So what is your LTL company paying?

Thanks...

I ran night before last. Then got a message last night saying I've been bumped due to seniority. So I ended up sleeping all night and now my body is reset ######.

I'm going to try this for a few weeks but if it's this inconsistent that I can't even adapt I mean... I'm 50/50 on nightshift to begin with so I really need that consistency to adapt to it... But yeah I know if I can't make money and I can't adapt to it cuz they won't bring me in every night so my body is going haywire then I'll just do what I have to do and demand to go back on day shift.

 

I did P&D for about 5 months so far, and I'm long since used to disappointing customers. Management is dumb, the whole network runs behind so trucks aren't ready to go out for local delivery until 10, 10:30... then you gotta spend 45 mins securing freight, hooking up, doing a pretrip, going back inside to sign the inspection sheets, getting paperwork, turning on the DIAD, god forbid anything is broken then you gotta find the mechanic... And businesses close at 4 or 5, minus that mandatory half-hour break so you already don't have anyway to get all the freight off!

I spoke to Fedex, R&L, XPO, SAIA drivers, they all get out by 930am and that means LEAVING the terminal NOT pulling in to help finish loading the trailer!

Who is kenyan?

I got kicked off linehaul yesterday. I did it for barely a week and a half, slowwwwly adapting to nightshift, slowwwwly getting better at hooking sets, tons of dumb mistakes here and there, tons of pulling over to try and walk off the sleepiness, get coffee, or even take a nap when I'm so tired that's the only choice to avoid going off the road. But management says that linehaul is so critical they can't afford a few weeks to months of adapting and adjusting, they need the freight to move now so they're gonna beg a nearby terminal to lend one of their drivers for the task.

They have no patience for a younger driver to learn? OK! all your linehaul drivers are in their 50s and 60s, just wait until they retire and you have NOBODY to pull trailers overnight! I'm in my late 20s, and literally the youngest person in my terminal. period. I brought that up in yesterdays meeting when they told me I'm going back on days, and they didn't seem to understand why they should be concerned...

Selfish, and stupid, indeed. The self-driving trucks can't arrive fast enuff for these guys. *rolls eyes*

Great. Well. I'm back on dayshift. 2nd shift to be exact working the dock. One more linehaul run tomoro, then UPSF can farm out a nearby terminal driver until next year, when a coupla guys are gunna retire... they laid off a bunch of dockworkers, my terminal manager complains how much we cost... well dude, it's a TRUCKING business! waddaya expect?!?!

Who the HELL is UPSF gonna find to run linehaul for 51cpm and 17$/hr?!?! Keep in mind, that person hasta have a CLEAN RECORD, no felonies, very few accidents, no weed... good luck competing against other nearby LTL companies. I'm the ONLY person under 30 in that entire terminal!

I have very little respect for this company. They're just a paycheck to me at this point. I'll do my job as best as I can, and if they don't like it, well... there are six other nearby LTL companies hiring, and they seem to have their %$#! together!

 

Plenty patient? So I'm supposed to be adapted to staying awake all night and sleeping all day within 7 nights of starting to do linehaul?!?

I'm supposed to figure out how to hook up a set with ZERO training except from a quick verbal explanation the day before?

Hell, I didn't even work my first two nights because they couldn't figure out how to add me into the ELD system as an "authorized user".

Mistakes? Stupid ones. They didn't train me on the ELD, the terminal manager specifically said he doesn't know of any user manual for the device, so when they changed my route on one of the sub-menus I didn't get the memo, and ended up going to my regular scheduled terminal. I didn't know how to work the device, so I didn't know when they changed the route... lovely.

I was half awake one night, spent over an hour trying to find a "working dolly", I got confused because some of the dolly's need to be bled of all air to release the brakes, others need to have air in them, so I was thinking the valves were messed up... we have different types and I get that now, but at the time at 3am half asleep and frustrated arguing w/ my dispatcher over the phone what the hell did I know?

Struggling to back things under each other... you hook the dolly to the lead and then back it under the kite... sometimes it'd take twenty minutes... I'd have to reposition, etc.

And then I had to pull over every morning several times to drink a coffee, take a nap, because I just couldn't stay awake. By last night I WAS slowly getting better, not having to pull over as much, able to stay awake a little longer and not swerve all over the highway, but it was going to take time to adjust to a nightshift schedule.

But management said it was critical, and they have no time for a learning curve or for me to adapt.

I probably would have eventually gotten used to it, but it could take weeks... UPSF doesn't have weeks.

*shrugs*

They can find someone else who is experienced w/ linehaul to run nights then if that's their feeling. I did what I could. Not my problem.

Every single morning I got dragged into the office: "why were you late"? And then I listed all the things that went wrong... I drive and try to push thru it until I'm microsleeping and swerving to the point that it's an immediate danger to myself and others, then I HAVE to pull over and take a nap. If five cups of coffee, cold air, chewing gum, brisk walks, loud music, if that's NOT able to keep me awake, then WTF does UPSF expect me to do? Crash??!

I had more heated arguments in the last two weeks of doing linehaul then five months of working P&D...

 

I'm glad it's so easy for you. It must help having years of experience doing linehaul and dockwork...