Swift buys Midwest Motor Express for $150 million

I just wanted to comment on this. I worked at Estes as a P&D driver (I also tried out linehaul very briefly as well). So while I never had direct experience as a dock worker, I would still interact with them and observe what went on in their workplace environment.

At least at Estes, one problem that I saw was how they treated the dock workers like machines. There was no set time for the dock workers to go home, only a set time for the dock workers to come in. They got one 30 minute break per day but the thing was, they were working these dock workers a minimum of 10 hour shifts. It was probably more like 11-12 hour shifts were the norm for these guys. How do you have a family life when your wife and kids don't even know when you'll be home?

And somehow, at least at Estes, it was overtime after 52 hours instead of after 40 for the dock workers (and for the P&D drivers as well but we at least had CDL's). How in the world it's legal to pay a non-CDL worker, who is paid an hourly wage instead of a salary wage, to pay them overtime after 52 hours instead of after 40 is beyond me. That should be 100% illegal lol and I'm sure that rubs many of the dock workers the wrong way (and rightfully so).

And of course many times it comes down to whether the Dock Manager is good at his job or not. Many times people quit bad managers rather than quitting bad jobs. I'de imagine that's probably the case at a lot of LTL Terminals, where people are quitting because of bad managers instead of quitting because the job itself or the pay itself is bad.

With Swift-Knight buying up these LTL companies, I sure do hope that they continue to pay their drivers a respectable wage. I would hate to see driver pay in the LTL industry (even if I'm not in it anymore) to be driven down instead of going up like it has been over the past few years.'

EDIT - Now that I think about it, because of how Estes structured their dock workers working hours and working conditions, it seemed to be a place where it was mostly young people (below 40 years old) working there. And they would grind for a year to save a lot of money, for whatever reason, and then quit because while the pay was good, the work life balance absolutely sucked.

These LTL companies would be smart to realize that if they made overtime optional and paid overtime after 40 hours instead of after 52, that they could probably get more productivity out of their employees and the employees might be more willing to work long hours if the long hours were optional. And employees would start viewing the job as an actual career, instead of a place where you just grind it out in the short term to save a bunch of money and then leave because of the horrible work-life balance.

It's really amazing how psycologically, how much more people are willing to do things if the task at hand is presented as INCENTIVIZED and OPTIONAL, compared to when people are being FORCED to do things without being given a choice and without being incentivized for it.

 

Swift already owned us.. well Moyes did anyway.

 

In LTL most days have always been 10-12 for as long as its been around, and most drivers/dock look for the extra hours. As for OT, some companies are after 8, some after 40, 45, 50 or no OT at all- Its all legal( except for a few states- Ca., Or.,Wa, and Me)