Is there anyone here who drives for FedEx Freight or UPS Freight, or knows someone who does? If so, I had a few questions. I'm just curious.

How many years of tractor-trailer experience do LTL outfits like these usually require to be considered for hiring? In other words, are all the guys who drive for FedEx Freight and UPS freight experienced truck drivers, or is there another way of getting into one of the LTL driving jobs? For instance, could you start out as a dock worker at UPS and eventually end up driving for UPS Freight? Or do you need to have some tractor-trailer experience as well?

If you know someone who drives for either FedEx Freight or UPS Freight, how did they "get their foot in the door"? Was it because they had several years of clean tractor-trailer experience under their belt? Or did they just work their way up from a lower position, such as a courier?

I'm just curious. Because a lot of the guys I see out on the road behind the wheel of a FedEx Freight or UPS Freight truck don't really look like they would be experienced OTR truckers. But I could be wrong.

I'm not familiar with FXF or UPSF but most LTL carriers do not hire from off the dock or out of schools. About the minimum requirement for most is at least 1 or 2 years experience with a clean record. The closest my company comes to moving non drivers up is offering yard spotters with at least 6 months of good service further training for driving positions. LTL gets many of their drivers from other LTL carriers. LTL is a lot like tanker drivers, car haulers, livestock haulers, oversize, etc. Drivers seem get into certain areas of work and tend to stay most of their careers there.

LMAO What does an experienced OTR trucker look like?

If you have 1-2 years driving experience, HazMat and Doubles endorsements, and a clean background/driving record you can get hired by an LTL carrier. It's not that hard you just have to apply. The hard part is getting by during slow times when you dont have alot of seniority yet. And yes some will train dockworkers to drive. Do you have a CDL?

Kriss Kristopherson? Jerry Reed? Billy Jo McCaid?

*Please see Golfhobo's avatar...

Actually conway freight, estes, FedEx freight do hire off the dock. They have a training program. Usually a year minimum experience if not two but remember these are highly sought after jobs.

For UPS (the Big Brown), you do have to start at the bottom and work your way up via seniority. The bottom being part time in the "sort"..loading and unloading trucks etc. Then after full time status comes your way, you can bid an a package car, spend years running one of those (making 70-75K a year), then bid a feeder or a sleeper bid. It can take years, but it can be a great job after you acquire seniority. I retired after 32 years with UPS. UPS Freight is a different ball of wax entirely, with a completely different contract.

Actually, I was lucky enough to get to talk to a UPS Freight driver my last time out last week. He said he had been driving for UPS Freight for almost 6 years and had 3 years OTR experience prior to that with Schneider.

The reason I said a lot of the FedEx Freight and UPS Freight guys don't look like experienced OTR truckers is because a lot of them look surprisingly young, so I just figured that would mean that they couldn't have acquired THAT many years of experience prior to UPS/FedEx Freight, since they haven't been alive for that many years it seems (at least they look young).

So if you had to guess, do you guys think most of the drivers for UPS Freight and FedEx Freight first started out OTR (like the driver I talked to briefly), or do you think most of them worked their way up from lower positions and got Class A CDL training in the process? I'm just wondering what I need to do to make myself a good candidate for an LTL driving job in the future.

I've been a road driver at UPS freight almost 5 years now. Go back and read my post again. Its not that hard to get hired. You've been a member here 5 years so I assume you're a driver? Maybe if you tell us your experience and background we could help more?

Snowman, I started back in 2007 with Swift. I got 8 months OTR with them. After that, I left driving for 3 1/2 years for some personal reasons. I've been driving OTR for the past month for a smaller local company here in western PA and plan on staying with them for a few years at least. So I don't have much experience as of now, but I'm working on getting it.

My record is relatively clean, with the exception of grazing a stop sign while making a tight right turn and bending the sign a little bit. It wasn't reportable to my knowledge (I didn't receive any citation of any sort) and there was no money in it, but I'm not sure if this would count against me or not.

So can you tell me a little bit about your background before you got hired at UPS Freight? How much experience did you have prior to UPS Freight? Was it over the road experience? And did you ever have any minor incidents similar to the one I described above? If so, did they count against you in any way when you applied to UPS Freight?

Knowing what I told you above, what do you think I should do to make myself a good candidate for an LTL company in the future?