LTL or OTR?
 

For all you experienced drivers out there, which would you prefer to get into after you have experience, OTR or LTL freight? What are some advantages/disadvantages to each that you have experienced or heard?

I have done both,LTL,and OTR. Right now,I am LTL. I drive for SYSCO. What is good about running LTL,is that you are home every night,the pay,and benefits are just as good as working for an OTR company. Running LTL,you have multiple stops. From a few,to many different stops on your truck everyday. Some LTL companies start really early in the mornings,or sometimes all night. A lot of times,LTL drivers open,close the trailer doors many times a day from backing up to docks.

What I liked about running OTR,is that I got to see many different parts of the country. Saw some pretty sunrises,sunsets. It is neat being able to see how other parts of the country looks like compared to where you are from. Running OTR,unlike LTL,you dont have multiple stops in one day. You may have more than one stop,but,you get to relax behind the wheel before you get to where you need to be. Running OTR,you dont get to be home every night to be with your family. Some companies get you home weekly,but for most,you may be out a couple weeks,to a month at a time. You hurry up to get to your origin,destination as fast as you can,legally,and come to find out,you may have to sit for a good while before you can load,or unload. Hurry up,and wait.

There are many more fellers here that can tell you what they have experienced. There is a more to this than what I have written,but,that is some of what I have experienced.

Re: LTL or OTR?
 

Although there are many people on here that have way more experience then me, at least I can answer. A worked for 2 OTR companies and 3 local including the one I am with now. Anyway, I did not waste any time going local, I never even had a year experience before doing so. I am a master of interviews and that helps. Not that I hated OTR, its just that hurricane Katrina decided to ruin my life and I had to get off the road. I also liked seeing the country doing OTR and only having a few deliveries for 2 weeks at a time, that was so easy. Plus you don't have to deal with nearly as much city streets and traffic, also you don't have to deal with nearly as many small businesses that are hard to pull a truck into. In addition, practically ALL of your freight is no touch, plus you can make your own hours. In addition, you will have much nicer trucks.

Not all local carriers are LTL. With LTL, you have alot more stops and some freight handling. For example, you will have 5-10 stops a day with some of them. The thing is, its pretty easy though for the most part. You will have like 1 pallet to go to 1 place, 2 for another, one box for another, stuff like that. Basically LTL is like UPS or FedEx delivery but with a tractor trailer, best way to describe it I think. Probably easier as far as the freight handling goes but harder as far as driving since you have a tractor trailer combo to deal with in the city. The local carriers that are not LTL, you will have 3 or 4 pulls a day, work about 8 hours and do a little dropping and hooking. Piece of cake but although these pay ok, they won't pay as much as LTL. I think the LTL carriers are some of the better paying local jobs. Although you do drive in the city being a local driver, at least you know the city unlike OTR where you have no clue. One great thing, you will have a normal life by driving local, just a regular job.

So to sum it up, if you don't mind being home every couple of weeks, go OTR and don't bother with local. Since ultimately, I feel that is truely the only significant disadvantage of going OTR. Just keep in mind, that my friend is a HUGE and I mean HUGE disadvantage. Hope this gives you some info :)

I do some LTL's. Some people don't like to make all the stops for pickup's and drop's. The money is usually better with LTL freight. I have a couple of LTL's on my truck right now. It is all about your personality and what you enjoy. I have spoken to a couple of drivers who work for one large carrier who make over $80M/yr doing LTL's. They are seasoned drivers, but with the extra stop pay, they make a really good living.

Re: LTL or OTR?
 

Not necessarily. You can run line-haul pulling strictly terminal-to-terminal drop-n-hook freight (no more waiting in line at the food warehouse or paper mill!). A guy I know pulling for Yellow makes over $70,000/year and he hasn't bumped a dock in over 7 years! Plus if he has to layover somewhere, he stays in a hotel room.

Myself? I like P&D better because I work days and I'm home everynight and every weekend. It's tough at first, but once you get an assgined area and get to know your customers, it's a very easy job.

I drive for Wilson Trucking wich is LTL...started out local as per co. policy and was lucky that no senior driver wanted the line-haul position. So I got it! Very happy with them, eventhough they like to not inform you of helpful details. I drive 5-6 nights a week, home sat. morning. great equipment and great pay. Little BS- best job I ever had.

I drove OTR, liked it too, just found myself waiting on loads too much, spending weekends in some crappy truckstop or resetting 34 hrs. I get consistent milage around 2500, very little waiting...maybe an hr or 2 but rarely. :) 47 cpm to start.

Re: LTL or OTR?
 

Dont expect to go to Yellow and start out making 70k/yr. It takes many years to get enough seniority to work consistently enough to make 70k. I was there for just under 2yrs and the best I ever did was just under 40k between the layoffs and the slow times of the year-not bad though for only working about 6-8 months of the year. Yellow is definitely one of the best paying jobs out there, but you have to have a lot of patience. I only left there because I got a local job making making more than I was making with Yellow and I have a 5 day SCHEDULED work week. I was on call 24/7 with yellow-tough way to live.

I prefer LTL myself.

My first full year with the company, I ran 50/50 linehaul/P&D.. Im back running city now, as it works better for my family situation.

Personally I could never go back to OTR. I do my 20-30 stops a day, handle freight, and deal with city traffic...but go home to my wife, soon to be born son, and new house everyday. My conmpany tops out at just under 22/hr.. Its honestly the easiest job Ive ever had for this kind of money.

Amen, bro. Been there, done that. Never again.

Copy that drivers!!!

Ten-Roger! :P

Re: LTL or OTR?
 

The first few weeks of getting on the P&D learning curve are hard. It was the most frustrating new job acclimation I have ever experienced.

I got 'acclimated' in the hight of summer with no A/C, 100 deg in the shade and too much freight for a vet to deliver.... :x

Re: LTL or OTR?
 

Id say this is very accurate... You go from backing up maby twice a day, to many, many times a day.. Backing in off busy (VERY busy) streets... into places that you wouldnt even think a truck could fit... Hell, seems I dirve better with the trailer leading than I do going straight :shock:

I get so many PM's here about what my (an LTL drivers) day is like... Im thinking about taking a camera with me and making a post with pics showing what we do.. :lol:

Re: LTL or OTR?
 

Good Idea!

My most difficult regular customer has me back a 48 or 53 indoors with about a foot to spare on each side. They make up for it by being cool people, having my freight ready, etc.

Then there are the easy docks with difficult customers or ugly freight.

just go with FFE, I am a OTR Driver, I am in the Truckload Fleet, or they call it TL, but LTL is mandatory, so sometimes you get a straight truckload, one pickup and one drop and lots of miles and the next load is 6 pickups and 14 drops and you have to unload LTL no lumpers and sort and segregate and palletize the customers freight, that CWX driver knows I seen him before when I had LTL, you will love FFE, they run alot of freight to FSA and SYSCO ohhh and many more companies that will give you hell, this on a small pallet and that 4 boxes on a chep pallet and those 12 boxes on a large pallet, you will love FFE, you will be an OTR driver that does it all like me.... why just settle for either or, do both... hehehehehehehe BOL... and the best part is its mandatory you do it, not allowed to refuse a load with FFE unless your an O/O, they call it FORCED DISPATCH.....its fun being a company driver... ohhh ohhh and sometimes you have to back down an alley and open one door and pull out 6 heavy boxes and carry them one by one into a place with no loading dock, yup sometimes its that much fun, and always at night with no street lights in them alleys so its great just a splash, so sign up with FFE

I can tell you one thing for certain: my first two or three days at that outfit would be my last. :D

Dude, I couldn't IMAGINE doing 6 pickups/14 drops dealing with refrigerated freight!! And no lumpers?!? I have two grocery whorehouses on my route (US Foodservice and Northern Haserot) and they're BOTH royal pains in the azz. Actually, it's somewhat bearable because I'm paid by the hour. Plus I pretty-much get a door whenever I show up since they know I'll take their pallet(s) back to the terminal if they make me wait LOL! Unfortunately, they screw around with you OTR guys cause they know you can't go anywhere.

This actually made me laugh out loud... We have a TON of problems with one particular grocery wherehouse out here (EVERY driver does, not just my comnpany)... They know we have NO problems taking the freight back to the dock and let it sit there (in a trap trailer) for a while. :lol:

Our biggest problem child is the K-Mart DC.

Heck you can spend an hour in line at the gate. We don't even attempt to live unload anymore as you could easily burn a whole day. We just put their freight in a pup, drop the pup and pick up the empty the next day.

We also have a paint DC thats a bear to pickup from. They love to stack 5 gal pails 3-4 high on a 3X3 pallet and proceed to put one layer of loose shrink wrap around it.

I've actually lifted the dock-plate, shut the trailer door, and pulled away from the dock at those places on several occasions. With 13 other stops sitting on my truck and then pickups, I can't afford to goof around all day at a grocery whorehouse polishing my rims like the OTR guys do.

We've got a guy at our terminal who's main job is to do all the time-consuming crap like grocery warehouses, stairmasters, residentials, tires, odd shipments, volume, etc. Basically all the time-wasting stuff that would kill a peddle run. He hardly peddles freight unless we're really busy like we were this past summer.

I hear ya there... our top 10-15 guys ALL do grocery wherehouses in the morning, then come back and run their routes... Many dont care to much for the wherehouse work, but they are the ones getting tons of hours..

As you know, some days are better than others... I love it when I am able to just take a layer off each pallet, and call it a day... BUT... then you get the times where you take 13 pallets in, and make 50 pallets out of them.... Ive done this once before, and I have the pics to prove it.. LOL!! They told me I broke the record for time spent unloading my own truck (8 hours)

Question for Uglymutt
 

My hubby is with FFE now too. He is finding he has to swap loads with people alot, either becuase he doesn't have the hours to get it there on time or the other person doesn't. Is this common? Is this just how it works?

Re: LTL or OTR?
 

Line haul is the almost long haul portion of an LTL company. by definition, dropping a trailer at a terminal full of freight is not LTL.

LTL

-pick & drop of a box or a couple pallets at each stop; home each shift
-line haul; dropping a full trailer or two at a terminal

OTR

-irregular route hauling from shipper to receiver
-irregular route hauling from multi shippers and/or multi receivers
^ that one is like LTL, just with a big sleeper and gone for more than a few days. 8)

I drive local/regional for a convenience store wholesaler. I've never driven OTR but like the other guys have said, OTR you might back up to a dock once a day. Also the places you go are generally a lot more open with OTR.

I've had times where I'll have a 48' trailer and sleeper and get to a stop on the route and think "This thing is supposed to go in there?". And you have to do this many times a day. I have pretty much set routes now so once you figure out the tricks to each stop to getting it in there it becomes easy.

At first though it can be nerve racking, and there are a lot more opportunities to get into an accident.

Plus like someone mentioned, often times you have to back in off really busy streets. It usually isn't too bad as long as you can do it quick. You have to train yourself not to think about "What if I can't nail this on the first try and then have to do a pull up into traffic, where there are already cars lining up, some of them chomping at the bit to get around you".

On the up side, you get REALLY good at backing up.

I watch OTR drivers dock at our warehouse and we have TONS of room to make a straight back, and they do all sorts of funky things and have to take multiple pullups to nail it, when it can't get much easier than our warehouse.

You watch LTL drivers and some times the things they do are amazing, most of them never have a problem backing up because they do it probably 20 times a day.

In short LTL can be more stressful at first but once you get used to it, you can't beat being home and the pay.

Unfortunately our company just went to a 4 day a week work schedule, which has amounted to a huge pay cut for me, so I'm looking maybe to change jobs here shortly.

I was thinking about Yellow, UPS, or Fedex. I have bills to pay though so I don't know if I'll be able to do it since you might start out making not very much money.

My other option is re-applying at Supervalu, maybe United States Food Service or Sysco....

Re: LTL or OTR?
 

LTL stands for "Less Than Truckload" - meaning it's more favorable from a pricing/logistical standpoint for the shipper to throw a couple skids on the back of one of our trailers than it would be on Swift's or Werner's. The opposite is true in TL (truckload/OTR) as those guys are priced to handle say, 26 pallets going to a single destination. The main difference has to do with breakbulk facilities and multiple terminal operations in LTL.

Line-haul is an intricate part of any LTL operation - just as much as P&D is. I hold a ton of respect for the linehaul guys but pullin' a set of wiggle-wagons when ole' man winter comes to town just ain't my bag. Plus, most line-haul runs are scheduled at night, which is when I like to be sleeping. Sure, there's more money to be made in linehaul but the hours are much better in P&D.

When you think about it, an OTR driver is basically a line-haul driver and P&D man all rolled up into one. He bumps the dock at a shipper (Pickup), takes the freight to its destination (line-haul) and then delivers it (Delivery). The problem is that he does the P&D work for free, gets only .27 - .44 cpm for linehaul, and sleeps in his truck rather than his own bed.

Been there, done that. No thanks! That's why I'll stick with runnin' LTL freight.

Yup. My sentiments exactly! :wink:

As long as we're talking LTL here, and all of you seem to work for different companies, what are some good ones to put on my list?

I'm going to wait as my performance review is coming up soon and see if I get a decent pay raise, if not I think I'm going to apply at some other shops..

so far my list is:

Fedex Feeder (I might have an in here as I know a big wig that works for their IT department)
UPS Feeder (Guess you can become a feeder right away in this area, though hours are questionable)
Sysco
USF
Yellow
Conway
Supervalu

Any other suggestions for good LTL companies? I wouldn't mind doing line haul either I don't think...

If you want a schedule and have an idea of how much money you will make consistently, then cross Yellow off your list. You will need many years of seniority to have somewhat regular work times or income. If you think you can live by the phone and never know when your working-then go for it. It is a very good job when you get some time in, but it is very frustrating until then. Summer time you will run your butt off then sit at home in the winter time wondering how you will pay your mortgage. I spent two years there and just could not take it anymore.

Is this the way it is at EVERY Yellow terminal? I thought it might still be worth it to sit down for an interview and explain I neeed to actually pay my mortgage and see what they say.

Oh I guess I could also add Vistar/VSA to my list.

In my experience, the better the LTL job the harder it is to get thru the rocky part. I haven't been able to do it yet. I've been laid off by Yellow and Conway. The best ones are tough to get into which include teamsters mostly and Conway (non union but union type benefits). Great pay and bennies if you can make it.

teamsters:
Yellow
Roadway
USF Holland
ABF
UPS

non union:
Fedex
Conway

These are the best but they suck until you have seniority of at least a couple years. Then things start to settle down.

No way would I put Conway anywhere NEAR FedEx on that list... 2 completly sepperate leagues.

IMHO of course.

If you live somewhere where yellow has a small end of line terminal or just a relay you might get lucky. It will be harder to get into one of these places, because people dont leave. You will have no trouble getting hired at a large break bulk terminal, but you will live and die by the phone waiting. I was laid off 3 times my first year, but only once my second, however I still was not working with any consistency. By the way-they dont care if you have a mortgage to pay. It is a huge company and you truly are just a number.

From a pay and benefits standpoint Conway is a very good job in the east, especially if your talking about the city. Top pay at CF is 22.50, FXF is 20.65, both pay OT at 8/40, CF has free family medical, FXF is expensive, CF has a paid pension plan (although they just eliminated it for new hires), FXF doesn't (there are rumors of one soon). For road drivers I would give an edge to FXF although both top out at .54 but CF starts at .399 and takes 5 yrs and FXF starts at .45 and takes three years. Attitude and moral is way better at FXF so I would agree with you but you cant always choose who you work for and a guy could do alot worse than Conway. I interviewed at FXF months ago and never got called. On a side note I just got back from an interview with UPS Freight and was offered a road job, pending my background check so here we go again! First Yellow, then Conway now UPSF. I hope this one sticks, I'm pretty excited. Home daily and full time work at .44/mi.

Okay thanks guys, I guess I just need to shop around a bit.

I heard back from my friend that works for FedEx and he said right now they are having problems in this area so a lot of the freight is being diverted to another major hub, but once it is resolved he will let me know.

I guess first I'll put my app in at FedEx, then UPS and go from there.

I actually really like where I'm at, it pisses me off they've gone to a 4 day work week for all the drivers. Right now I'm working 5 days a week but that will change once we hire some replacements.

they've switched to this so that when people are on vacation or sick the routes are easier to fill. I can't imagine they need ALL the drivers to be on a 4 day work week though, I wish we could bid on a 5 day work week.

I don't know if I have enough seniority but it would be nice to know some day I might be 5 days a week every week.

It is really tough losing $200 a week.

Is ups freight the old overnight division. Just curious where you are in Ohio. That sounds pretty good if they are giving you a schedule and full time. How did you apply, was it in the paper or did you just go there.

A guy I work with now came from Fed Ex. He said he was always on call and when he worked the city they would not allow any overtime. I dont know if that is how it is everywhere with them, but just letting you know.

Yes it was Overnite. I tried to go in but you have to apply on the internet. I was surprised to get a call.

When I applied they told me the same things. As a city job its no better than Conway. The road jobs are good but around here you start in the city and bid for the road. I guess some places out west hire off the street for road but I dont know. Who do you work for? Sorry if you already posted it.

I used to work for Yellow, but now I haul fuel locally. Pretty good gig. I have a set 5 day work week. the only bad part is I have to work nights and weekends. At upsf will you just be doing turns. Do they give you a schedule or are you on call. Is it daytime mon-fri.

This is pretty much true for all the union LTL companies, as senoirty is everything. Expect to live by the phone for at least a couple of years (if not longer) before you can "bid" on preferntial runs/starting times. Still, even a casual can make $40,000/year and rate top-flite Teamster benefits with no out of pocket expenses.

Seniority is everything at most LTL companies. It determines when you can take vacations, when you can take personal leave time, whether you can nab that line-haul run that was just posted, start times, layoffs...etc, etc, etc.

At Yellow, it takes awhile to get guys under you on the totem pole because the turnover rate is only about 3-6% among drivers with seniority (compare that number to the 130% OTR churn rates!). Thus, the only way you move up at alot of these companies is if someone dies or retires.

Right now, many of the union (and non-union) LTL companies are top-heavy with baby-boomer generation drivers who will be retiring in years to come. So this is a great time to get in as you will probably move up quicker than in years past. That's why I tell alot of guys in their 20's - 30's to avoid OTR and get their foot in the door at a good LTL company.

Unfortunately at the yellow terminal in Cleveland, they did not offer start times or bids-no matter how long you had been there. They have an East board, West board, and extra board. If you were on the East or West board you could preference where you wanted to go, but were not guaranteed to get it, nor were you guaranteed when you would go. This was true for someone who has been there 30 yrs-doesnt matter. Obviously the more seniority you had the more likely it was that you would be called for the time you signed up for, but not guaranteed. You still had to wait on the phone even with all the seniority in the world. Not all terminals work that way, but Cleveland does. And also you had to have 3 starts in a week to keep your health insurance. If you were available and they didnt call you, you had insurance. If you took unpaid time off and didnt get 3 starts you better not get sick or in an accident.