ABF | Abf North Little Rock, Ar Terminal Advise.

[DCM_Doc]

Also he should be willing to relocate when the NLR terminal is closed.

 

[Drake L.]

Hello Drake. I am one of the stewards at the NLR, AR terminal. They are currently looking for CDL qualified employees for the city/dock. You must have doubles/triples, hazmat, and tanker endorsements as well as your CDL class A license. If you do not have at least one year of verifiable driving (CDL) they will not hire you full-time. They will start you out as a casual (part-time) and require you to become hostling qualified by practicing on your own time with one of our bid hostlers. Once you become good enough to do all the hostling requirements (hook, drop, and backing trailers) you will then have to be tested by our Safety man. Once he has approved you, and you have a Class A CDL with all the required endorsements, you will be set up for driver training with our local trainer which is about a two week course. While in this local driver training, you will be paid at the casual rate of pay for all hours of training and you will probably be doing some dock work during this time as well. Once the trainer has approved you, you will then ride/drive with one of our bid city drivers for roughly a week. When this bid city driver say's you are ready, you will then be road tested by our Safety man. Once the Satety man approves you, you will then be moved to full-time. But, just so you understand, you will most likely be working the 11:00pm to 7:00am shift on the dock for a while with little if any chance to do city driving for several years. Your days off will most likely be Monday and Tuesday as we are 24/7 operation. All the dock, city, utility and hostling jobs as well as the start times and days off are bid twice a year by seniority. So, the city driving jobs are usually bid by the most senior employees as they are Monday thru Friday day shift jobs. The hostling jobs and the dock jobs with Fri/Sat or Sat/Sun off usually go high as well especially on the 07:00 to 15:00/ 15:00 to 23:00 shift. So, be prepared to work the night shift on the dock for at least a couple of years with no city driving. If you are a casual wanting on full-time without a CDL/Endorsements, you will also have to become hostling qualified on your own time first. They will then send you to the ABF Driving school in Fort Smith when an opening becomes available which could take several months. I know it sounds like a lot of hoops to jump thru, but because Article 16, Section 5. of our contract requires those that have the CDL and required endorsements to maintain their CDL's to remain employed, then everyone that is hired full-time is required to have it to keep it fair. We had to file a grievance that we won back in 2014 to get this done so that everyone was under the same set of rules. So, as of August of 2014, you cannot get hired full-time on the city/dock without the CDL and required endorsements. I hope this helps in your decision and I apologize for the length of this post.

Hello sir, I would be very grateful to be apart of the team. I just got my permit yesterday, and all I need is doubles/triples endorsement. It's going very well right now.

 

[canaryinthemine]

Hey, Drake,.....Brother S.O.T.R. gave you some great information. The rest of us,.....including me,......are just carping about a job we've been doing for a long, long time.

In a way, that's a good indicator if a job is worthwhile to pursue. The longevity of the employees there, I mean,......not the carping.

If you find a job that has extremely high turnover of employees, ,......and they do exist in trucking, more than any other occupation,.......stay miles away from that company. They'll grind you up and spit you out, like they're doing to all their other employees. There's a 90% divorce rate in OTR trucking for a reason.......

But,...if you find a carrier whose employees have been there 10, 20, and 30 years,......that's probably a career job in trucking, no matter how much carping and complaining is being done by the doddering old graybeards......

There are some deep and distinct problems going on,......but nothing that should deter you from trying to get on here. Go into it with your eyes and ears open,.......and Good Luck!

 

[Mud Hen]

Canary
Good advice