Why I went with LTL

Doing what to themselves? Making themselves bitter?

I will never understand how a few interactions with a few people give someone the right to pigeonhole millions of people. Some shippers/receivers/brokers are complete a-holes but it doesn't mean I should go around parroting that driving a forklift must make you bitter, and it's sad because they do it to themselves.

Some bank tellers are bitter and don't even get me started on old people but I have enough sense not try to make broad sweeping statements that make me look dumb.

 

I'm sorry if I offended you I was partially kidding. I don't have anything against OTR drivers. In fact to be brutally honest I probably should have been an OTR driver. Look I'm sorry it wasn't really my intention it was more of a joke. Look I really wasn't trying to cause trouble, in fact I don't really love local that much either I mean some days are okay and some suck. I kind of fell into local and to be honest with you am very neutral for it really. I don't know what I'm going to do just yet. Trying to find some kind of balance, because I agree local can blow. There are days right now I'm having where I don't want to go to work either tomorrow is a good example of that I got home early today, but the time fly's by when I'm home and before I know it it's 3:30am and I'm back at work for another day. Today at work was alright, but being stuck in city traffic all day and all the dense stops we do yeah it's not so great. Right now I'm doing something I'm neutral for, in reality I'd like to take a break and readjust and go back to the basics. I've always kind of been interested in OTR teams to be honest.

To be truthful if I could get a job with like a cartage company where you know maybe we have a run out of state and then back that would be great. I would love it if okay I knew on Monday I would have to go to Columbus or some place.

Infact I had a call from a charter bus company a couple weeks ago and I almost wanted to do it and still kind of do just because it would get me out of the city and a change of scenery. I agree running the same stupid routes every day does get old certainly does I don't deny that at all.

Really if I knew OTR better and unfortunatly I don't I would be very tempted to run wild line haul for like Estes. Go from terminal to terminal across the country I figure that's splitting the difference the best.

What I do know about LTL line-haul is usually each terminal has a couple different runs so you get a little variety. I don't know what I'm going to do, I just started at a new company one of the better food service companies, that being said our yard is a little shaky, but the job pays well and has some benefits like profit sharing and stuff, I don't really know if I have it in me to stick it out there for the next 30 years, not anything against them, I just don't think I can. Plus I don't know some of the stops kind of blow I don't care for doing hotels down town at all this driving a big truck into an under ground parking garage and loading dock doesn't get me going at all and then spending 2 hours unloading I don't really care for it at all to be honest. Now we have some routes that are out in the country some and yeah I've done the whole down town food service thing living it right now and I'll say this about that, never again, been there done that time for something new were done ha-ha!

I mean if I wanted to go OTR my options probably would be you know any of the big one's being it that I have no OTR experience I'd probably go with USX and do teams for them. I don't mind being solo, but sometime it is nice to have someone else there working with you as long as there cool and I know the whole thing about teams in some cases not all but some cases you might have to go through a few people to get a good one.

Like where I work today it was myself and another gentleman and we pretty much think the same because we come from similar truck driving backgrounds anyhow we got our route done in about 8 hours really wasn't a bad day, but I agree 100% with you I do. When I got into this industry the reason was because I loved being out on the road I had taken some road trips in my car and did a little traveling in my earlier 20s and was also really inspired by Matt L's You Tube Chanel 1776 films especially the videos where he worked for Decker Transport of Fort Dodge, Iowa and was driving through the Midwest in states like Iowa and Nebraska and Montana and Idaho and all those places and I thought man now that's cool, so I went to school to go get my CDL and applied to work at USX well at the same time I applied to work at USX I got called by a local beer distributor and I didn't quite know what to do so I asked one of the instructors at school and he said "Go work local you can always do OTR later on." So that's what I did. The beer company I worked for we had some ex-OTR guys there one was an ex-Schneider driver and he didn't like living out of the truck. The other was an ex-Swift driver and he said flat out "If I wasn't married and had 3 kids I'd still be OTR." The other was an ex-USX driver who said "Yeah USX wasn't bad, I just missed my family is all."

To me it's no biggie I don't have a family of my own, so you know, no girl friend either so I'm like the perfect OTR candidate.

So for me it's true some decisions might have to be made here in the next couple of months. Now at my yard there is a transit job opening and rumor is none of the city guys want it because it's a night run. Umm I would be tempted to do it, it's not local, but it's not the variety that OTR has either. It's pretty much same yard to same terminal every night and it's a late set so it's all third shift.

Like today though the only thing that would be frusterating about OTR is you go some place like the food terminal in Cleveland and you don't really know where you're going or trying to drop you're load at I saw an OTR truck today and he was confused and in the wrong spot and I felt bad for him.

 

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/truckingindustryforum/showthread.php?t=170593

This fellow Reddaway driver made this thread in the experience driver forum. It blew up. If you want OTR guys to read your thread that's where the audience is. Not everyone knows how to use the "search button" or comes to this sub thread. When I was researching LTL I ran into these threads. It helps a lot to share your personal experience cause there might be Otr guys that are miserable and not know much about this industry. Helped me out a lot. 5 yrs Otr and I'm glad I'm a linehaul driver. But I do miss Otr in a weird way just not their wages even though I work for a bottom paying LTL it's still Waaaayyy better then Otr wages.

 

Yup, it's worked out for me. I've made 60k, 74k, and with my top out I should peak out at 80k. Been on a bid for 2yrs now with sat sun and sun Mon off the next week and rotates. We do layovers so I layover 3 times one week then 2 the next. I can't complain. So as a New linehaul driver depending on location you can get worked ragged. I know a lot of Otr guys think they won't work. As the years progress there has been a major growth of freight. My terminal is slammed and forced to use purchase power every night.

 

They hate what they know they haven't got the balls to be.

I did foodservice for four years, and I've got nothing but respect for people who can make a life out of it.

And I'm not dumb enough to piss off the guy who supplies the beer!

 

I worked for a beer company and right now work for a food company it's a real grind ha-ha. I wanted to try it, but now the been there done that is coming into play. It's not all bad all the time, but I'm getting worn out on local driving to much sitting in traffic in and out of the truck umpteen times per day how many times up and down the ramp? I'd rather hit the road. Some guys can do it for years on end I don't know how, but yeah they certainly get my respect.

 

Yup. Pretty much how I feel. I am a local driver and it does get to be a bit mundane after awhile. The biggest thing for me, though, is that I really have no more of a personal life during the workweek than I did as an OTR driver. Most days I come home, grab a shower, eat dinner, and head off to bed. I can't go to a concert, my grandkids' little league games, or anything else that might be going on during the work week. The only positive thing is that I get to sleep in my own bed and use my own bathroom.

To that end, I run local more for my wife than myself. She prefers me to be home every night. Otherwise, I enjoy the road and the new adventures and challenges that come with it.

 

I'll chip in. I'm a linehaul driver for Old Dominion. First trucking company, and will be my last unless I'm shoved out the door. I researched for about 2 years before I decided to start a career in truck driving. In the beginning of my research, I thought I'd have to go OTR while leaving a young family at home - glad that wasn't the case. When I first started, I was a bag driver, and had to lay over a few times a week. Now I'm home every day. I sleep in my own bed, have time to spend with my family, and then 2 days off a week where I can have a normal life. Linehaul is the factory job of trucking, and I love my daily grind.

Not all LTL companies are the same. OD's wild drivers usually only have about a 2-4 hour window of being on call - none of that prolonged waiting stuff, you always know what 5 days you're working. None of that flipping from days to nights. So even the wild drivers - or drivers on the extraboard - have something of a schedule in that they know the 5 days they will always be working, and the call window is manageable.

I'm on a bid schedule now. I love going to the same place, every shift. I thrive on predictability, embrace monotony, and will take "boring" over "adventure" anytime.

Loaded truck with a sleeper cab, "life" on the road, living out of truck stops and dealing with shippers / receivers? No thanks. I knew I wanted to be a linehaul driver as soon as I found out about linehaul before I even started trucking school. Suits me just fine. I haven't even mentioned the pay. Linehaul IS trucking for me - I'll have it no other way.