LTL, why do many feel it is the best job in trucking?

The boredom would only come if you're doing the exact same thing everyday night or day. Most LTL companies run their P & D (pick ups & deliveries) during the day which is definitely not doing the same thing everyday. Yes, you may have a couple stops per day that may be the same, but overall, you're going to different customers, and yes you may be running the same general area but sometimes not. Now, depending upon how the company runs it's line haul operation there definitely can be lots of boredom. The company I ran for had us bidding on runs every six months, so you had better like where you're going EVERY night, for me with my seniority it was 560-614 miles per night, from Toledo, OH to DuBois or Clearfield, PA everynight. With that said, central dispatch did like to throw us for some loops no and then, like running us back through our Cleveland terminal after a DuBois, PA relay on our way back to Toledo, OH. But, it has been the most bored I've EVER been at a job. Of course the pay is what kept me there so many years, nearly 12. My last year I grossed $80,350 with the company picking up every cent of the cadillac level medical insurance and no union dues either. As I said though, I was bored stiff and switching over to the P & D side was not an option for me. I had the seniority but I did not have the patience to work with those dispatchers on top of dealing with traffic, etc...

I still kind of long for OTR but realistically when weighing ALL the goods and bads about OTR or Local, I have to stay local. I love being home everyday, I love NOT showering in a truck stop, I love kissing my wife good morning each and everyday, I love not having to run loads of miles to make a decent living, I love all my time being paid for, and not just my miles moving.

We each have to find what makes US happy in this industry. There are so many options for us to choose from no-one should be unhappy except of course the rooks out there trying to gain experience and have to pretty much work for who ever will hire them. But even for them, if they're careful and do lots of research they too can score at least a decent, better than bottom feeder training company. It depends upon how much time and energy one wants to spend finding what's right for them. Since I left the LTL gig, I've done a little bit of everything. I've hauled liquid CO2, they really loved running us over hours even with QUALCOMM logs. I hauled bulk pneumatic tankers and I liked doing that but the equipment was junk, leaking trailers and terrible tractors, little to no maintenance. I'm now at an environmental services company running vacuum tankers, roll off trailers, small vac trucks, lugger trucks and even an occasional van. It's more work than the others, but it's hourly, unfortunately union (not freight contract) and the benefits are pretty decent. But, the night owl in me has made me look back into LTL line haul... I'm in process of getting hired on with a Fed Ex Ground contractor.... The journey never ends.

 

Some food service companies are the same way...GSF is one of them. Hard work yes absolutely , but the pay , the benefits the retirement packages , the home time are all well worth the effort. I never did LTL , but I did do the food service thing for 33 years and then retired , fit , and with a retirement package that suits me just fine.

 

This....



or this...



along with this....


last truck I drove for them....Sept. 2011...

See you can have it both ways....be home spend all kinds of "happy time" with your wife and still make a darn good living.....

 

You should consider intermodal than. It's local and regional and you go don't go to the same exact customer every single day.

 

I might look into doing that if I get tired of Intermodal going in and out of the rail yards all the time.

 

This needs to be said more often in these forums because people really don't seem to grasp that.

 

Been doing ltl for 15 years, 13 doing night ltl, 2 in the city. Mid 40's now. Only grossed less than 90,000 one year when I broke my foot. Home every day, off weekends. OTR is not for me. Want to be home with my family. Is it easy? Hell no. 70 hours a week is a grind. Same run every night, and I don't mind that. All depends what you want. All the OTR jobs here pay peanuts compared to what I make, keep you out two to three weeks at a time. Not interested in that.

 

It is NOT the best job in trucking for some people. It IS the best job in trucking for other people. Everybody is different. Impossible to make a blanket statement.

I worked for a smaller LTL outfit. We were not union at my dock, and we were in a relatively rural area. Small urban area clustered, then smaller towns spread out a bit. I had a lot of variation in my job. Could be running P & D with a truck and pup, or dragging a 53' to or from certain customers. Occasionally had to do Rockies to get to one customer who was 60+ miles away with the long box, then hook to the pup and do local P & D there.

Actually ran out of two different docks for a long time. That was great, because I'd run St George and surrounding areas in the morning, then Cedar City and surrounding areas in the afternoon. Due to the elevation difference, it meant I missed the worst heat of the day in the St. George summertime, but also missed the worst of the ice and snow in Cedar City in the winter time.

Ran some days with far more windshield time than actually loading and unloading, and other days it was all short driving with a lot of loading and unload. Worked the dock some. Did some drop and hooks. Ran a few turns with sets.

I found it to be interesting, and seldom boring. I liked getting to know (most) of the customers, and the ones that were jerks, you were only gonna have to interact with them for a short time, then you'd be on down the road.

The older I got, the less interested I was in not sleeping in my own bed overnight, in not having dinner with my wife and some face time with her, rather than just talking on the phone.

OTOH, I did enjoy my road time, in my earlier days of trucking. I did a lot of California/Kansas or Nebraska loads when I ran reefers. Pick up produce on the coast, haul it to Colorado, live unload and head east to pick up meat. Rinse repeat. Some of the time, I was working casual and would just make a "half run," either east or west. Working for a company based in St. George, meant you got through the terminal a couple of times a week. Lots of work available for casual drivers back then. Don't know about now, as that company has gone out of business.

Also was OTR and team for a short while. Didn't mind team too bad, until I got an idiot for a team driver. I moved on rather quickly.

Worked for Knight for a while. Enjoyed the driving, hated the company. For the most part, I ran the western states with them, with just a few longer runs. Biggest gripe was having to watch my paycheck like a hawk, and having weekly conversations with payroll.

As somebody else mentioned, there is so much variety available. I worked aggregate hauling for a few months, and worked HVAC Plumbing Supply House delivery for a few months. Absolutely detested both jobs. . .

 

Not trying to be an ******* here but first year drivers occupational pay around Harrisburg PA; Intermodal driver 50-60k, ltl 60 to 70k, construction driving job 60 to 70k, food service 50-70k. All of those jobs I just mentioned you are home every night and off two days a week. There are more local jobs I can bring up but I think that gets the point across.

First year OTR dry van drivers on the other hand get 35-40k a year some may make 50k there first year but that is not the norm. They are gone for weeks at a time and home only a few days a month...not a good trade off at all.