Question:
Howdy all, Been lurking in the shadows for a bit now, Im looking to make a change in jobs. Been a tile setter for 25 yrs. and its time for a change. Ive read most of the Whats the best company post so I wont ask. This question might even be worse.... so go easy on me...I know what an otr driver is but what a LTL mean? Ive read many post on another forum and these drivers make better money and home more.....????? I live in Wa. State and would like to stay up and down the I-5 coridor, I dont mind being out 7-10 days but I do have a life..... Are there any positve experiances in the trucking bus.? Ive read post after post about the bad...... Almost skeerd me off....LOL. Well I will end by saying thanks for ALL the post here on this Newbie Forum...
Thanks, Tom

Answer:
LTL = Less Than Loaded
It signifies drivers who are loading shipments that do not take up a full trailer. It could be as small as one pallet, could be 3/4ths of a trailer.

Answer:
Thanks Rev......But how would a driver make more $$ hauling ltl's? I mean if thats the case the company wouldnt make much either would they? Now to add another question, Whats the best make of truck to drive?
Thanks, Tom

Answer:
The LTL buisness isn't just 1 pick up and 1 drop off..
You most likely will be hauling somthing like groceries, or hardware.. (IE True Value) and arrive at work at oh lets say Oh Dark thirty (okay lets say 5am..) get your truck find the trailer that was pre loaded for you with 13 to 20 stops on it, and take off to be at your 1st drop when they open.. at 0730..
Then you rush around all day trying to find all these places, grabbing food where and when you can, and come around 1730 hrs.. (5:30pm) your done.. except you are 200 miles from the terminal.. Go ahead and drive "home" .
You get to your home terminal around 9pm.. go home and be back for another round tommorow at "oh dark thirty" again...
That was my typical day with True Value when I was working for them needless to say I did not last long doing this.. I went to driving dump trucks, much easier work for the same pay..
Sound like fun?
Answer:
Thanks Gonzo.........Thats what kind of info Im wanting to hear.....What its realy like.....

Answer:
LTL, newbie style, non union version. Pick up the slack or cover for someone off. Get to drive the rolling version of an ashtray. Spend your first few months getting a basic sense of your employers general area of operation. Head out in the morning already behind in your schedule. Make upteen deliveries. Do not tell dispatch you are stopping for a sandwich to eat on the go. Start to do your pickups on the way back to the terminal. Disregard your hours, the computer can be manipulated. Do not worry. By Friday, you will find that the sixity hours you need to get overtime will be a fleeting dream. Settle for the 56 or so that you get. The good pickups and deliveries will be offset by the bad. Smile and kill them with kindness no matter how ugly they are. Caveat! Flinging the trailer door open and banging the pallet jack is one way to get even with someone who has it in for you regardless that you have never made his/her daughter. Since you are the lumper, don't worry about those damaged boxes, just hide them within the stack while you finger print them. Do not be a hero during bad weather. Tell dispatch that those few flakes are glazing the road over and you may be delayed. Just keep telling yourself, I get to sleep at home every night. Did I leave anything out?

Answer:
........I think I'll puke now.... Thanks QTRHRS...
Tom

Answer:
The LTL (less than a truck load) loads can be more profitable if managed properly. Once you're loaded with multiple loads, you're billing multiple shippers as if the loads were traveling in separte trucks. So your gross revenue per mile can be much higher than a single "TL" (truck load) run.
BUT......as explained above, the truck and driver spend more time loading and off loading -- at the expense of turning paid miles -- and if the scheduling isn't planned and executed precisely, much of the additional revenue is lost to un-compensated time getting the stuff in and out of the trailer.
In short -- LTL can produce more revenue per mile, but costs more to service and is much more problematic.

Answer:
That LTL description is right on the dot. Once in a while you'll get a slow day, otherwise most of the time you're lucky enough to even grab lunch on the run.

Answer:
Right now I'm assigned to a customer than runs multiple deliveries. it's not nearly the same as a regular LTL driver but more than most OTR drivers. The money is better and the home time is much better. The trade off is the amount of work involved and the time. One load and one drop usually means alot of miles. Although that isn't exactly true anylonger as most companies ar going to shorter lengths of haul due to higher revenue per mile and less equipment wear and tear. But you can run more miles in a day as a norm with truckload carriers. With LTL your going to load and ulnload alot more so the miles will be less. But thats where the normal OTR driver gets it confused. To them miles equal money but to a LTL guy they do not equal all or even the majority of the money they make.
I now have an opportunity to take a dedicated spot that could have as much as 8 drops in a day. At the right drop pay I would make as much on my drops as I would on the average drive of 350 miles. The bottom line would be quite a bit more money than most OTR drivers depending on mileage alone. The trade off is the amount of work and hustle involved. Time is also a factor. I could run 600 miles in a day and make 2 drops faster than i could do the 6-8 drop loads with half the miles.
But that seems to be the way truck driving is. Every thing is a trade off. Want to be home more then you'll probably work harder and make less money in the beginning. Want regional work then you'll have shorter runs and more waiting time for less money. Want LTL home daily then get ready to work and being new expect the cash to be short. With those 2 you'll have a bit of a home life although regional shortens it up alot more than LTL. Want to run OTR then expect a little more money but no home life at all.

Answer:

That's pretty much how I work, with a few differences.
Report for work between 4 and 5 AM. Do 2-5 yard moves for the shipper then find loaded trailer. Pre trip and run to out 75-150 miles and deliver 1-4 stops. Deadhead back to plant and do 1-4 more yard moves. Get second load that could be a local or another 50-100 miles from the plant. This one is USUALLY a 1 stop load, but there are exceptions. Deliver and deadhead back to plant. Upon return, possibly do 1-4 more yard moves then call it a day. How long does this take? Anywhere from 11-14 hrs per day, EVERYDAY.
I'm pretty much fed-up with it. I have found that local driving is just as bad as OTR. The hours and conditions are as bad if not worse. The only difference is that you sleep in your own bed at night. That's about all you'll get to do at home though, because there isn't time for much else.

Answer:
For the rcord:
LTL -- Less than a Truck Load -- is generally used to describe freight coming from multiple shippers and going to multiple receivers, on a single truck.
Loads from a single shipper with multiple deliveries is commonly called:
TL -- a single Truck Load -- "with multiple stops" instead of a single receiver.
A multiple stop driver may be performing work similar to LTL on one end - usually the receiving end - but multiple deliveries from a single shipper is still TL, not LTL.
The most common use of the term LTL applies to Roadway, UPS, FedEx (etc) that pick-up shipments from multiple customers with local trucks, sort and re-load onto highway trucks according to general geographic destination, then re-load again at regional terminals to local trucks that deliver to specific addresses. We see them all the time -- usually day cabs pulling doubles or triples -- and they're called "LTLs" for short to distinguish their operation from conventional single load truck service. So when you hear "...an LTL company" it usually means UPS, FedEx, etc.

Answer:
Yea we know Shuffler. it was already stated above.
Most local ltl drivers do multiple stops and pickups throughout the day. Their constantly loading and unloading stuff.
There are also OTR ltl drivers who will run around and do multiple pickups and then drive to a given city or area and do multiple drops. They get it loaded from various shippers and then drop it all at various receivers before reloading. Produce haulers do it this way most of the time.
Drivers who work for LTL companies can also pick up at their company and then make multiple drops. They do not always make multiple pickups. Some one else or a bunch of other people may have picked up all the products and then the one driver, usually a city driver, will make all the drops.
People like myself are not at all like a regular LTL driver as astated above but I still may pick up at multiple suppliers if I need the product to finish my deliveries and depending on who is closer. But I don't do package delivery and am in a completely different ball game. LTL drivers are in and out of docks quickly. For me it's almost always an hour unloading and at times a little more.
What it comes down to is options and comprimise.

Answer:
The point is: When you read about "..an LTL carrier..." in the financial pages or trade publications, it's usually referring to a FedEx, Roadway, Yellow, FedEx, etc, that sorts and re-loads freight at regional terminals. Pickup and delivery is usually driven by local drivers in smaller delivery trucks, not performed by the OTR drivers running the longer distances.
Some produce haulers may be doing LTL by definition, but probably do not re-sort and transfer freight several times in a multi-truck pipeline designed to service small package delivery.
Therefore -- for the benefit of newbies -- when you run across the term "...an LTL carrier...", it typically refers to the kind of operation described above, not a produce hauler.

Answer:
For the benefit of newbies LTL referes to doing Less Than Truckload, period. Many produce haulers are LTL drivers by definition as they do multiple pickups and multiple drops. Newbies can end up doing the same work pulling a reefer trailer. I've done it plenty. It takes alot of time running from shipper to shipper and the running round a given area making multiple drops to several receivers. Shippers may put on a few boxes up to several pallets of product. Even the boxes may go to different receivers as do the pallets. It is full blown LTL work involving the same type of LTL work as Conway or any other company.
As stated it comes down to choices and compromise. What you need and are willing to do to reach those needs.