hazmat of course is every 5.

 

It really depends on what you want to do and what you want in return.

ABF has the best medical/retirement but low wages. I interviewed with MME a while back and the pay was great but my gut said no. Having worked for XPO, I’d say, only if you’re willing to get screwed until you have seniority. Their pay/benefits were good. Just started at Estes and it looks very promising, with great pay too. Dayton looks great.

 

Thanks for

 

Someone at the school I went to. Don't think I explained it correctly though. It doesn't void it but temporarily suspends it.

 

I'm trying to get into linehaul after running food grade tanker for 3 years. Currently just making ends meet doing a CDL required construction job but it's killing me working 12 hours a day digging trenches for a utilities company. I can't hang with these 18-20 year old boys knocking back a 6 pack of Redbull before noon.

Old Dominion and Central are the only ones with opening here in my AO. Central runs absolute garbage trucks and trailers and everything they post is for local P&D. OD had a relief driver spot I didn't get but told me to put in for the forklift dock exclusive position they have open.

I've got 5-6 years experience and aside from a screwed DAC; I'm clean save for an overweight ticket and a non-OOS equipment warning on my PSP. Fully endorsed, no accidents etc.

It's a rough market out there. OD is paying .82cpm here for line haul and I think about 32-33/hr for relief or P&D. You can make a killing there in linehaul. P&D aren't usually allowed over 45 hours a week is what I was told. Insurance is supposed to be great at OD.

I don't want to take the pay cut from 90k a year at my old company to ~50k and driving a forklift until a driving job comes open but I'm not cut out for construction anymore and I'm down to nearly 7 months left before it will be a year since I was exclusively a driver of class A vehicles. Gotta figure something out before that magic 1 year mark where I have to start over due to ######## insurance regs.

 

@Someguywithquestions --

You're right.

It IS a rough market out there right now -- & also, will be probably for the foreseeable future....

You said above you need to figure something out....

You don't tell us a city/state or zip code for your location, so it's pretty tough to help you any directly.

Past that -- a suggestion: think "outside the box"....

Instead of going directly into linehaul, first consider getting a job hauling fuel.

Why?

• hauling fuel will prove once & for all to the linehaul crowd that you can perform a dangerous job safely -- WHILE DOING NIGHTSHIFT DUTY. This track record will make you enormously more attractive to the linehaul sector (& others)
• Fuel duty is significantly easier (& much more lucrative) than the construction work you are doing now
• Having a successful fuel-hauling gig under your belt will later open up ALL KINDS OF OPPORTUNITIES for you -- & not just with linehaul
• Apparently you already have the needed endorsements for it; this makes you very appealing to the fuel haulers who are looking for new/more help
• While delivering fuel -- I NEVER delivered to a customer who wasn't glad to see me -- EVER
• I'm biased -- there's something inherently very cool about pulling a tank -- especially if it's a sharp-looking fuel trailer
• You already have significant tanker experience -- so, you're ready for it

Anyway....just think about it.



-- L

 

Yeah I'm in a crappy area. I was out of work for 3 months applying. Can't even get callbacks with most places. I applied to every fuel, propane, hazmat, ltl, linehaul, specialized flatbed, etc job I could. Then I got desperate and started hitting up grocery chains, dump trucks, concrete, asphalt/paving, etc. 1 dump truck job called back 50 miles away for 22/hr no benefits or over time. US Foods is hiring an hour away with a sign on bonus but my old food grader tanker job was back breaking manual labor. I worked side by side with the Sysco/US Foods guys. They worked easier but for longer at stops. I worked way harder but for a shorter amount of time. I don't think I could do food service for much long.

The 5 or so interviews I've had all say they've got guys flying in with 10-20 years exp. From hundreds of miles away trying to get work.

I'm thinking about selling all my #### except for one vehicle and joining up with a cryo company and living out of the truck. I'm still a renter with no family, spouse/gf, or kids. Maybe after a couple years the market will be better and I'll have a nice nest egg. But I'm fighting down to the last penny not to go back as homeless OTR again. I'm doing construction just to delay what might be the inevitable.

I don't think most people realize just how bad the job market is right now for truckers. My locale might have a lot to do with it but I think a lot of us might be taking pay cuts or facing layoffs soon. I know one guy I used to work with said his smaller OTR company cut his pay from .72cpm down to .68cpm. He said he was going to quit and I told him about my situation and he started applying while still working. He's heard little to nothing from everyone as well.

Lots of these jobs posted on the internet are like sending apps into a black hole. The companies have job postings for months on end, never filling them. Seems fishy to me. Might be part of the visa scam to bring in cheap immigrants like the tech sector does so regularly.

I did have a farming coop company offer me a job hauling diesel in a class B a month ago but the pay was around 50k/yr and 60-70 hours a week. They paid on a split pay scale. .58cpm IIRC and 20/hr delivering. That is an absolute joke for pay in Washington. A crappy apartment here is 1800/mo or more. Lucky for me I have a big utility trailer I'm living in on a guys property in the woods for only a few hundred bucks a month. I'm running a shovel and spud wrench for 30/hr now.

I'm holding out but boy, that savings account sure does drain fast

 

@Someguywithquestions --

Washington? As in....Washington state?

Again -- think "outside the box"....

If so -- as I write this....Walmart has openings for regional driving positions in Grandview & Centralia, WA.

There may also be other openings in Washington state.

If you live within 200 miles of a posted opening -- it would easily be worth applying for & investigating.

If my math is correct -- your CDL experience easily qualifies you for a Walmart CDL position.

You won't be home every day -- but you would be home every week.

I have yet to meet a Walmart driver who is looking to leave & work elsewhere. They all seem rather happy.

drive4walmart.com

-- L

 

@Someguywithquestions

Sometimes it can be difficult to get hired on to a linehaul job. At FedEx in certain areas there's a waiting list several years long for city P&D drivers looking to transfer into linehaul.

I would apply for the P&D position at Central if I were you. It can open the door to linehaul and at the very least it will get you back in a Class A truck doing easier work until the job market improves. Their trucks are all newer these days (though that doesn't mean they still don't get torn up quickly), and I've consistently heard that they save the newest trailers for P&D (reasoning that the older crap goes out on overnight linehaul runs when most scales are closed).

It's tough to be picky in these days, you might have to think more broadly about what job you can actually get right now, and which of those jobs will even slightly improve your quality of life.

 

In Texas your CDL good for 6 years, hazmat for 5 years.