YRC vs Roadway vs Reddaway

Watkins and Motor Cargo were 2 ltl companies back in the day. In fact I'd say that back then if you wanted to go OTR, CF, Watkins, Motor Cargo, and Overnight were the places to be. They all did sleeper teams, line haul and local. When FedEx bought Watkins they renamed it FedEx National soon after they turned them to FedEx Freight and no more sleeper teams. UPSF did the same thing with Overnight. Now both of them sub out the OTR freight. They give it to crap companies like CRST, US Xpress, etc. UPSF used to have O/O but don't know if they still do.

The thing I think gets these drivers angry is change. No one likes it when you have a good thing going and someone comes in and ruins it by saying you have to do it another way. Or turning it upside down. Funny thing is, not only the drivers at my yard hate Yellow, the management does too! The office workers at Reddaway used to have their benefits paid for by the company but not anymore. That's the way it is in my yard anyway.

Carolina was a bad purchase for both of those companies from what I heard. Another ltl company that was out west here was Viking Freight and they were awesome. FedEx bought them and turned them into FedEx Freight. Viking was on it's way down from what I understand though. I was a dock worker at Viking in 1995 and that was a really good job. From what the old timers told me is that the trucking industry started going down hill in the 1970's. Now I started driving in 1996 and I have seen a lot change since then. Just seems to keep getting worse imo. Then again most jobs seem to be getting worse. Oh well, time marches on.

 

Thats true I guess. You really seem to know your LTL history, seems like you "been around" you lizard lol. JK JK JK. Honestly thats how a lot of tucking jobs are. Friend of mine has been to many different companies in the years because of better pay of close downs. Very risky industry, but so is construction these days. Luckily I live in a very very busy and wealthy areas so trucking and construction is good here

 

Construction is always booming out here. My friend has his own company and is busy year around. Only you won't make any money at it unless your in the union. I was in the roofers for about a year. Great pay but horrible work. We had a contract that every building got a new roof or tar every 10 years. Had no shortage of work unless it rained. Then again I don't know what rain is in socal anymore.

Trucking down here is different. The big players where I'm at is FedEx, UPS, Saia, Conway and Reddaway. I don't see many YRC, R&L or Estes anymore. Unless I'm just out at the wrong time. I remember before the recession, I would see about an equal amount of each. I am a little worried about where we are headed. I hope things keep picking up. I hope the good companies keep growing and some good small ones pop back up. There was a rumor going around that Watkins was gonna make a come back into the ltl market. Right now they have Watkins truckload and Landspan but it would be nice to see them bring back their ltl division. From what I heard, they had to wait 10 years after they sold to FedEx to do anything. Might all be rumors though.

Haha, yeah I have been around. Seen a lot of good people lose their jobs and some good companies get swallowed up by the competition. I really miss the days when you could run 80 mph with a bird dog and jabber on the CB. The days when truckers would offer help, directions, be courteous. Now you turn on the CB and it is silent or some idiot is on there running his mouth. There are still good people out there on the road but they are far and few these days.

 

I have a CB but have been told dont even both putting it in the truck... its not the same as it used to be out there. The big players by me are ABF, YRC, CWF, FedEx, UPSF and NEMF. We had an Estes but they closed down. Found out from a UPSF driver that the yard they had was an old Overnite barn. When UPSF bought it they closed that barn down and rented it to Estes. But with all the traveling and traffic from the barn up north they gave Estes the boot and are opening their barn back up for them. Its good for them so they can get rid of that scab outfit doing NYC for them. Feel bad for the Estes drivers thoug all losing their jobs...

Looing at Saia im surprised they arent up North up here. Seem to be big else where

 

Oh yeah. I forgot to mention that the reason Estes is in socal is because they bought another company called G.I.Trucking. It was also a really good outfit. I must say I liked working at Estes. Easy money there and was hired off the street on the longest bid run they had.

 

#### cool35 you really have been around quite a bit! Seems like your the guy to go to for any LTL advice... Well what do you think of saia? They don't run up here and never heard of them till I got on ttr

 

Don't know that I'm the go to guy on ltl but I've been around. I've worked for quite a few places. Saia was a good company. Good pay, good miles. They did a lot of turns. I liked that about them cause I got to sleep in my own bed every night or actually day. What I didn't like about them is some of the drivers there were complete jerks. Now this was in 2005 when I worked there so I don't know how they are now. The trucks were nice but the trailers weren't. If you had to wait more than 30 minutes for your trailers to be ready you got paid hourly. Got paid to fuel, pre trip, hook and unhook sets. I hated the paperwork! Had to write down everything to make sure you got paid but at least they paid you for everything. The only reason I left was for the job with Estes which I got hired on to a bid run from city of industry, CA to Reno, NV. Estes was a really good place to work. My favorite ltl so far. Paperwork was easy, got paid for all the same things as Saia and I got a really good paycheck. Nobody wanted that run to Reno because of the snow. They started doing turns to Bishop to meet with the Reno drivers and I got bumped to doing Santa Maria turns. I got pissed off and jumped the gun by quitting. Thing was I still had a bid run. One of many many bad decisions I've made. Oh well.

 

Road runner,
I probably average what you do a night. Maybe 400 actually. My yard is kinda small for being in socal and the guys on the top have been there forever too. I don't really care for the way things work in that respect but these are different times. When I got hired at Yellow as a casual, they said it would only be a month and I would go to full time. Then the recession hit and that was it for me.

 

You seem to be like me, I got fed up with CWF by never getting work and far from any bids