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ABF | Abf North Little Rock, Ar Terminal Advise.

Drake L.

Drake L.

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I'm about to get my CDL from c1 truck driver training. I was planning on applying for city driver p&d, and was wondering is this a good company to work for? How's the wages, benefits, and life like working at this terminal?
 
Wages are mediocre topping out around $23/hr, health insurance is as good as it gets and that terminal is probably in Central States Pension Fund, which is in trouble right now. No vacation for two years, then one week for the next six when you'll finally get two weeks. No sick days unless/until you are on the seniority list Jan 1 of that year. That is a large terminal with a road board and large dock. Someone else will have to fill you in on how they work those seniority lists. Being an old and large terminal they probably have a lot of retirements every year, which will help you move up fairly quickly. There has also been some chatter that they are going to close down the road operation there and move it to Memphis, that could force you out of a job when guys refuse to move and bid city work to stay planted there. Generally speaking LTL freight is on a downhill slide (bad trend for working in) but ABF is generally a decent company to work for, they don't harass us too much.
 
Do you think I should try to get into UPS for the long run over abf. Maybe I could get experience at abf then when the time is right get into UPS as delivery/cover driver or feeder driver? What do you think?
 
Drake L. said:
Do you think I should try to get into UPS for the long run over abf. Maybe I could get experience at abf then when the time is right get into UPS as delivery/cover driver or feeder driver? What do you think?
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UPS would be a good snag but there are a lot of ins and outs to that one. They have a lot of workers working part time who want to move into full time package car. As the package car guys get older their knees wear out and they get tired of that rat race so they move into feeders (the prima donnas of truck drivers) and they bring their seniority up with them, so you could be low in seniority there for a long time. However, UPS is allowed to hire a certain amount of feeder drivers right off the street without all of that but it is not easy to get in there. Knowing someone has proven to be helpful. Don't limit your options to the freight industry, drivers are needed everywhere. Construction pays well as do some chemical companies and they are better jobs in my opinion. Less bullshit, better hours. Union jobs are not as good as they once were and you might even want to check out other non union companies like Old Dominion or Saia. Conway (XPO) and FedEx seem to be armpits and I would steer clear of them. Pipeline work is a horse of a totally different color but it pays well and you could get hooked up there too. You could check your Teamsters hall and they might just have a company looking for people.
 
The NLR terminal was completed in 1980. It has been one of the best jobs in Arkansas. The company announced two or three years ago they would close the terminal & move most of the dock, road & shop to Memphis. The Memphis terminal is crowded as is. The company bought two old warehouses & about 10 acres of land. The cost of tearing down the warehouses & construction is very expensive. The company claims NLR is not a good location for a break bulk & there are a lot of empty miles in the Memphis to NLR lane. I suspect part of the motive for moving is the majority of local 878 voted against approval of the last contract. The company probably wants to locate where they can have a better relationship with locals.
If the move is made there will not be room for all employees to go to Memphis so a change of operation will allow dovetailing of seniority to wherever the company desires to add personnel. There will still be a small terminal in the LR area with 20-30 people to service the area but more people than that want to stay in Arkansas so a new employee will have to move.
If the company planned to keep the operation as is I don't know of a better place to start a career. A lot of workers quit & found other jobs when the plan to move was announced. The company has had problems replacing the good experienced workers.
 
DCM_Doc said:
The NLR terminal was completed in 1980. It has been one of the best jobs in Arkansas. The company announced two or three years ago they would close the terminal & move most of the dock, road & shop to Memphis. The Memphis terminal is crowded as is. The company bought two old warehouses & about 10 acres of land. The cost of tearing down the warehouses & construction is very expensive. The company claims NLR is not a good location for a break bulk & there are a lot of empty miles in the Memphis to NLR lane. I suspect part of the motive for moving is the majority of local 878 voted against approval of the last contract. The company probably wants to locate where they can have a better relationship with locals.
If the move is made there will not be room for all employees to go to Memphis so a change of operation will allow dovetailing of seniority to wherever the company desires to add personnel. There will still be a small terminal in the LR area with 20-30 people to service the area but more people than that want to stay in Arkansas so a new employee will have to move.
If the company planned to keep the operation as is I don't know of a better place to start a career. A lot of workers quit & found other jobs when the plan to move was announced. The company has had problems replacing the good experienced workers.
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The question is will they hire him fresh out of driving school?
 
GO40 said:
The question is will they hire him fresh out of driving school?
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Their website has shows drivers and dock workers wanted since November and they've been updating every month on the same jobs. I been keeping up with them. What do you guys think.
 
GO40 said:
The question is will they hire him fresh out of driving school?
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The answer is, "yes they will", but they will send him to their own school for polishing. Then he is obligated for a while or he has to reimburse them for the schooling.
 
GO40 said:
Where is the school?
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I think that they use several throughout the country. One guy from eastern PA was flown out to AR for it but he had some health issues and fell out of the program.
 
That's goo
ABFer said:
I think that they use several throughout the country. One guy from eastern PA was flown out to AR for it but he had some health issues and fell out of the program.
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Thats good they are still hiring in that region the Northeast is dead & its every carrier I talk to....
 
ABFer said:
The answer is, "yes they will", but they will send him to their own school for polishing. Then he is obligated for a while or he has to reimburse them for the schooling.
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How long will I be obligated? I don't understand I'm getting a cdl with a grant so I don't have to be obligated to a company, to pay for training if something happens??
 
Drake L. said:
How long will I be obligated? I don't understand I'm getting a cdl with a grant so I don't have to be obligated to a company, to pay for training if something happens??
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ABF has a history of sending newly accredited CDL drivers to a school of their choosing for a little while to insure that they are trained to their satisfaction. There will be more doubles/triples training, which you probably get none of at a school. What all else they do there I do not know.
 
Drake L. said:
How long will I be obligated? I don't understand I'm getting a cdl with a grant so I don't have to be obligated to a company, to pay for training if something happens??
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Normally they would want 2 years and 200k miles or some equivalent experience in OTR or preferably LTL trucking before they would even look at your application. Since they have had a very hard time getting qualified applicants they have started their trucking school back up (they had it before the big recession but shut it down when the economy hit the skids) Where they will take a person with a CDL but no experience and train them. Just having a CDL doesn't mean you know what you are doing especially in the LTL world. We have one guy who went through the school when it first opened back up but I haven't talked to him to see what exactly the curriculum was.
 
Not to be discouraging,.....but I like to remind new drivers that a CDL is one thing, and LTL is a completely different thing, where your driving skills are taken for granted,....... and they assume your freight handling skills,......(which no one teaches,..LTL can't be taught,....it must be learned,.......).....are at a par with the experienced guys.

You'll understand what I mean when you get the beater liftgate with 6 private home deliveries and four early cutoffs for pickups.

LTL companies are really poor at explaining that as far as they are concerned, all the revenue is made in the trailer,....not behind the wheel. They don't want to hear how icy the road was,....or how tight it was to back in,....or how terrible the traffic was......They only want to know one thing: Did you get the Freight off, and did you make all your pickups? You did? Good,......now go work the dock for three hours......
 
canaryinthemine said:
Not to be discouraging,.....but I like to remind new drivers that a CDL is one thing, and LTL is a completely different thing, where your driving skills are taken for granted,....... and they assume your freight handling skills,......(which no one teaches,..LTL can't be taught,....it must be learned,.......).....are at a par with the experienced guys.

You'll understand what I mean when you get the beater liftgate with 6 private home deliveries and four early cutoffs for pickups.

LTL companies are really poor at explaining that as far as they are concerned, all the revenue is made in the trailer,....not behind the wheel. They don't want to hear how icy the road was,....or how tight it was to back in,....or how terrible the traffic was......They only want to know one thing: Did you get the Freight off, and did you make all your pickups? You did? Good,......now go work the dock for three hours......
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And this is just the tip of the iceberg. You are to do all of that without your freight falling over and getting damaged or damaging the freight around it (and yes, if it can fall over it will). Then keep a keen eye on the customers on their forklifts in your trailer and play warden as they endanger the freight that is not theirs that's in there (it doesn't happen often but when it does it's our fault). And since salesmen are salesmen and they promise the world you will need to sharpen your diplomatic skills as you explain what your responsibilities are and what accessorial services cost more than what they are paying for.
 
ABFer said:
And this is just the tip of the iceberg. You are to do all of that without your freight falling over and getting damaged or damaging the freight around it (and yes, if it can fall over it will). Then keep a keen eye on the customers on their forklifts in your trailer and play warden as they endanger the freight that is not theirs that's in there (it doesn't happen often but when it does it's our fault). And since salesmen are salesmen and they promise the world you will need to sharpen your diplomatic skills as you explain what your responsibilities are and what accessorial services cost more than what they are paying for.
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I guess you got to be responsible sometime in your life :P I had pretty strenuous jobs in the past so I believe I can handle it
 
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