Saia vs. r& l

I'm thinking of joining them here in the northeast. Do you know anything about the "system" OTR linehaul as a solo driver? I'm just curious if they also work nights or can they drive daylight hours? Do they make more than the line haul guys that are home daily?

The guy told me they pay per run but didn't give me any daily figures to expect. Wish I had some hard numbers to work with. I've read it comes out to around .68cpm or $30 an hour and the work is there.

 

The guy I knew personally that ran it had had his fill of P&D. The driving was a mix of day and night depending on when loads were ready, etc. he left Monday night and was home Saturday morning, maybe through the home terminal/house once or twice but not for long (10-12 hrs). Pay was on par for him with a 55-60 hour P&D week , so 1600–1750 gross. All terminal to terminal or slip trailers at a meet point, not slip seating power. His truck was his and no one else used it

 

Thanks for the reply. Do they have driver facing cameras? I don't really care if they have them for line haul but for OTR that's a bit strange.

 

Have forward cams that have the ability to look in cab but inward lens is pgysically blocked until you become a problem then they can swap covers out and see inside. I didn’t know anyone that got to the point of having it turned on incab

 

R&L is the worst LTL you could drive for, besides maybe Central. No overtime is ridiculous and what compounds the problem is that they have a much less dense terminal network than most other LTL's. Which means alot more driving between stops and easily 60+ hours of straight time work weeks in the city.

To add insult to injury, you gotta buy your own palletjacks and hand trucks out of your own pocket to move R&L`s freight around. Someone in an earlier post said they saw a R&L driver with a electric pallet jack. That driver paid $3k of his own money for that electric jack. Aw HELL no!

I dont know how they get guys to work there but I guess if it's between R&L and a road job I'd do R&L. Maybe.

 

Wonder if they have their own power meter to charge pallet jack ?

 

LTL too cheap to use power jacks. LTL is Manual Jack. Foodservice are the only ones that use power jacks.

 

They seem to be the only LTL company around me that will take a new driver fresh out of CDL school. Old Dominion was my top choice but they want one year experience. I would be doing line haul hook and drops so no pallet jacking nonsense for me. At this point it's either line haul for R+L or OTR with Schneider and I've decided to join R+L.

 

R&L is not that bad. I spent 8 years with them. ALOT depends on the service center manager. Always remember there are three ways to do things; the right way, the wrong way, and the R&L way!

 

Line haul can be spotty for the low man. Much depends on your service center location and how much the idiots in central dispatch at the Emerald Palace in Wilmington get involved. The further you are from them, the better. There is a fair amount of favoritism that goes on at certain Setvice Centers. I was at Norwalk Ohio, NOR. We regularly got screwed by Wilmington so they could get their line guys miles. You can PM me if you want