Question:
OK.. I know SOME of the terminology but what is LTL? and lumpers?

Answer:
LTL----Less Than Truckload
Lumper----The person who unloads your truck for a fee(you make $100 to haul it, he makes $200 to unload it--tax free)

Answer:
I kind of figured thats what a lumper was .. dont know why the LTL got past me but it did. So is getting a lot of LTL a good thing or a bad thing? (as a company driver)

Answer:
elton,
http://www.newbiedriver.com/
This site has alot of good info. Even experienced drivers are still newbies.
You never stop learning in this business. When you do, you better quit.

Answer:

It depends on how you're paid for it. If you're working as a P&D (pickup and delivery) driver, and being paid hourly, LTL is all that you do.
If, on the other hand, you're working as an OTR driver and being paid by the mile, LTL can be a major pain in the butt. Most OTR companies will pay you extra ($10 - $20) per extra pickup or drop (other than the first & last) but it comes down to a time versus money equation.

Answer:
elton, whats your situation? Tell us about yourself and you can get more help. There is some good people here on TN, like Phil and me that will help you out as best as we are possible to do. There is a thousand questions in this business, let us know what you need or want to know.

Answer:
You will also learn that LTL is also known as Late To Load , Late To Leave.
There are benefits to doing LTL with the right company but as another poster noted TIME versus $ , border crossings can be very lengthy at times do to dealing with multi clearance brokers, 1 mixup in any of the paperwork and you get to put everything in bond head home to redo the paperwork.

Answer:
Bama
I posted a bit about my situation under the "newbie hello" topic. Im an older guy, house paid for ,no kids at home, married.

Answer:
So when a company says they will pay !.25 per thousand pounds for loading and unloading they are only referring to the first (or your loading before leave home terminal)and last stops?
Any stops in between are LTL. So if Im averaging lets say 40mph all my driving hours at .25 cents a mile .. Im getting 10 bucks an hour.. they pay me $10 per additional stop. As long as the stops are one hour or less Im OK? Is that the basic play?

Answer:

The 25 cents per thousand should include the whole load, not just the first and last stops. And you are comparing apples and oranges when you state that any stops in between are LTL. LTL basically refers to companies such as Yellow, Roadway, Overnite, and the likes, a local trucks picks up say 20 stops per day and brings it back into the terminal and they put the 20 pick ups on the outbound trucks. LT (truck load) carriers such as JB or Swift, might have more than one stop, but they basically deal with truck-load. They might pick up at one shipper and then have 2 or 3 deliveries. Say, Keystone picks up a trailer at Best Buy in Verona, Va. It might have a couple of stores to deliver to on that one trailer, but Keystone is still a LT(truck-load)carrier, not a LTL carrier.
But with the unloading pay, I will tell you right up front, you will lose money with unloading. The company will probably be willing to pay the lumper twice or maybe three times the amount that they are willing to pay you. And at most places, if you do not hire a lumper and try to do it yourself, you in in for a hard time.

Answer:
Ohh OK..I think I understand now.. The rate I saw for one company was 1.25 (typoed that first post) per thousand. How hard is it find/hire lumpers when you get where youre going (at 57 I dont think im going to do whole hello of a lot humping my own cargo).
So if Im correct I could pick up a full truck at dispatch but stop at 2 or 3 places to unload parts of it? Im still considered TL ..but with stops? Yeah I think one of the companies pays 15-20 per stop. I guess I should also check to see if they cover the $ of lumpers

Answer:
Not hard at all. Most warehouses have them there during receiving hours. You'll most likely deal with them before any one else. They'll get you unloaded and then the receiver will check the product in.
They can have their 1.25 per tgousand or what ever the pay is. I wouldn't unload a trailer if I didn't have to. But you will more than likely find yourself unloading at some point. It happens for what ever reason. If a company say's 99% percent no touch you will get that 1% some time or another.
That's about the jest of it. Alot of what some companies do is retail deliveries. Usually no lumpers they will unload it their selves but often it's driver assist.
At that rate the answer is no. Your not making a dime for all the extra work and time involved with driving a truck, inspections, fueling, traffic delays, paper work etc..
$15. to $20.00 may seem like good money but that does not take into account the time involved. You not only spend time getting loaded/unloaded you also have alot of extra time getting to and away from the drop locations. Since your paid basically for the miles you put in, your hourly rate drops quite a bit with the added stops. Time or should I say miles equal money and you waste alot of it when doing multi stop TL. Most companies pay drivers based on HMG (household movers guide). With that you'll run appx. 10% unpaid mileage. Donated driving time. If drop A is say in Birmingham on the west side and drop B is in Atlanta on the east side you loose time and money. You will drive through major parts of each city unpaid. There is alot of time wasted doing that because of traffic in most instances. Both your mileage pay and your hourly pay take a cut.
I worked for one company that did alot of retail. As far as pay goes they paid at the time more per mile than most companies out there. Yet my paychecks were small for all the time I spent in a truck. Way to much time wasted getting loaded and then trying to find and making multi stop deliveries. While LTL work pays more due to the work involved multi stop TL deliveries are a waste of time in my book. I wouldn't do it again if I have the choice. My opinion, if your going to drive a truck and be paid mileage then it is miles you need to get. Companies that do alot of longer drop and hook runs are much easier and a whole lot better to work with. Running 700-800 miles then pulling into some yard and simply drop one trailer and pick up another for the next 700 mile run is the way to go. The less time you have to spend putting stuff into a trailer and getting it back out the better off you will be in the long run.

Answer:
I have 1 driver who does a 10 to 15 drops on the way to the Carolinas , does 2 pickups and heads home. We pay $25.00 / drop / Pickups for all drops and pickups. He leaves Monday home Friday brings in over $350.00 a week just in extras on top of his $0.43 / mile and (2) $25.00 border crossings

Answer:

Not a bad deal; at 2,000 miles that works out to around $1,250 for 5 days work. Of course, those would be 5 looooonnnggg days with that many stops.
Without all of the stops, he'd be back home Thursday afternoon with over $900 in his pocket.

Answer:
Your correct Phil , but this guy likes the run and I have not heard a complaint from him or the customers over the past 2 years since he took it over.