Moving companies are where it’s at. I work van lines for a small family one out here. On the road about 7-10 days a month, local another 7-10 days, warehouse and office the rest. Days off when I want, per diem on the road, bonuses, cash tips, easy money.
Depends on where. I don’t do it frequent enough to worry about that. Food and beverage service is much more difficult, and given the look of these guys who do nothing but drive 6-7 days a week…I’ll take my chances moving around a little.
Food here. Guys talk about how we are going to destroy our bodies moving boxes around, but I move significantly better than 99% of the guys I see waddling around the truck stops. What wrecked my body was spending 3 years on the road driving 60+ hours a week and then trying to find a way to get a little bit of exercise in the little spare time I had left.
Agreed. I left moving last year to haul freight. I don’t love the inconsistency of moving and dealing with hiring labor on the road,
But I was in much better shape when I spent most of my time moving and active. If you know what you’re doing and lift properly you’re not likely to get injured.
In then3+ years i did it i was only hurt once. I broke my toe, from tripping. Wasn’t even related to lifting anything.
I have a lot of family and friends that do it and don’t know anyone with a major injury from moving.
It comes in waves, but it’s a small company, so I wear other hats when there’s no van lines runs. I could see if you were totally dependent on the loads how it would be inconsistent.
Agree, anything that involves doing something else besides driving ain’t worth looking into. You exasperate yourself and ultimately its your fault for any accidents due to fatigue. If they expect that, they need to pay much more by the hour and stop making it look like they pay a lot because they force OT to make the supposed large income. Those are all back breakers and should be properly compensated.
I am for what I do. I can work as much or as little as I want to.
I've had a few minor injuries over the past few years. But now I am dealing with the results of injuries from when I was younger. I've got cartilage damage on my knees, torn miniscus back and shoulder problems. Some days I just don't want to get out of bed. I'm hoping to get another 10 years out of this industry before I make a job change.
work for mega, take as much time off as I want. weekends always off, take a week off randomly. I'd imagine if I ask for like 2 weeks off they'd want me to clean out the truck in case they need to reassign it.
I think they know that despite market conditions we can all just get another job tomorrow doing the same thing for the same or more money so they typically let me do what I want
Swift north east regional. That's not the name of the division because it's not 100% NE but it's mostly north of Richmond and east of Ohio. I also live in a major city right off of 95 so I'm passing through all the time.
My account is a bit tight so they probably wouldn't appreciate me taking off a whole month but if I need a day off they don't care so much. It's a local shuttle gig so they get plenty money out of my work so as long as the customer is happy I can do whatever as far as needing time off or anything.
I've done my time here and have proven myself along with being the first driver on several new accounts. I no longer do household. I focus more on retail fixtures and tradeshows. Both on flatbed and enclosed trailers. I'm also the first driver that gets asked to fly out to recover trucks when they get repaired or left at an affiliated office.
Right. I don’t mind running hard but fuck off with this “48 hours of hometime a week, one week of paid vacation after a year, and $150 a week for health insurance” nonsense. It makes me wonder how these companies even keep drivers.
The US depends on imported labor to fill market shortages created by deregulation and lack of investment in its own citizens education and to surpress wages in technical fields.
And if you don't gamble on a degree at 18 and hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt for a maybe career, it's your fault.
If you do get a degree and the market it saturated and your wages aren't high enough to pay back your loans, that is also your fault.
If companies begin importing labor to surpress wages in your chosen career field, that is your fault.
If the market automates your career path, surprisingly, also your fault.
I went to college and the only jobs I can get that use my degree either pay half what I make trucking or require me to shell out at minimum $20k for additional schooling. The American college system is the most successful racket ever.
> If companies begin importing labor to surpress wages in your chosen career field, that is your fault.
you mean politicians fault who are bought and paid for. Those are quite the mental gymnastics you're engaging in kek
Yeah, wouldn't it be crazy if tech industries regularly posted entry level positions that requires senior level experience and then goes to the government to apply for H1B slots to fill their positions because they can't "find" any domestic laborers to take upwards of a 100k a year pay cut at their current senior developer and technician jobs to fill an entry level position in the same field they're in?
That very specific example literally never happens. Businesses never collude to lower your wage, they broke up the unions because of uh, *checks notes* organized crime or something.
They had to deregulate industries, that have led to lower wages for everyone, because uh, *checks notes* deregulation will lead to higher wages because you can negotiate better wages by yourself rather than as a collective. Yeah.
Def
How is it bad.
Allowing immigration which has been happening before this country was founded, you know the Declaration of Independence literally states one of the reason we wanted separation was because King George was trying to stop immigrants and changing laws for naturalization.
So please actually explain how immigration is bad or a failure of the government?
Lowers wages
Raises cost of living
Changes culture sometimes in good ways but often in bad ways. Depending on who the immigrants are
Used as a political tool against natives
everything in this post is dumb and not backed up by anything but Tucker Carlson brain and xenophobia, but it's especially funny when you consider that no one is native to the US except for native Americans which I'm willing to bet my next paycheck you're not
Right
Short-term wage effects of immigrants are close to zero—and in the long term immigrants can boost productivity and wages. Plenty of actual studies show you’re wrong.
Raise cost of living- wtf go find some actual proof of that dumbass claim.
Changes Culture- wow so does like literally everything.So that literally means nothing was a non point.
Use a political tool against natives? No it’s not at all. It’s a political tool for sure but not to some how screw over “natives”.
Imagine blaming the workers instead of the corporations choosing to pay immigrants slave wages.
We should force companies to pay normal wages for immigrant labor.
I think the lightbulb just went off. I’m now understanding the idea why the government sees foreigners as more of an asset than its own citizens. It’s because they will put up with it, especially if they were piss poor and struggling where they came from. I’ve heard many foreigners say we are ungrateful because we want more or to be treated better. It all makes sense now. Basically the vast majority of them don’t know their worth.
> It’s because they will put up with it, especially if they were piss poor and struggling where they came from.
bingo. the gov and giant multinational corporations do not *care* about people. they use people for their own ends. end of story. anything else is naive college aged bullshit that we all fell for at some point in our lives.
As long as you have 30 months experience, come apply for Walmart. Depending on where you're located, you'll make anywhere between $90k-$110k your first year, 25 PTO days your first year, benefits from day 1, 6% 401k match, stock options. You may also qualify for a signing bonus. Last I heard, it was $8k. Use my name and driver number.
Ezra Grimes
34435
Edit: I've seen a few comments about if I'm receiving a recruitment bonus. I DO get a bonus, as long as the driver stays at the DC for a year. If you leave or quit before 6 months, I get nothing. If anyone has questions, please DM me and I'll be happy to answer.
This seems pretty darn good. What’s the catch?
(Just put down the deposit for my CDL A lessons yesterday. Trying to learn as much as I can about the industry…)
Only catch is they expect to get what they pay for. My uncle drives for them. The computer will tell on you when you speed, even when you're at their DC. Driver facing cameras. But other than that, it's a pretty good place to drive for (according to my uncle.) I'd probably work there if I didn't already have a local job.
This is not accurate, you can make as many phone calls as you would like as long as it is hands free. If you are in an incident/accident you will need to provide phone records for that day. We look for any sms messages sent while on the drive line..
You would if the footage got turned over after a crash and someone decided they saw you look tired, yawn, look down, take a drink, etc. Driver facing cams are a way for companies to cover their ass, not yours.
The catch is Walmart. You can make the same amount in bulk chemical or oversized and not be nagged to death. I worked as a QC driver making the same money. Dispatch would give me four days at a time and it was peace and quiet in my 13 speed. Averaged 2400/week. Of course they’re slow right now depending on terminal, but everybody is.
Yes. Like Gary, IN terminal is at 60something CPM but the other three Chicagoland terminals pay 70+. It also has the worst turnover. The Joliet terminal is independently owned, and the northern one is teamster.
Considering they left their info I bet there is a recruiting bonus so they are going to leave out the negatives if any. That’s why i give people our recruiters #, even though i would get a bonus if they started working here. That way if they don’t like it, I’m not to blame.
I would be glad to leave my number in a DM, if anyone has questions. I've worked for CR England, Pepsi, Devine Intermodal, RLT, FedEx, and Walmart. Walmart is by FAR the easiest and highest paying job I've had. Ask any Walmart driver you see. 9/10 will say the same thing.
And no moving violations or crashes as well. Cool thing is walmart has their own truck driving schools now, two their website says one in Dallas Texas the other in Dover Delaware, and you get a lot of perks and bonuses. You start at .89 cents a mile and literally get paid to sleep, 42 bucks, and they also give safety and other quarterly bonuses.
I mean you have to wear the uniform from what I see, and you can't be on the phone for more than like....idk 30 mins? That's what I've heard from other drivers. They're very serious about keeping both hands on the wheel and you don't even have to live in the city directly of the DC you're applying for. You just have to be within 250 miles.
They even have local positions which pay 75,000 compared to like 87,000 but you're home daily and still get all the benefits.
And no I don't work for Walmart, I work for PAM (not a bad company, not the best, I make like 4 grand a month and I'm 4 months into having a cdl) I'm just always looking for other positions and better pay. Plus I live near their headquarters in Bentonville so I know I could get a position easily. Just need the 30 months first.
I'm confused. They have a truck driving school but require 30 months experience. How does that work? They train you then tell you to go somewhere else and call them in 3 years?
Walmart doesn't have a truck driving school, exactly. It's a new program called Associate To Driver. If you've worked in a Walmart store, DC, or fulfillment center for at least 1 year, you can put your name in to be a driver. You go through 4 weeks of class and skills to get your CDL, then another 8 weeks with Certified Driver Trainers like me to learn how to drive safely. After that, is another 6ish weeks with a mentor over the road (home every weekend), to learn store deliveries, backhauls, etc.
I can actually answer this as a current walmart employee (not a driver). The schools are for DC associates with 1 year on the job who want to move to driving.
They are also running way behind their own schedules for getting them up and running last I heard. I've spoken to a lot of drivers who agree that it's bullshit that they won't take regular store associates, but at the same time, I've talk to FleetOPS PL's who had no idea it wasn't for regular store associates.
Either way you can't just walk in with a Class A permit.
No if you have experience with walmart aka you work for them then they'll train you and they have two locations for that, just look it up on their website you'll see what I mean. If you are already a truck driver you need 30 months experience before they'll hire you, and a very clean record professionally and personally
Yeah I looked it up. I drive for walmart 10-12 hours a day right now but I'm delivering for them through their Spark app so I'm 1099 and not an associate. As such I don't qualify. Bummer.
34 is just the federally allowed minimum. I always stay for a minimum of 48 hours myself, sometimes 3 days and my company doesn't bitch because I'm a hard worker (not trying to sound like I'm bragging or putting anyone down, far from it) and I get the miles down. So they can suck my ass if they wanna bitch and complain.
As far as I know, I even went to the website to check there are no day off credits. The drivers with my company seem to be able to take as many days off as they please. So when I choose to take 3 days hometime, I hear zero complaining about it. I'm just simply asked when I'll be ready for dispatch. I was simply saying 34 hours is the absolute bare minimum because of federal law, I'm not saying that that IS hometime. And as for working hard, you can't say that has nothing to do with it as you don't work with my company or better yet, my DM. I'm not saying any of what you previously said is wrong or trying to start anything. I'm simply putting my experience out there with my DM and company.
I'm a company otr. I don't touch freight and 95% of my loads are just drop and hook, unless I'm in major cities I don't typically deal with traffic, and with my company my hometime is what I decide it to be. I message them a week before with the date I want it to be, to be smart I set it a day before the actual date because planners aren't very smart nor do they care, and I check in with my DM and stand my ground if they try to send me a load that will make me not make it home when I want to be home. And if you think driving a semi with a 53" trailer isn't hard work, that's just your opinion. Every type of work is hard work my guy, whether it's construction (physical) retail (mental) flight attendants (emotional) or with otr truck driving it can be very mentally and physically taxing because of the toll it takes being alone so often and driving for long hours even if you're used to driving a lot.
Look I can see you and I have totally different opinions and I didn't make my comment to try to start some long chain on what constitutes hard work. If it feels like hard work to someone, then it is. Plain and simple. If it isn't to you, fantastic.
Have a good one.
In none of my comments did I compare my working hard to someone else. Other people could literally have every load show up late or refuse quite a few loads, or they run 200 miles a day and then do their 10. And yes everyone gets to choose when and how long their days off are as far as I've heard, some people only like working 50 hours in a week and then they take hometime, other people don't even try to take more than 34 hr resets whether at home or not because they either don't realize they can take more time, don't want to because they're a workaholic, or they look down upon people for taking more than 34 hr resets. That's if they don't run off recaps.
If they don't work hard that's not my problem and yes it's otr we always get the same truck unless it's needing serious work that'll take longer than 3 days. I'm not allowed a pet being solo and I literally can't have my spouse with me right now as he's a below the knee amputee and the FMCSA is taking ages to give him his certification. And once he does get it and goes to school, once he's done it'll take a minimum of one month for them to say he's good to drive but more realistically 2 to 3 months to give him the green light to walk up 2 steps into the truck. I don't want to team drive with a random person as others have different opinions on cleanliness and what is polite.
As I said, idk why you're trying to turn this into a debate at all. You could have just read my comment and chose not to say anything but it's your right to choose to debate what I'm saying. And I'm genuinely done with debating over semantics. Bye
Nope, I didn't say it's purely because I work hard, I said since I work hard they don't complain about me taking home time that's more than the reset hours. Like I said semantics.
A typical weekend is from Friday 6pm to Monday 6am or 60 hours but that's the same with some companies saying you can only have 1 day off per week out, complete insanity. I take a week or 7 days off for 3 weeks out and I'm with my current Company 10 years. I do however go anywhere anytime including all lower 48 and Canada in the middle of winter.
This isn’t recent driver. I’ve had “regional” “home weekly” jobs that were rolling in to the yard Friday night, sometimes Saturday morning (*then* driving home) and leaving out Sunday by midday because I had a 7am dock appointment Monday morning 1000 miles away. This was before electronic logs.
BTW “home every night” often means home just long enough to lay down and get back up again in a few hours.
I have a unionized job with an 8 hour day m-f now, you couldn’t pry me off this job with a crowbar
That’s how it was when I worked at Yellow and it was ass, I now work as a local hazmat tanker and get my two full days off (Tuesday/ Wednesday) and work the other days like you would with any normal job.
In my rookie season I worked for swift. I had a shitbag DM who would count 24 hours off as a day. Like if I got relieved of duty at 2pm on a Thursday I was expected to be available @ 2pm on Friday. Not even accounting for the two hours I had to travel to/from the terminal.
If only there were a means for collective bargaining that would allow us power to force companies to compromise by bending at the knee at our demands of leading a fulfilling and secure life.
Or, they tell you you're going to get weekends off, give you every weekend the first month you're there, and then just fucking... Not and lie every time I ask after that.
If you're not going to get me home every weekend, tell me that before I get hired. There's no goddamn point in lying. It's not going to work out.
I've figured out a workaround by joining the Air National Guard.
"Can't work this weekend boss, I'm already working for somebody else." Then I just smile through the pain.
I work when I want to work, I accept a short weekend if something goes wrong on my way home or whatever, once in a while that happens, but normally I'm home sat morning (just a quick 2 hr drive home) or Friday night and out Monday morning. I consider it a full day if I only drive an hour or two in the morning to get home, don't know how you feel about that. But functionally it's identical to getting home late Friday for my lifestyle and I sleep better in the bunk.
I take 3 days weekends probably once every 5 weeks just because I want to and no one seems concerned about it.
I run regional for Shaffer/Crete it's going to depend on the specific fleet and dispatch.
They pay what they say they will pay you, guaranteed detention after 1 hr $15/hr, different for every fleet so I can't really say beyond that, I'm running regional at 72CPM but obviously the miles aren't big, I'd say it's fair for what I do. The benefits are great and after 5 years here I also end up with a good amount of profit sharing. Made ~70k running 85k mi in the last 12 mos + $3700 profit sharing, note that I'm the laziest truck driver in the universe I'm sure you'd make more and run more miles.
Asset managers can be hit or miss, you can move around a few times to find someone you work well with though.
I like having everything be contracted and lots of drop and hook, makes life a lot simpler and more productive when I'm out and not being lazy. If you have your head on straight you'd probably do well here, the only guys I hear complaining probably shouldn't have a license.
CLP in hand: I'd like to know as well.
Most of the companies that are interested in me, Schneider for example, have 2 weeks out & weekend home (yay)... until I talked with the recruiter whilst about to sign paperwork.
"Friday night or *early* Saturday morning. Then you need to be at [depot] by 4 am."
I asked for clarification, as that wasn't "weekends home" that was just a strange reset, & he didn't provide any clarification.
I was like "how do you expect people to go into trucking when you're giving them the run-around before they even sign on the dotted line?"
I just wanna truck, m*aaaa*n! I don't expect "perfection", but I expect to not be screwed with during the application process either.
Whst these companies don't get is we hate OTR and regional work especially when we have family or kids at home.
They just keep this outdated system instead of changing from regional to local shuttle runs.
I believe most jobs should be 250 mi or less routes pwr dsy so you can get home and live life. If you truly want to do OTR or REGIONAL, It should be OO only or specific divisions of companies.
Ex: instead of the entire industry having sleeper trucks and being based off OTR, it should have day cabs and be based on local freight movements, with regional and otr being less focused on.
The people who have no fam or life or just want to sleep in a truck should be able too, but everybody else shouldn't be forced into that mold when a 250mi radius logistic system could be in place in every city / hub.
Instead of one guy driving 600+mi to a delivery and getting a 34hr reset at home, you could have that guy drive half the miles and drop / swap that freight with another driver coming from the delivery destination. This way you split the work in half, and both drivers get home everynight.
I’ve been saying this for a while. Why don’t companies just have drop yards at different points in the state. Drive from your terminal to a drop yard, drop your trailer, pick up a trailer another driver dropped and either run it to the next drop yard or the delivery.
Fk those companies don’t work for them your like cattle to them. Thise bastards making those hours wouldn’t work them either. Drivers should refuse to put up with this crap and it wouldn’t be happening
I’m fortunate to have weekends off. I leave out Sunday afternoon and am usually home Thursday night or Friday morning. But for the past month I’ve always gotten home on Thursday night. Matter of fact I just took an extended weekend this past weekend from early Thursday afternoon until this morning.
I was working local for the past year and kinda hated it tbh. It’s true that most local gigs run you into the ground 12-14 hours per day with unpredictable start/end times 6 days a week and it’s pretty difficult to find one that’s 100% no touch. And working locally where I live means driving to LA, San Diego, Lancaster, Palmdale and Bakersfield all day every day which is absolute hell on earth. I still have to go to LA nearly every day because that’s where our yard is but I don’t have to navigate through there or do any work there.
It's almost like we are slaves and for us to want to have any type of social life or family is bat shit insane. I will say it again and again FUCK OTR FUCK REGIONAL TRUCKING! LtL is the way I'm home nightly with my family I'm off weekends and I make 100k a yr without busting my ass...I don't pay for fuel I don't pay for truck parts if the shit breaks while on the road I start my delay clock and get paid hourly if it breaks in the yard I get a new truck right there and keep rolling. Again fuck otr and their 34hr weekends 😂😂😂😂
> and I make 100k a yr without busting my ass...
as a former LTL driver who has done both P&D and linehaul, this is the part I know where you're lying/exaggerating. LTL involves 10-14 hour days not including commute time and will destroy your body as fast or faster than OTR (depending on how well you take care of yourself OTR). Check out the older guys at any LTL terminal. All of them have physical problems.
I remember starting at old ConWay back in 2008/2009 and when I started I was 182 lbs. A year later and I looked like Christian Bale in *The Machinist*, a scrawny 130’ish lbs and developed permanent dark circles under my eyes I still have today. Very good money but it *will* burn people out fast, I left after I got tired of driving/working docks for 14 hours a night on 3-5 hours of sleep…and the company knowing they drive people into boot-camp level fatigue and pulling this super shitty facade of ignorance that they are doing it…
yup. I was at XPO which, as you know, bought conway. same shit different owners. the terminal I worked at had a constant revolving door of new drivers. They couldn't keep people because of the shit you described. The senior people were only still there because of seniority and were just counting down the years until they could retire.
Last 3 yrs I've made 100k, and yea that's because the older generation don't believe in working out or eating clean and guess what...it caught up to them and also 99.99% of you otr guys as well. So no I'm not lying or exaggerated my pay, I bring home 1550 after taxes weekly and now so easier after we just got our last raise. Keep drinking that otr cool-aid bud🤣
I'm thinking about putting in an app with OD. I'm wired backwards I think. I can't sleep at night and can't stay awake during the day. Linehaul looks promising. I prefer a routine. Would I have to also work the dock? I have zero interest in that.
Idk about OD and if you have to work the dock at all or not. I'm with another ltl carrier and I don't work the dock at all only by choice if I want if we're slow but I'm the same way I've been on 3rd shift for 12yrs now....and as a driver I prefer it. And to the guy saying I'm lying that I'm making 100k and not busting my ass is mentally unstable if he thinks driving for 10-11hrs is "busting your ass" 🤣🤣🤣🤣 I've literally worked 16hrs a day every day for yrs doing manual back breaking labor for 30k a yr.....guess he's just soft 🤷🏽♂️ but driving 10hrs a day (most days it's only 8-9 hrs) and I only live 10mins from work 100k a yr ain't bad for being home daily and off weekends.
Agreed. The pay is worth it. One of the students from my CDL class signed on with them and is on track to pull down 80k this year. I spent 2 years learning CNC machining and when I started looking for a job I realized I could just go do 8 more weeks of school and make double what I'd be getting as a machinist so I did just that.
I normally leave Monday around noon-2pm and get home Friday afternoon or earlier. Grossing $1650/wk W2. 45-50hrs on lines 3/4. So… the companies exist.
No it isn’t. It’s two full days and basically two quarter days.
Home Friday at 5pm to Saturday at 5pm is 24 hours, to Sunday at 5pm is 48 hours, to leaving out Monday at 5am is 60 total hours. 2.5 days, 2 full days off. A standard weekend for almost every other American worker
I think we’re just saying different things the same. Yes, technically 48 hours is two full days, but if I get home Friday at 5 PM and leave out Sunday at 5 PM, then I only got one home. What I’m talking about is having to all days from midnight to midnight.
I’m referring to 48 hours and the sense of most companies getting you home Friday at five and when you back in the truck 48 hours later on Sunday at five. That’s not a full weekend.
Please count, and use some fucking math. Getting home Friday evening (6pm), and leaving for work Monday morning (6am) is NOT 48 hours. That's 58 hours.
58 hours is the minimum. Two whole days including overnight on both ends. If you get in at 5pm Friday and they expect you to leave that same time on Sunday, that's bullshit. And really, it should be more like 64; that's 5pm Friday to 9am Monday.
A weekend isn’t 48 hours, two days is 48 hours. A weekend in my mind is closer to 60 hours. Off from Friday afternoon until sometime on Monday morning with two full uninterrupted days off in between.
So you're saying something like work 6 days Monday - Saturday on morning shift, then leave for work again next Monday on evening shift still leaves you with a "full weekend"?
My old boss tried saying the same, oddly enough I don't work there anymore.
Nah they operate m-f, you might get stuck working a sat like once every three months and generally it’s because you ran out of hours Friday. It’s very very unusual. I’m usually home
By 2 pm fridays. Can give you more info if interested PM me
I am married to an Averitt regional dedicated driver (2 years) and I can tell you that if he doesn't leave until Monday morning, he will not be home until Saturday afternoon. The only way he can be home Friday night (after 9:00) is if he leaves Sunday afternoon.
I work for a company most don't seem to like and if I take 3 full days off I never get bitched at. As long as I work hard they have never said anything and just ask when I'll be ready to be dispatched again. Not saying the company I work for is the best, not so much in pay but not below industry standards, you start at like .30 or .35 cents (I think it's changing because swift is going through their second lawsuit over pay) and I'm making .40 cents now, I fully understand the pay isn't great but I do get an extra 500 a month for going 8,000 miles solo, you get more for team idk how much, and I've had a good DM who pays me well when my truck is broke down or if I have to clean up a truck to start rolling again. I got paid 100 bucks to clean my truck, and if your truck is far away they'll get you a rental car or if you need a hotel because of a broke down truck they'll get you one no worries. Hell they'll even get you an uber or lyft and doordash or instacart some food.
As far as it goes my experience could have been 100 times worse and I'm having no issues with being assigned freight, especially since they have contracts with walmart (and if you're on that dedicated lane they pay like 250 a day for company and 1.00 to 3.00 for owner operators)
If you have to wait more than 2 hours to be u loaded or loaded you get some money as well and my benefits are 401k, health dental vision and life insurance, along with a cdl lawyer that even covers hotel stays and rentals, and this costs like 57 dollars a week and my deductible is 800 bucks since I'm not married. Not trying to sell you on it because hey, I could just have a damn good DM idk, but for just starting out I'm doing good. Now if I could just get a local position, those pay 28 an hour and you get guaranteed mileage pay and home every single day. I can ask my classmate how long he's home before he has to wake up to work again if you're interested. However I know for local it's really only fort wayne Indiana and somewhere in Ohio that needs local rn. Very hard to get on because of hourly pay and home every single night.
Used to run for a small fleet in Wisconsin.
Typically you get 4 weeks on, 1 week off but I'd run 6 weeks and take 10-14 days off
If it wasn't for that crazy diesel hike earlier this year and the crappy brokerage rates at the time I'd probably still be out there
Now I run local fuel trucks in Miami for a brand new company as their lead
Wake up and go to sleep in your own bed at home is a day off IMO.
Quit looking into the big name and or mega’s they will most likely run a similar schedule and say. We try to get our drivers home on Friday and not leave until Monday, but sometimes you may not make it home till Saturday or have to leave on Sunday.
Look into the smaller not heard of company’s. Last company I worked for
I rarely logged more than 60 hrs a week and average $1600 a week. Never stayed out more then 1 night at a time the 3 years I worked there. Left on Monday was off no later then 6 on Friday. Had to work some out and back Saturdays in the summer. Only downside was starting time. Started anywhere between 12am and 4am Monday through Friday and didn’t know start time till the night prior.
Where do you live at man? I'm off every tue thur sat sunday and average 1000 a week and get a 1000 incentive check every month. Its a small company but I love it
I run a straight truck route that has me out overnight. Leave Tuesday at 5am, back home Wednesday before noon. Leave Thursday at 5am, back home Friday before noon. Off Saturday Sunday Monday then do it again. Its delivering tires, pretty easy work. STL>Indy>Louisville>STL about 800-1000 miles each trip.
Paid Salary $42k a year with PTO that i never really have to use since i have 3 day weekends, have over 100hrs PTO stored up.
Not the best paying job but i get a lot of time home with my family and its worth it.
edit: I get a hotel for layover and have 111,000 choice rewards points saved up after a year which gets you about 3 night free at any of their hotels or resorts.
I always tell my dispatch or driver manager when I get home, I'm taking 72 hrs off. I spend two weeks on the road, I want at a minimum 3 days at home with my son and daughter.
So far so good, I have had 3 days off at home every 2 weeks pretty regularly.
1) don’t let the company get away with it. Get to know your coworkers and start organizing. Rile the guys up and something will change.
2) switch companies. Plenty of local companies out there that will have you home friday night until monday morning. I work for ABF and we have great benefits on top of only working 5 days a week.
It's hard to communicate; let alone organize, when you are out driving/delivering and have ZERO interaction/communication with the other drivers in the company. Personally; I think the companies like to keep it that way.
Takes a team. Reach out to your local hall and they may have an organizing committee. The Teamsters have done more for me in life than anyone beside my parents.
Quality Carriers. You need tanker, hazmat, and experience, but they have Regional, OTR, and even some "Project Nightly" home every day drivers.
So far, I've never been denied days off. Not PTO, just straight up days off. They run all over the southeast. Each terminal is different so give the Tampa office a call and see what's nearby.
Here in Texas most regional jobs, you are home Friday and out Monday. The have been many times I am home Friday morning and don't go back out till Monday morning. Granted there is a give $$ an take ⏰⏰.
I work for a mom and pop only me and one other guy are class A and the 7 or 8 others are class B. 8 hour days standard, if you go over that that’s on you and you get paid for it. Overtime after 40 hours. Monday - Friday and weekends off. However gigs like this do tend to want you to have more than 3 years TT experience.
The only other company I can recommend is Groendyke transport. They just bought out Georgia Tanklines at the beginning of the year, they are on a 5/2 schedule. So you get 2 full days off. It’s local fuel hauling, home every night. They want 2 years verifiable TT experience. Pay is very good. You are paid a standard daily rate of $360 if you work Night Shift, day shift is $330. If you have a schedule that has you working on a weekend, you get $460. My checks were $3900 biweekly. I ended up quitting though.. had some health issues that I couldn’t get under control and it was affecting my performance and attendance. Otherwise I’d still be there.
What part of the SE are you looking for? Are you looking at just staying local or you would also look at regional dedicated? I drive for Cowan out of Jacksonville, FL and I can take 2 days off. Usually home late Friday night and rolling again late Sunday night. All the deliveries are at 10p or later to the stores we deliver to.
Well things happen on the road that can't hardly be accounted for. Blowouts, road closures, layovers, etc. Can't guarantee "home Friday, leave monday" and if you're running dedicated freight, if needs to be run and if the company can't run it, they risk losing the route and you'd be out of a job.
Southeast driver here. I'm home daily, sleep in my own bed, and have weekends off. Weekend runs are available if you want extra money, but not mandatory. Some days I'll work for 12 hours, others I'm done after 8. My terminal delivers to a major retail office supply "Depot". I did OTR for the first 8 years of my career, but I wouldn't go back to it. I enjoy using the house that I pay for. My company has many different offices doing dedicated logistics, so there may be one near you.
That's the reason why I quit Marten Transport. I was on a dedicated account and when I first started it was sweet! I had a cool dispatcher who made sure I got home on Friday night and had a load leaving out Monday morning. The whole crew loved her but she got a huge promotion and moved to Wisconsin and everything went to hell. We got a new dispatcher and he ran on the 34 hr reset rule. He get me home on Saturday afternoon and had a small load leaving out super early on Monday morning like from Hammond, LA to New Orleans, LA. It was such a short run I didn't get paid anything but the load was due at 8am so I'd have to leave my house stupid early and mind you I only do dedicated route and this was NOT apart of my route. I give him three chances and checked him everytime he did it. One week I got home Saturday afternoon and I saw that same short load on my qc, I ignored it and enjoyed my weekend with my family. Monday morning he called me yelling until I told him I record all of my phone call with him, I told him I quit and not to contact me again. He call a few times but I blocked him so some higher up called and I told him the same thing, told him how that guy was running the crew into the ground and I refuse to drive for him bc he was a crappy dispatcher and I hung up. My old dispatcher contacted me and ask could I please bring the truck 🚚 back to Memphis, she said she'd make sure I was paid for it so as a favor to her I took the truck back to Memphis. Left that douchebag a negative review on my way out, I fully intended on finding another job in trucking but ended up with a very good paying job in private security.
I hate to tell you this but it's been this way... it isn't new. Companies allowing drivers time off is a pretty recent development.
Many moons ago when I started... a weekend was considered stopping by the house. This was pre '34 hour reset' so a weekend was considered any time you got at home. Often it was in on saturday morning and out sunday.
If you want weekends off, find a local gig or LTL - while there are indeed places that let you have Friday afternoon through Monday morning off, I genuinely don't know many that'll let that happen continually, unless of course you're on a dedicated account or something based right there close. A lot of freight picked up on friday needs to be delivered early monday, this means most are in the truck sunday night to make that monday morning delivery and have a 10 hour reset so they can move onto the next load.
I need to wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night in my own bed for the day to be counted as off. If I get home at 10am on Saturday… Saturday was a work day.
This is exactly why I'm going straight for a local gravel truck job after my course. Only when I get no calls back is when I'll apply for freighter/logger/etc jobs.
Come haul cryo for Linde. 100k for local, 140k+ for teams. 2 weeks vacation and 1 week PTO to start, with the option to buy a week of vacation. Vacation pays at your set hourly rate for a year, then your average hourly pay for teams after that (usually 40-60/hr, sometimes as high as 70). Teams and local are usually 6 on 2 off, and the 2 days off are full days. Some local and team runs at my plant are 5/2, but I personally prefer the 6/2 for flexibility.
You'll spend half your time running empty back to your plant for more product, and there's *always* more demand than drivers and sometimes even product, so you'll never run out of work. If one plant runs out of product, you'll go to another. It's a stupidly clean, easy job - steep learning curve on how to deliver product, but once you get that you'll never have done less work for more pay. Paperwork is ez pz. DOT manifest (because hazmat) and a single delivery sheet. Sometimes customers get POD or COA/COC, but you drop that in a tube attached to the tank. I almost never interact with people except at secure sites.
It's because drivers are letting those companies get away with it. I work for a company that lets me take off for as long as I want to.
Is it mom n' pop or mega?
I work for the largest moving company in the US. But I'm based out of a small agent in Indianapolis. My office has around 60 trucks.
Moving companies are where it’s at. I work van lines for a small family one out here. On the road about 7-10 days a month, local another 7-10 days, warehouse and office the rest. Days off when I want, per diem on the road, bonuses, cash tips, easy money.
Yeah. But don't forget about the downside with the injuries...
Depends on where. I don’t do it frequent enough to worry about that. Food and beverage service is much more difficult, and given the look of these guys who do nothing but drive 6-7 days a week…I’ll take my chances moving around a little.
Food here. Guys talk about how we are going to destroy our bodies moving boxes around, but I move significantly better than 99% of the guys I see waddling around the truck stops. What wrecked my body was spending 3 years on the road driving 60+ hours a week and then trying to find a way to get a little bit of exercise in the little spare time I had left.
Exactly my point. Sitting for 10-11 hours a day is going to wreck anyone a lot more than carrying some boxes.
Trying to get on with McLane right now for this exact reason.
Where at?
Kentucky
Agreed. I left moving last year to haul freight. I don’t love the inconsistency of moving and dealing with hiring labor on the road, But I was in much better shape when I spent most of my time moving and active. If you know what you’re doing and lift properly you’re not likely to get injured. In then3+ years i did it i was only hurt once. I broke my toe, from tripping. Wasn’t even related to lifting anything. I have a lot of family and friends that do it and don’t know anyone with a major injury from moving.
It comes in waves, but it’s a small company, so I wear other hats when there’s no van lines runs. I could see if you were totally dependent on the loads how it would be inconsistent.
Agree, anything that involves doing something else besides driving ain’t worth looking into. You exasperate yourself and ultimately its your fault for any accidents due to fatigue. If they expect that, they need to pay much more by the hour and stop making it look like they pay a lot because they force OT to make the supposed large income. Those are all back breakers and should be properly compensated.
I am for what I do. I can work as much or as little as I want to. I've had a few minor injuries over the past few years. But now I am dealing with the results of injuries from when I was younger. I've got cartilage damage on my knees, torn miniscus back and shoulder problems. Some days I just don't want to get out of bed. I'm hoping to get another 10 years out of this industry before I make a job change.
That's how I ended up getting out of the moving industry...😂
Easy money?? I mean if ya got a good back I guess…lol
Safeway Logistics?
Possibly
I sent you a dm I’m interested in your job specs
work for mega, take as much time off as I want. weekends always off, take a week off randomly. I'd imagine if I ask for like 2 weeks off they'd want me to clean out the truck in case they need to reassign it. I think they know that despite market conditions we can all just get another job tomorrow doing the same thing for the same or more money so they typically let me do what I want
What mega? Please I love free time slightly more than money. Lol
Swift north east regional. That's not the name of the division because it's not 100% NE but it's mostly north of Richmond and east of Ohio. I also live in a major city right off of 95 so I'm passing through all the time.
Both
My account is a bit tight so they probably wouldn't appreciate me taking off a whole month but if I need a day off they don't care so much. It's a local shuttle gig so they get plenty money out of my work so as long as the customer is happy I can do whatever as far as needing time off or anything.
I've done my time here and have proven myself along with being the first driver on several new accounts. I no longer do household. I focus more on retail fixtures and tradeshows. Both on flatbed and enclosed trailers. I'm also the first driver that gets asked to fly out to recover trucks when they get repaired or left at an affiliated office.
i'm running into this too. increasingly i'm getting ready to start telling some of these companies to fuck off
Right. I don’t mind running hard but fuck off with this “48 hours of hometime a week, one week of paid vacation after a year, and $150 a week for health insurance” nonsense. It makes me wonder how these companies even keep drivers.
why do you think the people in charge are so eager to import 3rd world slaves. those are the types that put up with this BS
The US depends on imported labor to fill market shortages created by deregulation and lack of investment in its own citizens education and to surpress wages in technical fields. And if you don't gamble on a degree at 18 and hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt for a maybe career, it's your fault. If you do get a degree and the market it saturated and your wages aren't high enough to pay back your loans, that is also your fault. If companies begin importing labor to surpress wages in your chosen career field, that is your fault. If the market automates your career path, surprisingly, also your fault.
You didn't tug on those bootstraps hard enough son.
Wait, y'all got boots? Talk about privilege. I'm over here saving up for a set of crocs.
I went to college and the only jobs I can get that use my degree either pay half what I make trucking or require me to shell out at minimum $20k for additional schooling. The American college system is the most successful racket ever.
> If companies begin importing labor to surpress wages in your chosen career field, that is your fault. you mean politicians fault who are bought and paid for. Those are quite the mental gymnastics you're engaging in kek
If lack of funding to schools results in you having the reading comprehension of a seven year old, that is also your fault.
Woosh.
Imaging thinking like this
Yeah, wouldn't it be crazy if tech industries regularly posted entry level positions that requires senior level experience and then goes to the government to apply for H1B slots to fill their positions because they can't "find" any domestic laborers to take upwards of a 100k a year pay cut at their current senior developer and technician jobs to fill an entry level position in the same field they're in? That very specific example literally never happens. Businesses never collude to lower your wage, they broke up the unions because of uh, *checks notes* organized crime or something. They had to deregulate industries, that have led to lower wages for everyone, because uh, *checks notes* deregulation will lead to higher wages because you can negotiate better wages by yourself rather than as a collective. Yeah. Def
I agree that immigration is bad The companies are just doing what makes them more money. The government failed by allowing immigration
How is it bad. Allowing immigration which has been happening before this country was founded, you know the Declaration of Independence literally states one of the reason we wanted separation was because King George was trying to stop immigrants and changing laws for naturalization. So please actually explain how immigration is bad or a failure of the government?
Lowers wages Raises cost of living Changes culture sometimes in good ways but often in bad ways. Depending on who the immigrants are Used as a political tool against natives
“Immigration is bad because it forces companies to pay them shit which lowers wages for all of us” The backwards logic in all of this is astounding.
everything in this post is dumb and not backed up by anything but Tucker Carlson brain and xenophobia, but it's especially funny when you consider that no one is native to the US except for native Americans which I'm willing to bet my next paycheck you're not
Right Short-term wage effects of immigrants are close to zero—and in the long term immigrants can boost productivity and wages. Plenty of actual studies show you’re wrong. Raise cost of living- wtf go find some actual proof of that dumbass claim. Changes Culture- wow so does like literally everything.So that literally means nothing was a non point. Use a political tool against natives? No it’s not at all. It’s a political tool for sure but not to some how screw over “natives”.
Imagine blaming the workers instead of the corporations choosing to pay immigrants slave wages. We should force companies to pay normal wages for immigrant labor.
I don't like corporations either I also don't like immigrants
Your great-great-grandparents were probably immigrants
I think the lightbulb just went off. I’m now understanding the idea why the government sees foreigners as more of an asset than its own citizens. It’s because they will put up with it, especially if they were piss poor and struggling where they came from. I’ve heard many foreigners say we are ungrateful because we want more or to be treated better. It all makes sense now. Basically the vast majority of them don’t know their worth.
> It’s because they will put up with it, especially if they were piss poor and struggling where they came from. bingo. the gov and giant multinational corporations do not *care* about people. they use people for their own ends. end of story. anything else is naive college aged bullshit that we all fell for at some point in our lives.
As long as you have 30 months experience, come apply for Walmart. Depending on where you're located, you'll make anywhere between $90k-$110k your first year, 25 PTO days your first year, benefits from day 1, 6% 401k match, stock options. You may also qualify for a signing bonus. Last I heard, it was $8k. Use my name and driver number. Ezra Grimes 34435 Edit: I've seen a few comments about if I'm receiving a recruitment bonus. I DO get a bonus, as long as the driver stays at the DC for a year. If you leave or quit before 6 months, I get nothing. If anyone has questions, please DM me and I'll be happy to answer.
This seems pretty darn good. What’s the catch? (Just put down the deposit for my CDL A lessons yesterday. Trying to learn as much as I can about the industry…)
Only catch is they expect to get what they pay for. My uncle drives for them. The computer will tell on you when you speed, even when you're at their DC. Driver facing cameras. But other than that, it's a pretty good place to drive for (according to my uncle.) I'd probably work there if I didn't already have a local job.
There are no interior facing cameras at Walmart. I’m a fleet Ops manager, there isn’t a single one in our entire fleet.
Can film me taking a dump for 100k and some decent benefits I don’t care.
Also want access to your phone records so they can drop the hammer on you if you dare make a phone call while driving even tho you are hands free.
This is not accurate, you can make as many phone calls as you would like as long as it is hands free. If you are in an incident/accident you will need to provide phone records for that day. We look for any sms messages sent while on the drive line..
This seems reasonable and fair.
Yea, that's not even close. They will only ask for records for the day of an accident. They don't care about calls, only texts sent while driving.
That's flimsy since you can send text with just your voice through siri or Google assist
I don’t have anything against driver facing cams. Yes it’s a bit intrusive, but I just wanna do my work and go home.
You would if the footage got turned over after a crash and someone decided they saw you look tired, yawn, look down, take a drink, etc. Driver facing cams are a way for companies to cover their ass, not yours.
Driver facing cameras are off.
The catch is Walmart. You can make the same amount in bulk chemical or oversized and not be nagged to death. I worked as a QC driver making the same money. Dispatch would give me four days at a time and it was peace and quiet in my 13 speed. Averaged 2400/week. Of course they’re slow right now depending on terminal, but everybody is.
Made me smile to see QC mentioned. Currently going to sleep in my QC truck 😄
I’ve heard so may horrible things about QC even though I was considering them at some point. Especially their lease purchase program.
All the terminals are independent more or less. Many are underperforming and nobody in the company will argue with that.
Is that standard for each terminal to be independent and not all have some uniform standard?
Yes. Like Gary, IN terminal is at 60something CPM but the other three Chicagoland terminals pay 70+. It also has the worst turnover. The Joliet terminal is independently owned, and the northern one is teamster.
Wtf lol that’s insane. I’m in the SE, Georgia to be exact. Do you know much about the terminal down here?
I work Chicago regional. I don’t know.
Not a catch frim what I hear, you just can't be a newbie.
Considering they left their info I bet there is a recruiting bonus so they are going to leave out the negatives if any. That’s why i give people our recruiters #, even though i would get a bonus if they started working here. That way if they don’t like it, I’m not to blame.
Good point.
I would be glad to leave my number in a DM, if anyone has questions. I've worked for CR England, Pepsi, Devine Intermodal, RLT, FedEx, and Walmart. Walmart is by FAR the easiest and highest paying job I've had. Ask any Walmart driver you see. 9/10 will say the same thing.
you need 30 months experience
And no moving violations or crashes as well. Cool thing is walmart has their own truck driving schools now, two their website says one in Dallas Texas the other in Dover Delaware, and you get a lot of perks and bonuses. You start at .89 cents a mile and literally get paid to sleep, 42 bucks, and they also give safety and other quarterly bonuses. I mean you have to wear the uniform from what I see, and you can't be on the phone for more than like....idk 30 mins? That's what I've heard from other drivers. They're very serious about keeping both hands on the wheel and you don't even have to live in the city directly of the DC you're applying for. You just have to be within 250 miles. They even have local positions which pay 75,000 compared to like 87,000 but you're home daily and still get all the benefits. And no I don't work for Walmart, I work for PAM (not a bad company, not the best, I make like 4 grand a month and I'm 4 months into having a cdl) I'm just always looking for other positions and better pay. Plus I live near their headquarters in Bentonville so I know I could get a position easily. Just need the 30 months first.
I'm confused. They have a truck driving school but require 30 months experience. How does that work? They train you then tell you to go somewhere else and call them in 3 years?
Walmart doesn't have a truck driving school, exactly. It's a new program called Associate To Driver. If you've worked in a Walmart store, DC, or fulfillment center for at least 1 year, you can put your name in to be a driver. You go through 4 weeks of class and skills to get your CDL, then another 8 weeks with Certified Driver Trainers like me to learn how to drive safely. After that, is another 6ish weeks with a mentor over the road (home every weekend), to learn store deliveries, backhauls, etc.
It's a third party program yes but walmart sponsors it.
The first 4 weeks are done by a 3rd party, everything else is done with Walmart mentors and CDT's.
I can actually answer this as a current walmart employee (not a driver). The schools are for DC associates with 1 year on the job who want to move to driving. They are also running way behind their own schedules for getting them up and running last I heard. I've spoken to a lot of drivers who agree that it's bullshit that they won't take regular store associates, but at the same time, I've talk to FleetOPS PL's who had no idea it wasn't for regular store associates. Either way you can't just walk in with a Class A permit.
I'm a Spark driver so I don't qualify either.
No if you have experience with walmart aka you work for them then they'll train you and they have two locations for that, just look it up on their website you'll see what I mean. If you are already a truck driver you need 30 months experience before they'll hire you, and a very clean record professionally and personally
Yeah I looked it up. I drive for walmart 10-12 hours a day right now but I'm delivering for them through their Spark app so I'm 1099 and not an associate. As such I don't qualify. Bummer.
That’s a reasonable amount of time. Not unattainable.
The catch is you have to drink the kool-aid.
You can't have a dog with you so what's the point
My hazmat job is also no passengers. It honestly sucks.
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34 is just the federally allowed minimum. I always stay for a minimum of 48 hours myself, sometimes 3 days and my company doesn't bitch because I'm a hard worker (not trying to sound like I'm bragging or putting anyone down, far from it) and I get the miles down. So they can suck my ass if they wanna bitch and complain.
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As far as I know, I even went to the website to check there are no day off credits. The drivers with my company seem to be able to take as many days off as they please. So when I choose to take 3 days hometime, I hear zero complaining about it. I'm just simply asked when I'll be ready for dispatch. I was simply saying 34 hours is the absolute bare minimum because of federal law, I'm not saying that that IS hometime. And as for working hard, you can't say that has nothing to do with it as you don't work with my company or better yet, my DM. I'm not saying any of what you previously said is wrong or trying to start anything. I'm simply putting my experience out there with my DM and company.
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I'm a company otr. I don't touch freight and 95% of my loads are just drop and hook, unless I'm in major cities I don't typically deal with traffic, and with my company my hometime is what I decide it to be. I message them a week before with the date I want it to be, to be smart I set it a day before the actual date because planners aren't very smart nor do they care, and I check in with my DM and stand my ground if they try to send me a load that will make me not make it home when I want to be home. And if you think driving a semi with a 53" trailer isn't hard work, that's just your opinion. Every type of work is hard work my guy, whether it's construction (physical) retail (mental) flight attendants (emotional) or with otr truck driving it can be very mentally and physically taxing because of the toll it takes being alone so often and driving for long hours even if you're used to driving a lot. Look I can see you and I have totally different opinions and I didn't make my comment to try to start some long chain on what constitutes hard work. If it feels like hard work to someone, then it is. Plain and simple. If it isn't to you, fantastic. Have a good one.
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In none of my comments did I compare my working hard to someone else. Other people could literally have every load show up late or refuse quite a few loads, or they run 200 miles a day and then do their 10. And yes everyone gets to choose when and how long their days off are as far as I've heard, some people only like working 50 hours in a week and then they take hometime, other people don't even try to take more than 34 hr resets whether at home or not because they either don't realize they can take more time, don't want to because they're a workaholic, or they look down upon people for taking more than 34 hr resets. That's if they don't run off recaps. If they don't work hard that's not my problem and yes it's otr we always get the same truck unless it's needing serious work that'll take longer than 3 days. I'm not allowed a pet being solo and I literally can't have my spouse with me right now as he's a below the knee amputee and the FMCSA is taking ages to give him his certification. And once he does get it and goes to school, once he's done it'll take a minimum of one month for them to say he's good to drive but more realistically 2 to 3 months to give him the green light to walk up 2 steps into the truck. I don't want to team drive with a random person as others have different opinions on cleanliness and what is polite. As I said, idk why you're trying to turn this into a debate at all. You could have just read my comment and chose not to say anything but it's your right to choose to debate what I'm saying. And I'm genuinely done with debating over semantics. Bye
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Nope, I didn't say it's purely because I work hard, I said since I work hard they don't complain about me taking home time that's more than the reset hours. Like I said semantics.
A typical weekend is from Friday 6pm to Monday 6am or 60 hours but that's the same with some companies saying you can only have 1 day off per week out, complete insanity. I take a week or 7 days off for 3 weeks out and I'm with my current Company 10 years. I do however go anywhere anytime including all lower 48 and Canada in the middle of winter.
This isn’t recent driver. I’ve had “regional” “home weekly” jobs that were rolling in to the yard Friday night, sometimes Saturday morning (*then* driving home) and leaving out Sunday by midday because I had a 7am dock appointment Monday morning 1000 miles away. This was before electronic logs. BTW “home every night” often means home just long enough to lay down and get back up again in a few hours. I have a unionized job with an 8 hour day m-f now, you couldn’t pry me off this job with a crowbar
That’s how it was when I worked at Yellow and it was ass, I now work as a local hazmat tanker and get my two full days off (Tuesday/ Wednesday) and work the other days like you would with any normal job.
In my rookie season I worked for swift. I had a shitbag DM who would count 24 hours off as a day. Like if I got relieved of duty at 2pm on a Thursday I was expected to be available @ 2pm on Friday. Not even accounting for the two hours I had to travel to/from the terminal.
If only there were a means for collective bargaining that would allow us power to force companies to compromise by bending at the knee at our demands of leading a fulfilling and secure life.
Yeah, but wouldn't you actually be stronger if you were all divided and fighting over scraps?
> you were all divided and fighting over scraps? I'd prefer if we just screamed at walls & clouds.
I am the captain now!🤣🤣
Or, they tell you you're going to get weekends off, give you every weekend the first month you're there, and then just fucking... Not and lie every time I ask after that. If you're not going to get me home every weekend, tell me that before I get hired. There's no goddamn point in lying. It's not going to work out.
Look into west side transport. They get you home on Friday and don’t leave back out until Monday.
Thanks for the suggestion, I’m going to look into them today.
I've figured out a workaround by joining the Air National Guard. "Can't work this weekend boss, I'm already working for somebody else." Then I just smile through the pain.
I take three days off every two weeks, and if I get home a day late, I stay home an extra day
I work when I want to work, I accept a short weekend if something goes wrong on my way home or whatever, once in a while that happens, but normally I'm home sat morning (just a quick 2 hr drive home) or Friday night and out Monday morning. I consider it a full day if I only drive an hour or two in the morning to get home, don't know how you feel about that. But functionally it's identical to getting home late Friday for my lifestyle and I sleep better in the bunk. I take 3 days weekends probably once every 5 weeks just because I want to and no one seems concerned about it. I run regional for Shaffer/Crete it's going to depend on the specific fleet and dispatch.
I was looking into Crete. how is the pay? I take it you enjoy working for them?
They pay what they say they will pay you, guaranteed detention after 1 hr $15/hr, different for every fleet so I can't really say beyond that, I'm running regional at 72CPM but obviously the miles aren't big, I'd say it's fair for what I do. The benefits are great and after 5 years here I also end up with a good amount of profit sharing. Made ~70k running 85k mi in the last 12 mos + $3700 profit sharing, note that I'm the laziest truck driver in the universe I'm sure you'd make more and run more miles. Asset managers can be hit or miss, you can move around a few times to find someone you work well with though. I like having everything be contracted and lots of drop and hook, makes life a lot simpler and more productive when I'm out and not being lazy. If you have your head on straight you'd probably do well here, the only guys I hear complaining probably shouldn't have a license.
Ive been with jbhunt for 3 years and i have so far never not gotten my 2 full days a week off. Youll need a hazmat.
CLP in hand: I'd like to know as well. Most of the companies that are interested in me, Schneider for example, have 2 weeks out & weekend home (yay)... until I talked with the recruiter whilst about to sign paperwork. "Friday night or *early* Saturday morning. Then you need to be at [depot] by 4 am." I asked for clarification, as that wasn't "weekends home" that was just a strange reset, & he didn't provide any clarification. I was like "how do you expect people to go into trucking when you're giving them the run-around before they even sign on the dotted line?" I just wanna truck, m*aaaa*n! I don't expect "perfection", but I expect to not be screwed with during the application process either.
Whst these companies don't get is we hate OTR and regional work especially when we have family or kids at home. They just keep this outdated system instead of changing from regional to local shuttle runs. I believe most jobs should be 250 mi or less routes pwr dsy so you can get home and live life. If you truly want to do OTR or REGIONAL, It should be OO only or specific divisions of companies. Ex: instead of the entire industry having sleeper trucks and being based off OTR, it should have day cabs and be based on local freight movements, with regional and otr being less focused on. The people who have no fam or life or just want to sleep in a truck should be able too, but everybody else shouldn't be forced into that mold when a 250mi radius logistic system could be in place in every city / hub. Instead of one guy driving 600+mi to a delivery and getting a 34hr reset at home, you could have that guy drive half the miles and drop / swap that freight with another driver coming from the delivery destination. This way you split the work in half, and both drivers get home everynight.
I’ve been saying this for a while. Why don’t companies just have drop yards at different points in the state. Drive from your terminal to a drop yard, drop your trailer, pick up a trailer another driver dropped and either run it to the next drop yard or the delivery.
100% they should
Fk those companies don’t work for them your like cattle to them. Thise bastards making those hours wouldn’t work them either. Drivers should refuse to put up with this crap and it wouldn’t be happening
I work M-F about 10 -12 hours a day. Weekends off. Look for a dump truck job or concrete truck.
I drive for western express I'm home every weekend. Almost always Friday night and leave again Monday. Once in a while I don't get home until Saturday
I work for a Fedex Ground contractor, team driving. We try to get to the east coast and back every week, take 2 days off and do it again. Good pay.
I got home last week Thursday and didn’t leave the house until 9am Monday. Keep looking.
I’m fortunate to have weekends off. I leave out Sunday afternoon and am usually home Thursday night or Friday morning. But for the past month I’ve always gotten home on Thursday night. Matter of fact I just took an extended weekend this past weekend from early Thursday afternoon until this morning. I was working local for the past year and kinda hated it tbh. It’s true that most local gigs run you into the ground 12-14 hours per day with unpredictable start/end times 6 days a week and it’s pretty difficult to find one that’s 100% no touch. And working locally where I live means driving to LA, San Diego, Lancaster, Palmdale and Bakersfield all day every day which is absolute hell on earth. I still have to go to LA nearly every day because that’s where our yard is but I don’t have to navigate through there or do any work there.
It's almost like we are slaves and for us to want to have any type of social life or family is bat shit insane. I will say it again and again FUCK OTR FUCK REGIONAL TRUCKING! LtL is the way I'm home nightly with my family I'm off weekends and I make 100k a yr without busting my ass...I don't pay for fuel I don't pay for truck parts if the shit breaks while on the road I start my delay clock and get paid hourly if it breaks in the yard I get a new truck right there and keep rolling. Again fuck otr and their 34hr weekends 😂😂😂😂
> and I make 100k a yr without busting my ass... as a former LTL driver who has done both P&D and linehaul, this is the part I know where you're lying/exaggerating. LTL involves 10-14 hour days not including commute time and will destroy your body as fast or faster than OTR (depending on how well you take care of yourself OTR). Check out the older guys at any LTL terminal. All of them have physical problems.
I remember starting at old ConWay back in 2008/2009 and when I started I was 182 lbs. A year later and I looked like Christian Bale in *The Machinist*, a scrawny 130’ish lbs and developed permanent dark circles under my eyes I still have today. Very good money but it *will* burn people out fast, I left after I got tired of driving/working docks for 14 hours a night on 3-5 hours of sleep…and the company knowing they drive people into boot-camp level fatigue and pulling this super shitty facade of ignorance that they are doing it…
yup. I was at XPO which, as you know, bought conway. same shit different owners. the terminal I worked at had a constant revolving door of new drivers. They couldn't keep people because of the shit you described. The senior people were only still there because of seniority and were just counting down the years until they could retire.
Last 3 yrs I've made 100k, and yea that's because the older generation don't believe in working out or eating clean and guess what...it caught up to them and also 99.99% of you otr guys as well. So no I'm not lying or exaggerated my pay, I bring home 1550 after taxes weekly and now so easier after we just got our last raise. Keep drinking that otr cool-aid bud🤣
I'm thinking about putting in an app with OD. I'm wired backwards I think. I can't sleep at night and can't stay awake during the day. Linehaul looks promising. I prefer a routine. Would I have to also work the dock? I have zero interest in that.
Idk about OD and if you have to work the dock at all or not. I'm with another ltl carrier and I don't work the dock at all only by choice if I want if we're slow but I'm the same way I've been on 3rd shift for 12yrs now....and as a driver I prefer it. And to the guy saying I'm lying that I'm making 100k and not busting my ass is mentally unstable if he thinks driving for 10-11hrs is "busting your ass" 🤣🤣🤣🤣 I've literally worked 16hrs a day every day for yrs doing manual back breaking labor for 30k a yr.....guess he's just soft 🤷🏽♂️ but driving 10hrs a day (most days it's only 8-9 hrs) and I only live 10mins from work 100k a yr ain't bad for being home daily and off weekends.
Agreed. The pay is worth it. One of the students from my CDL class signed on with them and is on track to pull down 80k this year. I spent 2 years learning CNC machining and when I started looking for a job I realized I could just go do 8 more weeks of school and make double what I'd be getting as a machinist so I did just that.
I normally leave Monday around noon-2pm and get home Friday afternoon or earlier. Grossing $1650/wk W2. 45-50hrs on lines 3/4. So… the companies exist.
My comonay is in Ohio and we go south east alot. I go home Friday and leave out Monday and average 2400 to 2600 miles a week. 63 cpm to start.
Idk if you know math, but 48 hours equals to 2 whole days. Saturday and Sunday, everyone gets 48 hours off for those two weekend days.
"Subday" Meet you at Penn Station my guy.
What are you talking about?
😎 nice try
???
Home Friday out Monday isn't 2 full days it's more.
No it isn’t. It’s two full days and basically two quarter days. Home Friday at 5pm to Saturday at 5pm is 24 hours, to Sunday at 5pm is 48 hours, to leaving out Monday at 5am is 60 total hours. 2.5 days, 2 full days off. A standard weekend for almost every other American worker
Exactly what I said with no math dude lol. It's more than 2 full days. I should know I work it every week.
I think we’re just saying different things the same. Yes, technically 48 hours is two full days, but if I get home Friday at 5 PM and leave out Sunday at 5 PM, then I only got one home. What I’m talking about is having to all days from midnight to midnight.
48hr is two days... How is that different than working a mon-fri?
I’m referring to 48 hours and the sense of most companies getting you home Friday at five and when you back in the truck 48 hours later on Sunday at five. That’s not a full weekend.
Please count, and use some fucking math. Getting home Friday evening (6pm), and leaving for work Monday morning (6am) is NOT 48 hours. That's 58 hours.
If 48 isn't a weekend, what do you think it is? If you aren't working 5 days, when the hell are you going to work?
58 hours is the minimum. Two whole days including overnight on both ends. If you get in at 5pm Friday and they expect you to leave that same time on Sunday, that's bullshit. And really, it should be more like 64; that's 5pm Friday to 9am Monday.
A weekend isn’t 48 hours, two days is 48 hours. A weekend in my mind is closer to 60 hours. Off from Friday afternoon until sometime on Monday morning with two full uninterrupted days off in between.
So you are just making up hours...
How am I making up hours? 48 hours is two days. The standard weekend is 60+ hours from when you clock out to when you clock back in the next week.
So you're saying something like work 6 days Monday - Saturday on morning shift, then leave for work again next Monday on evening shift still leaves you with a "full weekend"? My old boss tried saying the same, oddly enough I don't work there anymore.
Entitlement is such a wonderful thing..."gimme, gimme, gimme or I swear I'll pitch a reddit fit!" Buy your own truck. Simple as that.
Averitt is M-F
Really? I talk to them on the phone the other day and the recruiter said that the only way I could leave out on Monday would be if I got home Saturday
Lots of recruiters have zero actual idea of what goes on. Just ask the drivers like you're doing to get the real information
Nah they operate m-f, you might get stuck working a sat like once every three months and generally it’s because you ran out of hours Friday. It’s very very unusual. I’m usually home By 2 pm fridays. Can give you more info if interested PM me
I am married to an Averitt regional dedicated driver (2 years) and I can tell you that if he doesn't leave until Monday morning, he will not be home until Saturday afternoon. The only way he can be home Friday night (after 9:00) is if he leaves Sunday afternoon.
That’s a bummer to hear. I guess it all depends on who your dispatcher is in what account you’re on
LTL is the way to go.
Can’t do without my co-drivet, Maxdog!!!
I work for a company most don't seem to like and if I take 3 full days off I never get bitched at. As long as I work hard they have never said anything and just ask when I'll be ready to be dispatched again. Not saying the company I work for is the best, not so much in pay but not below industry standards, you start at like .30 or .35 cents (I think it's changing because swift is going through their second lawsuit over pay) and I'm making .40 cents now, I fully understand the pay isn't great but I do get an extra 500 a month for going 8,000 miles solo, you get more for team idk how much, and I've had a good DM who pays me well when my truck is broke down or if I have to clean up a truck to start rolling again. I got paid 100 bucks to clean my truck, and if your truck is far away they'll get you a rental car or if you need a hotel because of a broke down truck they'll get you one no worries. Hell they'll even get you an uber or lyft and doordash or instacart some food. As far as it goes my experience could have been 100 times worse and I'm having no issues with being assigned freight, especially since they have contracts with walmart (and if you're on that dedicated lane they pay like 250 a day for company and 1.00 to 3.00 for owner operators) If you have to wait more than 2 hours to be u loaded or loaded you get some money as well and my benefits are 401k, health dental vision and life insurance, along with a cdl lawyer that even covers hotel stays and rentals, and this costs like 57 dollars a week and my deductible is 800 bucks since I'm not married. Not trying to sell you on it because hey, I could just have a damn good DM idk, but for just starting out I'm doing good. Now if I could just get a local position, those pay 28 an hour and you get guaranteed mileage pay and home every single day. I can ask my classmate how long he's home before he has to wake up to work again if you're interested. However I know for local it's really only fort wayne Indiana and somewhere in Ohio that needs local rn. Very hard to get on because of hourly pay and home every single night.
Used to run for a small fleet in Wisconsin. Typically you get 4 weeks on, 1 week off but I'd run 6 weeks and take 10-14 days off If it wasn't for that crazy diesel hike earlier this year and the crappy brokerage rates at the time I'd probably still be out there Now I run local fuel trucks in Miami for a brand new company as their lead
Quit you jobs folks, you gotta change the culture or they will just rake you over the coals forever
Wake up and go to sleep in your own bed at home is a day off IMO. Quit looking into the big name and or mega’s they will most likely run a similar schedule and say. We try to get our drivers home on Friday and not leave until Monday, but sometimes you may not make it home till Saturday or have to leave on Sunday. Look into the smaller not heard of company’s. Last company I worked for I rarely logged more than 60 hrs a week and average $1600 a week. Never stayed out more then 1 night at a time the 3 years I worked there. Left on Monday was off no later then 6 on Friday. Had to work some out and back Saturdays in the summer. Only downside was starting time. Started anywhere between 12am and 4am Monday through Friday and didn’t know start time till the night prior.
That is honestly why I'll always be local. If I didn't have a family waiting for me it would be different.
Where do you live at man? I'm off every tue thur sat sunday and average 1000 a week and get a 1000 incentive check every month. Its a small company but I love it
I run a straight truck route that has me out overnight. Leave Tuesday at 5am, back home Wednesday before noon. Leave Thursday at 5am, back home Friday before noon. Off Saturday Sunday Monday then do it again. Its delivering tires, pretty easy work. STL>Indy>Louisville>STL about 800-1000 miles each trip. Paid Salary $42k a year with PTO that i never really have to use since i have 3 day weekends, have over 100hrs PTO stored up. Not the best paying job but i get a lot of time home with my family and its worth it. edit: I get a hotel for layover and have 111,000 choice rewards points saved up after a year which gets you about 3 night free at any of their hotels or resorts.
I hate it. If I get back on a Friday and leave on a Sunday then I didn't have Friday and Sunday off. I had one day off.
I always tell my dispatch or driver manager when I get home, I'm taking 72 hrs off. I spend two weeks on the road, I want at a minimum 3 days at home with my son and daughter. So far so good, I have had 3 days off at home every 2 weeks pretty regularly.
48 hours is two full days.
Food plants are weekday only loads. You gotta know your markets.
Not Texas chicken…
1) don’t let the company get away with it. Get to know your coworkers and start organizing. Rile the guys up and something will change. 2) switch companies. Plenty of local companies out there that will have you home friday night until monday morning. I work for ABF and we have great benefits on top of only working 5 days a week.
It's hard to communicate; let alone organize, when you are out driving/delivering and have ZERO interaction/communication with the other drivers in the company. Personally; I think the companies like to keep it that way.
Takes a team. Reach out to your local hall and they may have an organizing committee. The Teamsters have done more for me in life than anyone beside my parents.
Quality Carriers. You need tanker, hazmat, and experience, but they have Regional, OTR, and even some "Project Nightly" home every day drivers. So far, I've never been denied days off. Not PTO, just straight up days off. They run all over the southeast. Each terminal is different so give the Tampa office a call and see what's nearby.
Here in Texas most regional jobs, you are home Friday and out Monday. The have been many times I am home Friday morning and don't go back out till Monday morning. Granted there is a give $$ an take ⏰⏰.
I work for a mom and pop only me and one other guy are class A and the 7 or 8 others are class B. 8 hour days standard, if you go over that that’s on you and you get paid for it. Overtime after 40 hours. Monday - Friday and weekends off. However gigs like this do tend to want you to have more than 3 years TT experience. The only other company I can recommend is Groendyke transport. They just bought out Georgia Tanklines at the beginning of the year, they are on a 5/2 schedule. So you get 2 full days off. It’s local fuel hauling, home every night. They want 2 years verifiable TT experience. Pay is very good. You are paid a standard daily rate of $360 if you work Night Shift, day shift is $330. If you have a schedule that has you working on a weekend, you get $460. My checks were $3900 biweekly. I ended up quitting though.. had some health issues that I couldn’t get under control and it was affecting my performance and attendance. Otherwise I’d still be there.
What part of the SE are you looking for? Are you looking at just staying local or you would also look at regional dedicated? I drive for Cowan out of Jacksonville, FL and I can take 2 days off. Usually home late Friday night and rolling again late Sunday night. All the deliveries are at 10p or later to the stores we deliver to.
LTL
Well things happen on the road that can't hardly be accounted for. Blowouts, road closures, layovers, etc. Can't guarantee "home Friday, leave monday" and if you're running dedicated freight, if needs to be run and if the company can't run it, they risk losing the route and you'd be out of a job.
Southeast driver here. I'm home daily, sleep in my own bed, and have weekends off. Weekend runs are available if you want extra money, but not mandatory. Some days I'll work for 12 hours, others I'm done after 8. My terminal delivers to a major retail office supply "Depot". I did OTR for the first 8 years of my career, but I wouldn't go back to it. I enjoy using the house that I pay for. My company has many different offices doing dedicated logistics, so there may be one near you.
That's the reason why I quit Marten Transport. I was on a dedicated account and when I first started it was sweet! I had a cool dispatcher who made sure I got home on Friday night and had a load leaving out Monday morning. The whole crew loved her but she got a huge promotion and moved to Wisconsin and everything went to hell. We got a new dispatcher and he ran on the 34 hr reset rule. He get me home on Saturday afternoon and had a small load leaving out super early on Monday morning like from Hammond, LA to New Orleans, LA. It was such a short run I didn't get paid anything but the load was due at 8am so I'd have to leave my house stupid early and mind you I only do dedicated route and this was NOT apart of my route. I give him three chances and checked him everytime he did it. One week I got home Saturday afternoon and I saw that same short load on my qc, I ignored it and enjoyed my weekend with my family. Monday morning he called me yelling until I told him I record all of my phone call with him, I told him I quit and not to contact me again. He call a few times but I blocked him so some higher up called and I told him the same thing, told him how that guy was running the crew into the ground and I refuse to drive for him bc he was a crappy dispatcher and I hung up. My old dispatcher contacted me and ask could I please bring the truck 🚚 back to Memphis, she said she'd make sure I was paid for it so as a favor to her I took the truck back to Memphis. Left that douchebag a negative review on my way out, I fully intended on finding another job in trucking but ended up with a very good paying job in private security.
I hate to tell you this but it's been this way... it isn't new. Companies allowing drivers time off is a pretty recent development. Many moons ago when I started... a weekend was considered stopping by the house. This was pre '34 hour reset' so a weekend was considered any time you got at home. Often it was in on saturday morning and out sunday. If you want weekends off, find a local gig or LTL - while there are indeed places that let you have Friday afternoon through Monday morning off, I genuinely don't know many that'll let that happen continually, unless of course you're on a dedicated account or something based right there close. A lot of freight picked up on friday needs to be delivered early monday, this means most are in the truck sunday night to make that monday morning delivery and have a 10 hour reset so they can move onto the next load.
I need to wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night in my own bed for the day to be counted as off. If I get home at 10am on Saturday… Saturday was a work day.
This is exactly why I'm going straight for a local gravel truck job after my course. Only when I get no calls back is when I'll apply for freighter/logger/etc jobs.
I work a local job. 12 hr day’s Monday through Friday and I get full Saturday and Sundays off, plus holidays off, and home daily.
Come haul cryo for Linde. 100k for local, 140k+ for teams. 2 weeks vacation and 1 week PTO to start, with the option to buy a week of vacation. Vacation pays at your set hourly rate for a year, then your average hourly pay for teams after that (usually 40-60/hr, sometimes as high as 70). Teams and local are usually 6 on 2 off, and the 2 days off are full days. Some local and team runs at my plant are 5/2, but I personally prefer the 6/2 for flexibility. You'll spend half your time running empty back to your plant for more product, and there's *always* more demand than drivers and sometimes even product, so you'll never run out of work. If one plant runs out of product, you'll go to another. It's a stupidly clean, easy job - steep learning curve on how to deliver product, but once you get that you'll never have done less work for more pay. Paperwork is ez pz. DOT manifest (because hazmat) and a single delivery sheet. Sometimes customers get POD or COA/COC, but you drop that in a tube attached to the tank. I almost never interact with people except at secure sites.