Things I wish I would have known before I got started...

Nice post road runner, not much to add but.....

I wish i had known how bad Peddling LTL locally can ruin your body, i have alot of respect for UPS parcel drivers.

I wish i had known that there are Crap bag outfits like freight quote that take any kind of shipment and could care less how 1 driver has to unload a customers crap.

I wish i had known how miserable some residential customers can be

I wish i had know how crappy single axle tractors do in deep snow


LOL, I guess i'll keep wishin

 

I wish I would have known how much our bodies truly want to sleep at night and stay awake during the day. I would still be doing what I'm doing regardless, but I naively thought that as long as I got my 6-8 hours of sleep, that I would be good to go. Even though I'm getting the proper amount of sleep, the fact is that our bodies are supposed to go to bed in the dark. It isn't a struggle any more. A little bit of a hassle to make my body cooperate, but I've learned a few tricks along the way.

 

Great post!!I keep plenty of water,and hand food ,like nuts,pea nut butter crackers,and make sure you don't go hungry.
I load up on coffee,but not too much.Im also a sissy with rain,so getting out a lot required getting a decent rain suit.
Frog tog didn't last,Im currently using a coleman suit from wal mart.
I keep several pairs of gloves. One set for fueling,another for trailer work,and a pair for driving if steering wheel is unfamiliar
Duct tape,and as others said flash light,rubber mallet,and a good metal clip board that locks holding bol's,and pens.
I hit the dollar store up for cheap supplies.Window cleaner,paper towels,and rags.

 

Zip ties and a roll of black electrical tape, plus most of the stuff listed here.

Don't hit your brakes with a hammer. Press and hold the brake pedal for about 10 seconds, three times in a row, this will unstick most brakes.

Don't work for a company that doesn't suplly gloves and pens at least.

Keep two pens in your pocket, sooner or later a customer needs one, or the one your using takes a crap.

Good post.

 

I don't remember Con-Way supplying us with gloves and pens...

I learnt about LTL through a guy who worked at ABF when I was first looking into it when I was at FDX. So I had an idea of what it was. Originally I was p/d till my layoff with YRC, then got a taste of running the road and said this is much better. I like the road better because I really can't deal with customers all day anymore lol. Also learning a lot from the old timer city guys about how their bodies are just shot, plus I don't mind the nights

 

I wish I would've known that I could've gotten into LTL as a dockworker and then gotten my CDL for free and I would've already had some seniority by the time I could drive. Instead of wasting a year of my life in a sleeper filling piss bottles. Hey, at least I got to visit Kansas.

 

never did where I was... Although as Xmas presents YRC gave us gloves so that was a plus I guess.

@Oi! I never spent a day OTR... I did ALL my research talking to other drivers and looking online. I wanted ABF originally but they were never hiring. plus they were a hour a way. CWF was 5 min away and they took me in and trained me. The most OTR I did was a double layover for YRC. But I slept in a HOTEL and not a TRUCk

 

I did 12 years of the LTL line haul deal. The company I worked for didn't supply us with anything either. But they did offer gloves for $2.50/pair, not the best gloves in the world, basic work gloves, but they would last a couple months or so. I was lucky as my company didn't haul doubles and didn't run out west where chains were required. Of course running I-80 in PA in the winter sometimes is no picnic either and as any LTL driver will know, if the roads are open, you HAVE to roll no matter how bad the weather. They're line haul plan was set up so the drivers are home every night, directions are available to every terminal and relay point in the system, but how well those directions are updated is not always the best. I found it always paid to ask other drivers about the directions when going some where new. Then there's the e-logs, which most of the time wasn't that bad unless the weather got crappy and you were a driver, me, who ran the big mileage runs, 600+ miles a night. Then there's management, thinking 100 guys want your job so deal with the BS they give out..... I've moved on from being a vampire in a slow truck to running for a local bulk tanker outfit with 75 mph+ trucks that also runs some vans, I'm running days mainly, home every night mostly, and most weekends home unless a customer needs product in an emergency which I gladly run as it pays extra for expedited loads. I'm not making quite as much as I was running LTL but my stress level and sleep patterns have improved dramatically because this company is very laid back and actually rewards drivers for getting the job done.

 

Good post roadrunner. What driver doesn't have a bottle of tums sitting on the dash lol!