What are the disadvantages of being an OTR LTL driver?

our guys drive the truck to the hotel and back on PC. Even in the limited sleepers we have which are being utilized since our tl side folded.

 

To me this type of work sounds great.
Good money.
Better living conditions.
And I prefer a go go go job than the boring hurry up and wait type work.

I'm not seeing the down side.
All work sucks for some reason that's why it's called work. What part don't you fellows like?

 

What I didn't like was the uncertainty. At ABF, they had the directive to work us as much as possible for every tour (work day). So if I went to Chicago from Eau Claire, I could virtually guarantee you I wasn't going directly home, even though I could see my ####ing car in the parking lot. That ####ed with me quite a bit.

And so I would go to Indianapolis and then to bed. With my teeth grit the entire time. Lol

A lot of companies do their off time differently than ABF did. At ABF, I got exactly 48 hours off, and then I would be right back to work. That means instantaneously switching from day shift to night shift over the course of a 48-hour "weekend." To tell you how utterly insane that is, I would have to bring in family members who would talk about what a prick I was because I was so exhausted all the time.

Overall, I really enjoyed LTL. I also am a bit of an adrenaline junkie, so I love when they give me a really tight load that may not make it if I don't book it.

I just didn't enjoy the way that ABF does LTL out of the Chicago terminal.

Yellow out of the Chicago Ridge terminal was pretty much perfect, in contrast. It was basically the same deal, but there were more favorable rules around off time and such. ABF was like Yellow mixed with the military.

So in summary, I think LTL can be fantastic. You just have to get in with the right company.

 

A lot of companies have the drivers take the tractors to the hotels, but ABF did not because they want absolute freedom to send out a load whenever they had one, immediately.

 

Absolutely. If you want to maximize your work time and paycheck while minimizing your downtime, ABF is the place for you.

It sounded great in the BEGINNING...lol

 

we've been running long since......

around august I told my wife I wished I made less money. was clean up driver out of indy for columbus about 97% of the time. running long continues even now and it led me to take a shorter run for 6 months, so I could get off at 6 or so instead of the 9 or 10 I was regularly seeing. on paper to run the new bid versus the old one is $90 less a week.......

 

Hey man. Taking a rest run is a real thing. Take a breather, and bid on something new in the spring.

 

The post is confusing because it’s not clear if he’s talking about the typical LTL linehaul work that most of us in this part of the forums are accustomed to, or if he’s literally talking about OTR drivers who do LTL runs (multiple pickups and drops across the country).

I know that I certainly wouldn’t refer to my LTL linehaul job as “OTR” and I don’t know anyone else who would either (including friends at ABF and Estes who are away from home for up to a week).