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Estes | Two years of doubles experience required for Estes linehaul?

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bentstrider83

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I had a phone interview last week with the TM down at the Phoenix terminal. All went well until he told me that I was a no-go since I had no doubles hauling experience of any kind within my eight years of driving. He did tell me it was possible to train up to line-haul after spending some time doing PnD city work down at the same terminal. I applied for that and now we'll just see what happens. While the physical work doesn't intimidate me too much, I'll be more in for a shock when it comes to being a quasi, public relations tool when dealing with customers and such.
Anywho, this kind of shoots the linehaul plan with Estes out of the water. Kind of the same for the job search, dead in the water.
 
From what I understand all LTL companies require you have doubles experience. I have heard of exceptions. As bad as all companies need drivers, they should hire you for line haul and ride along for a month or so. Pulling doubles isn't very complicated. As long as you can drive through the night, your good in my book.
 
NiteVizion said:
From what I understand all LTL companies require you have doubles experience. I have heard of exceptions. As bad as all companies need drivers, they should hire you for line haul and ride along for a month or so. Pulling doubles isn't very complicated. As long as you can drive through the night, your good in my book.
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Depends on how desperate they are for drivers. I started my LTL linehaul career with Saia. I had no doubles experience and had never driven a 10 speed.

Terminal Manager didn't blink twice and said they'd have someone train me for a week. I actually only trained on a 10 speed for one day. The only truck with 10 speed were older and the passenger seats were not air ride so the trainer said no more of that, drove a brand new auto trans Volvo the rest of the week.

Anyways running doubles is easy, just more time consuming to hook up. You can take turns a little tighter and maneuver around easier. Just don't get yourself into a jam where you have to back up. Some guys can do it but you'll have to have a ton of patience.
 
NiteVizion said:
From what I understand all LTL companies require you have doubles experience. I have heard of exceptions. As bad as all companies need drivers, they should hire you for line haul and ride along for a month or so. Pulling doubles isn't very complicated. As long as you can drive through the night, your good in my book.
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Already can drive through the night, as it's been the only type of driving I've been doing for awhile. I've had the endorsements since getting my license back in 2004. But up to this point, all I've been getting are the single-trailer, hum-drum gigs. I'm still poking around for something that pays better than the milk tanker loading and hauling I'm doing right now. 12-14 hours worth of work and maybe $200 for the whole entire night if you're lucky. We're only paid for trailers unloaded and trailers that we get loaded. Of course with the dairies having a 2-3 hours turnaround, time gets burned up like pyrodex!!
 
Id take the P+D Job and work it until they posted up a line Job then sign for it. This is a great place to work with a lot of opportunity, don't miss the chance.
 
Frootloop said:
Id take the P+D Job and work it until they posted up a line Job then sign for it. This is a great place to work with a lot of opportunity, don't miss the chance.
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We'll see if Phoenix or Aurora CO gets back to me first. I called the Aurora terminal and they said they'll try to set everything back up again. I just submitted another app to Phoenix for the PnD position there and might call the TM on Monday since I already spoken to him prior. I almost got onto a PnD position in Albuquerque, but got passed on for that because I had no LTL experience of any type.
I moved from CA to NM a little over five years ago. As much as moving again will be inevitable if I want to pay these pickup truck and medical bills off, I just hate the idea of being some job-chasing, vagabond.
 
bentstrider83 said:
We'll see if Phoenix or Aurora CO gets back to me first. I called the Aurora terminal and they said they'll try to set everything back up again. I just submitted another app to Phoenix for the PnD position there and might call the TM on Monday since I already spoken to him prior. I almost got onto a PnD position in Albuquerque, but got passed on for that because I had no LTL experience of any type.
I moved from CA to NM a little over five years ago. As much as moving again will be inevitable if I want to pay these pickup truck and medical bills off, I just hate the idea of being some job-chasing, vagabond.
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If you decide to apply at Aurora just know that Terminal has been mess since GI days,and they have high turnover
 
jelena said:
If you decide to apply at Aurora just know that Terminal has been mess since GI days,and they have high turnover
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What's the basis for this? They work the drivers to the bone? Past the allotted, FMCSA time? Toxic work culture?
I'm ready to handle it if it means getting my foot in the door and then transferring to a better spot. It's too bad the Albuquerque yard passed me up and I still have yet to hear back from the Phoenix PnD side. The way things are going over here at Indian River currently, it's like they don't care how anything is running. Anarchy!!!
 
I don't know for 100% fact but if I had to guess the problem lies in the fact that Denver has such a high cost of living that has rose and rose in the last number of years. I imagine driver retention is somewhat tough due to the wages that LTL generally pays vs the high cost of living. When a facility can't retain the labor it generally causes toxicity and unorganizatiin and apathy runs rampant. Just a guess though.
 
Frootloop said:
I don't know for 100% fact but if I had to guess the problem lies in the fact that Denver has such a high cost of living that has rose and rose in the last number of years. I imagine driver retention is somewhat tough due to the wages that LTL generally pays vs the high cost of living. When a facility can't retain the labor it generally causes toxicity and unorganizatiin and apathy runs rampant. Just a guess though.
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Sounds about right. I was almost about to get on with USF Reddaway up there, but apart from undesirable days off (trying to not let that be a deal breaker anymore), the costs of apartments and housing in the entire metro area was quite dismal. All the apartments are multi story, no shortage of those hipsterish condo high rises, and I'd be facing the same type of vehicle registration costs and difficulties that I ran away from CA for.

At least if the Phoenix thing goes through, I get all the big city convenience and a better selection of lower priced neighborhoods.
 
bentstrider83 said:
What's the basis for this? They work the drivers to the bone? Past the allotted, FMCSA time? Toxic work culture?
I'm ready to handle it if it means getting my foot in the door and then transferring to a better spot. It's too bad the Albuquerque yard passed me up and I still have yet to hear back from the Phoenix PnD side. The way things are going over here at Indian River currently, it's like they don't care how anything is running. Anarchy!!!
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All terminals have their share of problems,but some of them work to fix it, and some of them it is chronic.Denver is one of those places where there is no,or very little communication between management and workers,and way too many people who do not care.Bad planing on city routes,misloads,short trucks,dispatch gives you 4/5 p/u 45 min.before closing....Denver will keep you busy,they move a lot of freight. Work is not the problem,the way hove work is done at some term.is.You will need to put up with a lot of BS. Do your research before you make a move,and good luck to you.
 
jelena said:
All terminals have their share of problems,but some of them work to fix it, and some of them it is chronic.Denver is one of those places where there is no,or very little communication between management and workers,and way too many people who do not care.Bad planing on city routes,misloads,short trucks,dispatch gives you 4/5 p/u 45 min.before closing....Denver will keep you busy,they move a lot of freight. Work is not the problem,the way hove work is done at some term.is.You will need to put up with a lot of BS. Do your research before you make a move,and good luck to you.
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Seems to be the same with every place nowadays. Definitely don't want to jump from the frying pan and into the fire. I heard some of the same exact issues with USF. That and I still don't exactly trust my winter driving skill. For me, that would be driving extremely slow and not getting into a wreck, while avoiding all those daredevils out there.
 
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