Trying to pinpoint the "better" LTL companies:

That's one of the things I respected about UPS. They told me it was going to be really terrible in the beginning, and then one day you would look around and your whole life had changed. They were right.

 

The problem is their "beginning" is like 5 years! LOL.

I only know that from a close friend...no first hand experience with them.

 

@ClevelandTrucker216 I am not sure all of the companies that Pitt has purchased but quite a few and building their own natural gas stations.

And they LOVE starting people on the docks! And I loved working their docks. Good guys and team work and very busy!

 

It is totally luck of the draw and being in the right place at the right time. Someone who hires in at the beginning of a huge hiring blitz may not ever see work slow down and could get a decent bid in a year or so. Someone who hires in at the tail end may be lucky to work a couple days a week. I hired in during a slow time at sat at home a lot the first year, while my friend hired in a couple years later and was almost immediately on a bid. It still is generally worth the sacrifice for many people.

 

It was a rough 3 years in the beginning. The fourth year was tolerable. The fifth year was good. So it's all relative.

 

I'd say go to dayton freight, nobody ever complains about that place. All of my former con-way/xpo coworkers work there and they have a lot of pride in that company.. Of course, thats in a different midwestern city, but overall i hear nothing but positive things about them.

 

Pitt Ohio is good and they have free health insurance (Blue Cross Blue Shield). They also pay for Drop/Hook and fueling. Would have still been there but got starved out.

I heard they are installing driver facing cameras in their trucks now.

 

Ok. YES, it is possible to move into the operations side of things. Training in house. College degree is NOT required. However , I think once you see the kind of money we make as linehaul drivers and a bit less as city P/D guys, , the question would be why would you want to take the pay cut?
Dayton is incredibly well run. When i started in late 2016 we grossed 480 something million for the year. this past year we cracked a BILLION dollars in revenue. We pay cash for everything, own our facilities and build to spec. Culture is fantastic, really driver centric. profit sharing eligible after 3 years, fully vested in 401K after 6. 50% of the first 6% match. Fidelity manages the 401K and HSA stuff. Last national ranking I saw , we were something like 14th overall in LTl world? This was a couple years ago. to include the national guys. we are a 14 or 15 state regional.....

currently Class A drivers are making .77cpm and $32.75 hr, paid drops and fueling. we seem to get a consistent 2.6% cpm or so raise each year. We are currently hiring in at top rate(think this is still the case) , not sure how the hourly averages out that way. but we went from 31.20 to 32.75 this year.

So it IS possible to move into that side of things. What I dont know is how that would work pay wise.

Required 2 years exp and a clean history. And we are very selective( although I managed to slip through...)

Cleveland terminal will move July or so next year. New build. Existing is 56 doors? New will be 118, snow removal apparatus, covered fuel bay, shop. Fully concrete yard. Will be out near 80/90/480 split while we are currently 77/480 area. Given the door expansion, I think you can rightly expect us to be hiring at that time.

So in short, My dream job at one time would have been ODFL. Now? I wont leave til they force me to give their keys back......