Should I leave LTL and go back to flatbed?

Started trucking in May 2024. Spent my first year running flatbed and stepdeck and loved every bit of it. After finishing that first year OTR, I got lucky in May 2025 and landed a P&D spot back home in Texas with Southeastern Freight Lines.

Our P&D drivers make $36.70 an hour, solo linehaul earns 86 cents per mile, and team linehaul gets 96 cents per mile. When I first started with Southeastern, I was running about 55 hours a week and grossing around $2,100 weekly. But in the last month, things have taken a turn. Everyone except the senior P&D drivers has been cut back to 35 hours a week, 40 on a good week. Linehaul drivers are being rotated weekly, and many are only working three days a week right now.

At this point, I’m barely netting $1,000 a week, and living in a high cost area of Texas makes that tough. I’m starting to get really concerned. I can’t afford to keep going like this, and I’m seriously thinking about going back to flatbed.

I’ve got a buddy nearby who’s doing regional flatbed for a company out of Arkansas. He’s grossing around $1,900 and taking home $1,600 to $1,700 a week with per diem. They’ve got guaranteed contracts through the winter, so no slow season, and he’s home every weekend for a full 48 hours. His company doesn’t offer paid time off, but they’re super flexible and let him take as much time as he wants. At Southeastern, I only get two weeks off per year until I hit my eighth year, when it bumps to three. Personally, I’d rather have four to six weeks off a year unpaid than only two weeks paid.

Between the hour cuts and the limited time off, I’m really leaning toward going back to flatbed. My only hesitation is that getting hired on at Southeastern was tough, especially as a rookie. But honestly, the seniority system in LTL is brutal. Even guys with five years in are getting their hours cut because they’re still near the bottom of the list. We’ve got plenty of 65 to 70 year olds hanging on, so I’m probably looking at a decade before I get any real seniority.

Just looking for some advice from more experienced drivers. Should I stick it out in LTL and try to find a weekend side gig to make up for the low hours, or go back to flatbed where I can bring home $1,500 to $1,600 a week and have more time off? Biggest downside to regional flatbed vs staying with southeastern will be not being home every day.

 

I drive a 2013 beater, can’t get on with uber.