Random LTL Rants (all are welcomed)

I used to run so much dispatch that I put 350,000 miles on this truck in four years only 23 miles away from the building lol. Keep them wheels turning...miles are smiles.
That stop I picked up rolls of fabric. I actually got them to stop sending a trailer in there and would floor to ceiling load that truck with 800-1200 rolls. I always wondered how far over weight I was, truck was tagged at 24,500 if I remember correctly. That was another nice thing about a brown truck, the laws don't really apply to you...never been pulled over and should have been plenty of times. Only got a dot once and it consisted of license, registration, insurance, and dvir. The dot cop even told me the only reason he pulled me in was because they were going after fed ex ground and didn't want to look like they were singling them out.

 

Been driving for a few months under two years, with the amount of information that senior drivers have to give, I will probably consider myself a rookie for several years to come, and FLSR’s post gave a lot of positive take away.

 

I'm gonna say I didn't"get it" for about the first five years. It was just make as much money as I could but then the reality started to set in that I could kill someone or myself. Even in a 25,000lb straight truck...it still doesn't stop like a 4 wheeler can and ya can't yank the wheel to avoid anything because they will flip.

 

Them was the days.

 

So tonight was a prime example of me being a ##### but I kept it to myself. We are super short-handed so they loaded me up a trailer full of night deliveries. 14:45 worth of work, was told to just get done what I could get done and be back in 14. I got it all done in 10:30.... The whole time I'm thinking to myself "what the #### are these guys doing out here to not get it done?" Most guys run over and take 14 to get about 11 done. Now that being said we do not have case pay and are straight hourly so there isn't really a incentive to hustle and beat the route up. It's nice to know I still got it lol. This is why I want to try food service with incentive pay because I think I could make a killing or just make really good money in a lot less hours. The downside is I get the everyone else sucks but me mentality which isn't healthy.

 

We would love to have another guy who knows how to hustle.

Keep in mind that you will find a lot more guys who know how to move in this side of things, so you might not hate everyone quite so badly.

 

Lots of folks in the employee FB groups seem to be getting information about an upcoming raise and boy are they being total snatches about it. Going on and on about executive salaries, executive bonuses etc.

They are crying like they aren't well compensated as it is, even more infuriating is seeing a lot of it coming from linehaul drivers.

 

@McUzi not to start a conflict, I concur with mcuzi statement. this is just an observation why is it that majority of the linehaul drivers feel entitled.

 

You'll probably see that every year. The only time I noticed almost everybody was happy was after that corporate tax cut and pretty much every company got a fairly decent raise. Even then, I remember a fellow linehaul driver mentioned that he did the math and the city guys got a 4.2% raise and we "only" got a 4% increase on our mileage rate.

I think the people who complain the most are overextended, or they have forgotten where they came from. They also forget that most non-LTL trucking companies don't even give yearly raises. Also, the raises are only ever cost of living increases. They all follow the competition and the broader market as a whole. Right now there are multiple signs of a slowdown and hints of a possible recession to come. The people making the decisions about driver wages will be taking that into account, whether drivers like it or not.