why the ** do LTL drivers get paid a lot more than everybody else.. Please explain!

Probably because no one would do it if they didn't pay more. Think about it, most OTR drivers are qualified, but we don't do LTL. I'm probably leaving a min of 10k/year on the table by staying OTR.

Why? To me it seems like a meat grinder. P&D, you're out all day, getting more stops piled on as the day goes by. Linehaul, it's the same route/schedule every day, rain, ice, snow.. Then when you're done driving, with many LTL's you don't go home, you work the docks. THEN you drive home. With the few remaining hrs, get a shower, have dinner, sleep , drive to the terminal. And do it all over again. And again. And again.

The money is tempting, but at the moment I'm ok with spending a few nights per week in the truck, going different places all the time and having 2-3 day weekends.

 

Actually it makes perfect sense. Hauling freight via truckload over the road is the least profitable way of shipping freight. You have the fuel and mantenance costs and the constant underbidding by different companies driving the profits down. Then you have newbies entering trucking and going straight into OTR because that's all they know about trucking. So with all the new people constantly entering trucking in the OTR sector it keeps the wages down since why pay more when you can get a newbie out of school less money to do the same thing. That and OTR driving doesn't require much skill compared to city driving...your driving skills are going to suck in comparison to a city driver with the same amount of experience you have. That and LTL gets paid for each little package they send so they make more profit then truckload in that regard. Then you got unions in LTL which help keep there wages above OTR. Then you have the fact that LTL deals with a lot of things that OTR drivers don't like hauling doubles and triples, working the dock, constantly dealing with hazmat loads, etc. OP you mention flatbed but unless you are hauling nothing but huge oversized loads which require a lot more responsibility from the driver you shouldn't be making as much as the ltl guys are.

 

Sounds more like line haul than otr, a few nights a week in the truck and 2-3 day weekends is otr?

 

We get paid more because it's Alot more work.

OTR - Stop at one shipper, nap, eat, drive 500-600 miles, nap again, park somewhere, eat, watch TV, sleep... maybe back 1 or 2 times a day.

P&D - Stop at 15-20 places (most of which are not designed to accommodate trucks), do some of the most challenging backs possible while blocking off busy roads, wrestle freight around, liftgate service, balancing several air-tight schedules... You won't see fatties in PJs and flip-flops doin' this stuff.

 

It's common knowledge that only one trailer in a set of doubles has freight in it. The driver uses the other one to haul his cash around.

Those guys earn their pay. Especially the ones that have to work the dock before getting a via to another terminal and run their clock out every day.

 

hey I can't help it that most run system , stay out longer and skew the "OTR" definition! Are dedicated runs from OH-OK , or OH-LA, or OH-MO not OTR?!

 

Fifty cents per mile or $22.50 per hour when not driving.
That should be the minimum entry-level driver pay, industry wide.

 

After I got off the truck I went into self employment as a load planner for O/Os with their own authority. I've been doing that for 10 years now, and during that time I've seen a lot happen to this industry. I've seen lanes that were goldmines get turned into utter crap once one of the student driver carriers or low wage paying companies weasel their way into it. Never ever underestimate the greed of brokers. They will happily pay Swift or any other low wage outfit to haul that freight because it means they get to keep more of the money. The most terrible thing is that some of these low wage outfits have cut out brokers entirely and have direct relationships with shippers. So that company is getting all the money for moving that load and are STILL paying their drivers crap.

I know some here don't have a favorable outlook on unions, and in some circumstances I would agree with you on that. However, I truly believe the only way to combat cheap freight is that an industry wide payscale has to be enforced that all student drivers or drivers with less than a year experience be started out at .50cpm. I believe that wage to be high enough to where people won't feel they are being taken advantage of, and lanes won't get murdered so badly like they are now.

edit: I was writing my post while you posted yours. It seems we are of the same mind on starting wages.

 

You forgot to mention that pay should be of of the speedo or hub. Not the calculations they use now. We are talking a perfect world here aren't we.