We should park our units

Hasnt been my experience. I have always had a well paying job, with good benefits. And good home time. Run line haul for just about any LTL company, and yes they are hiring. Hell, most of them are having to resort to training their dock guys to drive because they cant find people that are qualified. I pull in 70 to 100k a year depending on how hard I want to run. Company paid bennies. Home at least every weekend, unless I want to stay out and after a couple of years you get enough seniority to get on a decent bid run where you are home every night, running 2800 miles a week at .65 a mile or so (which is where I was after a year and a half with the company).

 

^^^^^^ And exactly like I said .... that is not the norm in trucking. LTL is but a small segment of the trucking industry. The norm in trucking is long hours, very low pay, and poor benefits. That's why it remains an,unattractive profession for most sensible people.

 

And furthermore, your home every other weekend for $70,000-$100,000 is crazy. Most people would never sacrifice their family for a job like that. You think,it is good and I view that as not much better than slavery. To each his own. Normal people do not view staying away from home for two weeks at a time for $70-$100K as a great job. People do what they gotta do to,pay the bills but don't kid yourself that is a great job.

 

Where did you see that I said I was out 2 weeks at a pop? Hell, most of the time Im at home every night, even when I was on the open board.

USF Dugan I was senior open board from day 1. Ran Minneapolis to Sioux Falls every night (504mi round trip). On weekends I would often run a layover to KC and back (740? round trip). This was back in '98 when I was making .34 a mile and I made 72k my first year there. No one MADE me run weekends. Was voluntary. Was there 2 years.
Midland Transportation I ran St. Paul to Marshalltown IA and back every night. 1 year. 480mi round trip
Land Air Transport I ran Lafayette, IN turns 6 days a week (those were long weeks I will admit, and thus the reason I quit after 8 months). 580? mi one way.
Michaletz Trucking I ran the mail from Mpls to Ft Wayne, IN 3 trips 1 week and 2 the next. 3 years. 560mi one way.
R&L Carriers I ran Minneapolis to Des Moines and back. 3 years. 450mi round trip.
Estes Express I ran the open board and thats where I was doing 2800mi a week average. Ran 33 states. I enjoyed it. 2 years. Could pretty much go where you want, stay out as long as you wanted. But if you wanted to go home they HAD to send you home on saturday. One of our Minneapolis drivers did his 34hr reset in Vegas.
And now Im at USF Holland running South Bend meets (we meet in Poynette, WI and go home 520mi). Made 66k last year running the Joilet meet which is 420 miles a night. Takes 7 hours to turn it. 66k for 35 hours a week and in bed every night aint bad. Not sure what I made yet on the South Bend. Havent gotten my W2 yet. Its in the office, I just forgot to get it on friday. Been there almost 3 years now. I would guess around 75-80k for an 8.5 hour turn 5 days a week. Co paid bennies. You actually make more running the open board though. A lot like Estes in that respect. Stay out if you want, but if you put it in the computer that you want to head home, they have to get you home on saturday.

There are pros and cons to every job. Dont sleep in the truck, dont shower in truckstops. If you aint home, youre in a motel. Granted not all of them are that wonderful, but you learn to stay away from the fleabag motels.

 

At my previous job (and the best paying job I've had outside of trucking) the only time I made as much as I do now was during our spring rush... I'd get up and go to work around 0530, then I'd bust my hump working all day until about 2230 (that's 17 hours a day), then I'd go home shower, sleep, and do it all over again. I did this 6 days a week for about 60 to 90 days a year... The rest of the year varied from 40 to 65 hours a week. I worked there for 4 years and every year I got raises when lots of others didn't. I was (and still am) a hard worker, and that company recognized that. Minimum wage where I live is $8.25/hr and I was making over twice that, over 3 times that on overtime... I made pretty good money, but it was all very physical work and in a high stress environment.

Now I get between .37 and .42 cpm based on total monthly miles. I'm away from home for 5 to 8 days at a time, during which time I log 3300 to 4000 miles. Then I'm home from 34 hrs to 4 days, and I decide when I take another load.

I sleep better now than I did working my previous job... I actually have the ambition to do things with my family when I'm home... I don't dread going back to work at the end of my home time, I'm not as physically exhausted, I'm not outside in the hot sun or sub zero snow storms, and I make way more $$$.

Driving truck is my "Working Smarter, Not Harder"!

When you clock 320+ hours of physical labor in 30 days or less then we can discuss which line of work is smarter and which is harder.