New Student, wondering about Long Beach Port

If you do go local there, make sure they hire you as a driver and not a contractor.
Been reading different stories on that. Do not lease a trk. from the carrier and make sure you are on a w-2 and not a 1099 tax form. Good luck

 

I used to run into the Long Beach/LA ports and it was always a mess especially when you are new. What I would do is ask other drivers what the protocol is when checking in at the first set of stands. Usually the line to get in is long enough where you can talk with other driveras and get the info you need. The worst is when the person you are talking with on the speaker gets impatient with you and gives you a trouble ticket. That will usually tack on another hour to your day.

Always double check to make sure your dryage fees and TMF's have been paid for before heading into a terminal with a loaded can. Empty returns are pretty easy on usally once you get your empty can popped you can drop your chassis with the same 4 letter identifier as the one stamped on the side.

Also don't get out of your truck unless your in a designated area that is it okay to do. I would get yelled at by the longshoreman a lot for doing that but there are times when you will be in the flip line for hours.

 

There are always a ton of Knight, Swift, Duncan and Son trucks heading to the port. Not sure if Duncan and Son hire newbees but the other two will. I'm not recommending either I just have seen them down there and on I 10 hauling cans between AZ and CA. I'd rather dig ditches than pull out of the port everyday but that is just me. As a disclaimer it's been a long while since I have pulled a can out of Long Beach, maybe the Longshoreman and people in the office have become much more friendly and helpful over the years.

 

First off I would advise you to not get involved with theports. With that said and you being a new driver with experience you’re upagainst brick & hard spot called experience. You will have to eat feces forthe first few months no matter who you work unless you have a buddy as an owneroperator who will give you experience and say he was your employer and give youa good reference. I had to work theports out of a private trucking school “Toro Trucking School” in order to getmy first job, the boss was a out of control demon but I did not shoot him inthe head than beat his dead body with a bat and finished him off with a beheadingand dismemberment for six months of experience. I paid my dues big time. I didthis because I did not want to go with the big life sucking scum bags like C.R.England, Swift-####, Knight, and many others, one year with them and you gotyour schooling free. One year listening tosome ### hole yelling at you, if you work the ports; please work by the hourand not the load. You sit “wheels not turning” for long periods of time & uknow what they say, wheels don’t turn-you ant making any money. Work the ports, you’ll get real good experienceavoiding O/O from crashing into you because they are by the load, backing up,sitting, fending off irate drivers & long shoreman, being abused and treatedlike crap from your boss & dispatcher. Good luck, hope you are thick skinned.

 

I had a smooth run at the ports the last couple months. That is until this week. I got to this particular terminal at 6:00pm and got in the long line outiside the terminal. It's now almost 10:00pm and I still haven't gotten through the enterance gate. Luckily, I get paid hourly, but I'm still peeved because I have other things to accomplish this night. I can't even imagine the anger running through a lot of the others around me who are paid by the load.

 

That anger usually translates to unsafe driving once inside. I know you're angry, but driving at an unsafe speed and paying no attention to your surroundings is eventually going to cause something much worse to happen.

You're not making up any considerable time and you're putting yourself and others at risk