UPS P&D to Linehaul

You must be the luckiest guy I ever met...lol. Your first job is with UPSF, and you also managed to land a Combo job to begin with. Sheesh...lol.

Well...it looks like you're all set for a long and successful Career. You don't have to struggle like most new applicants have to with the amount of OT you'll be getting. Combo drivers I THINK start off around 4-5 am and come back somewhere around 6pm. They work the docks for 4-6 hours and then do P&D runs after that.

Don't expect to do that much Saturday work though, because that's extremely rare...and you'll probably need it to rest up anyways because of the amout of OT you'll be putting in...lol. But anyways, congrats on the job and I wish you nothing but the best of luck.

 

Dude, it is NOT about the pay. Saia is treating their drivers so horribly that they're either going to go union or go under in a year or two.

 

Saia isn’t going nowhere. Look at their profit per quarter. They just expanded in the North East. They’ve actually listened to employees and backed off one of their policies cause it was too harsh. They won’t go union. The company will pay more money. They will be at .68cpm in a month or two. An experienced driver can jump on at top rate with plenty of miles to run. Just can’t use a cell phone. Sysco has a harsh driver cam also for years. They are still well into not going under cause of it. There will always be somebody intrigued with .68cpm starting. It will be their first linehaul gig and they’ll think that’s how all LTL companies operate. So they will always have drivers. Their drivers always have miles to run also. You can work 6 days a week. Pretty much unlimited miles. No sitting to build seniority like UPS or what not.

 

Well...I did some digging around and I MAY know the reason why UPSF is hiring drivers with no experience. Apparently some barns are having a REALLY difficult time hiring drivers because of the low starting payrate. And because of this...they're hiring inexperienced drivers and starting them off at a higher payrate...around 3 year payrate.

But then there's the question, what about the 4 year progression payrate that's in the contract? Well... apparently from what I'm hearing, they'll freeze your payrate for 3 years...which means you'll be making somewhere around $23 an hour or so, for 3 years...and just have to wait 1 year before you reach top rate. My assumption to why this is allowed is MAYBE it's in they're MOU Contract, or perhaps it's a Local Agreement that the Union Local agreed upon. But either way, starting off around $23 an hour for 3 years is A LOT better than starting off somewhere around $17 an hour.

I'm not saying that by any means this is what's gonna happen to you...but don't be surprised if the TM tells you that you'll be starting off around $23 an hour to begin with. And you MAY be also starting off as a Linehaul driver, "IF" they are also desperate for Linehaul drivers too and POSSIBLY starting off at 3 year Linehaul payrate. It MAY be the reason why they will be testing you on doubles for your road test evaluation. But take all of this with a grain of salt...because all of this is an assumption...not a definitive fact.

 

don't have any experience now so I see no real difference, when I first went out on line haul (otr) I' d never done any interstate work before just regional its just a matter of whether you can drive the long hours I did about 1 weeks training then off on my own.

 

If that's the case, that would make UPS Freight more appealing. I often see posts stating that the freight side is not really where you want to be. Linehaul at an hourly rate of $23 sounds pretty good to me.

 

Linehaul is still cpm. P&D is hourly...but some barns from what I'm hearing are starting you off in the $20's now. Not all...but some are. I'm thinking this may be the norm in there new contract...but who knows.