Folks who work/worked Line-haul, how's the lifestyle??

There are VERY FEW jobs in trucking that work a "normal 40 hour week." Unless you are either in a union shop, (and even then it's a toss up.) There are some store or wholesale delivery jobs that are pretty much 40 hours. But it bears little resemblance to trucking.

 

As with all things in trucking it will vary.. different companies, different accounts, etc..

I did a linehaul account just before I got out of trucking..

It was technically an easy gig.. get assigned a loaded trailer from the terminal, hook to it and take it to a drop yard, drop it, put the bols in the box, get assigned another loaded trailer, hook to it and take it back to the terminal and drop it, park truck for next driver and go home.

However, there are the usual hiccups.. drive 45 minutes from my house to the terminal... sometime the other driver was late, so had to wait for the truck, when the truck gets there start my 14 hour clock by logging on and doing pre trip..sometimes, I would have to wait at the terminal for a load to be assigned, once I got the load, start my 14 hour clock and do my pre trip... sometimes Imwould have to go pick up an empty trailer, clean it out if it needed it, and take it tag a shipper to drop the empty and get a loaded trailer and then off to the drop yard.. sometimes, I would get stuck waiting at the drop yard too waiting for the driver with my return load to arrive or for a load to be assigned, but, I would take my half hour break at the yard, get my load and head home.. sometimes too, I would be waiting for a load and no luck and would have to deadhead back to terminal for less pay.. get back to terminal, drop trailer, park the truck and head home..

So, generally when things went smoothly it was a 12 to 14 hour day from the time I walked out of my house till when I walked back in the door.. but, there were often times like I said were I would have to wait at the terminal for an extra hour before I started my pre trip and got rolling, and times when I got held up at the yard.. at the yard I could only wait so long, because I had to get back to the terminal within my 14 hour clock.. and there were times where I came in at the last tic of the last second..

The thing with my line haul experience, was at the end of the day when I came home there was dinner to cook for the family, house work, yard work and stuff... not like when I was OTR and could just shower and hit the bunk..

But, again, that was the gig I had.. and not how all linehaul is...

But I don't want to turn you off of linehaul... cause all in all it wasn't a bad gig.. but, no matter the gig, you got those trucking industries hiccups... just gotta roll with it

 

I did LH for a couple months and never came close to a 40 hour week. Generally was about a 65 hour week. Long days.

 

1) Yes.

2) The lifestyle is the same as other LTL except it's upside-down. The nighttime is your daytime and you'll try to sleep during the day and hopefully it will work out for you. Weekends should be the same, but for me weren't, and it was quite------uncomfortable.

3) Yes.

4) No, the total hours would be roughly the same if not more than daytime, hence the higher pay.

Don't got more time to get into it now.

 

I do linehaul. Clock in at 4 30pm done at 3 or 330am. 30 minute lunch thrown in there

 

1) yes, the money is good.

2) most linehaul is night shift. the lifestyle depends on how willing one is to embrace such.

3) no. some nights i work 6 hours, some i work 11. i average 45-50 hours per week.

4) no. total hours worked depends on several factors. seniority, runs, desire to work (dock), company protocol, etc. a top guy could work 35 hrs or 60, bid dependent.

 

1) The money is VERY good. My wife is a professional with a PhD, and I make more money than she does (but I work more hours--I think she makes slightly more per actual hour).

2) The lifestyle is weird, but the truth is I see my family more now than when I did P&D, and I also have extra time to get things done during business hours on Mondays (he types, while wasting time on The Trucker's Report). As a low-seniority, late-start (10 am) P&D driver, I was never home for dinner, and sometimes only got home in time for everyone else to go to bed. Now, I'm always home for dinner (which my family values), and I leave for work as things are winding down around kid bedtimes. The weekends can be rough to deal with at first; it takes time to get adjusted. I take a nap (ideally around 3 hours) after work on Saturday mornings and live like a normal human on the weekends, sleeping at night. Then Mondays I do errands or chores during the day when everyone is gone and try to get an afternoon nap to prepare for being up all night. Mondays are good for scheduling appointments without missing work. I love it, but it's not for everybody. Some people just physically can't sleep during the day. You need to have a blacked-out bedroom and the discipline to make sleep your priority, even when there are other things to do.

3) 11+ hours every shift is common for high-mile bids or open drivers being run hard during the busy times. However, my terminal has some gravy runs that pay very well in a fairly short period of time. Those runs are snatched up by the highest-seniority guys and they typically only work 8.5 - 9.5 hours (but still make $85k!). I personally get to work at 8:30 pm to hook up and pretrip, and leave around 9 pm. I'm an open-bid driver, so depending on what run I'm covering or if I'm just out there going wherever they send me, I may work until 6 am on an easy night or past 10 am on a tough night. I average between 10 and 11 hours, but 13 to 14 isn't uncommon as an open driver. I prefer to work less than 10 hours or more than 12, that way I'm not dealing with rush hour twice, both coming back to the terminal in the truck and headed home in my car.

4) If I'm working a 40-hour week, we are extremely slow. That happened maybe once for me as a P&D driver over the course of a year, but never as a linehaul driver. I would discourage anyone from ever having that expectation.

Good luck getting a linehaul job if that's what you'd like to do. I've done all kinds of trucking jobs, and I think this is the one most suited to me, not to mention one of the easiest out there all things considered. It also doesn't hurt that it's one of the best-paying. One thing we have as nighttime linehaul drivers that is fading from the industry in general these days is more of a sense of brotherhood. We are on the phone in the wee hours, helping each other stay awake and letting others know about traffic problems and weather conditions and such. We b.s., joke around, and laugh our arses off going down the road. I've discussed stuff with a few of my fellow drivers that was previously reserved only for my closest friends or my wife. We help each other celebrate good times and deal with difficult times. I also talk to drivers from other terminals, as well as from other LTLs who I've met or worked with over the years. It's good to know who your fellow vampires are! Sorry for the long reply, but suffice it to say: I really dig my job.

 

Money was good on my Omaha to Chicago lay down run , all night driving .
Home every other day and weekends off.
Bad parts :
If weather was bad things got challenging.
When weekend came if I kept the wife happy that meant fighting to stay awake the first night back out.
Saia solved that problem when they bought my company and eliminated my job .