LTL in freezing rain conditions?

December 15th my LTL company shut down at my terminal. The next day I saw an XPO in the ditch because they kept running.

 

City driver or Linehaul? Most don’t run their city drivers here in the PNW when the weather gets bad but if you do have to run I recommend getting yourself a set of cheater chain if your gonna bump docks all day. It’ll help you get out of those steep docks without putting a set of chains. With Linehaul the only time we don’t run is when the roads are shut down. That next day guarantee bull crap is voided when weather is a factor so we just take it nice and slow. I run cabbage hill into the blue mountains 5x a week for the last 5 years and I still get nervous every time weather gets nasty. Just take it easy and don’t pay attention to everyone passing you. Good luck.

 

FedEx Freight kept that attitude until very recently. I still hear stories about how they never shut down unless the road was closed, and drivers couldn't call off for safety reasons without first attempting the run.

Now they're a lot more safety conscious and often shut down for bad weather even if the highways are still open at dispatch time. Even if management doesn't decide to cancel everything, drivers can call off without repercussions if they feel like the weather will cause safety issues.

Usually the only time I run into problems is when the weather unexpectedly gets bad partway through my run. When that happens, I always have the option to call dispatch and have them find me a hotel, but I've always just cautiously pushed on.

 

I only did one week at ABF so I don’t have much sarcasm for them, but your current and my former employer I have slightly more sarcasm. Just kidding I really do highly recommend them to most people needing a career driving job, but they could be difficult occasionally back years ago.
I was running team many years ago headed across I-80 in Wyoming in the middle of the night.The Interstate closed due to snow and ice. Buster absolutely hated to have a team sit still since they were paying both of us to sit and we hauled Air packages. I called in immediately to get our clock time started and dispatch said “I am looking at the atlas and it looks like you can cross that mountain on this state highway”. In not so many words I told him from his 70 degree office that option looked much better than from my vantage point. I also told him this set of doubles would be sitting right here until the interstate opened back up. A couple days later when we go back home I never heard a word from my Feeder Manager. He had the backbone to put sleeper team dispatch in their place when they made unrealistic requests and I assume he probably did when they called him to report my non compliance.

 

Oh. Yeah. I'll never say they're perfect. And a lot of the young kids in the office need to be replaced by former drivers...at least the office personnel that deals with drivers. The shiny happy kids with their new-car-smell degrees can whip up spreadsheets or whatever.

 

For the most part Feeder dispatch never pushed us to do anything. The Air side of the business was a different breed and weren’t accustomed to being told NO by some truck driver. Lol

 

well maybe...finally...the light bulb over thier heads turned on and hey, they had an epiphany, that the insurance claims for the equipment, injuries, and loss off packages was a wee bit too much..????

'bout time someone "woke up" at FedEx......

 

One and only time I fell on ice and busted my arse….

stopped at the flying hook in McCammon, ID. to fuel about 2-3am. Stepped out and immediately landed on my butt and bounced my head off the fuel pump.

shut down and went to bed.

Eff that crap.

 

Yes.
Always fun when you hit that pickup or drop-off that didn't have their parking lot plowed and the sun melted the snow just enough for it to freeze over-night.
Just make sure you set up your path so that if you start sliding, you won't hit anything.

AND, don't back down one of those incline dock setups, you will not get out.