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Rockee

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Hi all, I am going to be looking for a new job soon, probably at the end of march (not sure yet) and have been thinking about the facility in PDX. Could some of you shed some light on your operation....the good, bad, and ugly with me? I plan on stopping down there one day but thought it might be better to get the real scoop from the drivers before I hit the office. I have 18 years exp with all endorsements, 14 of those are in the PDX area. If any of you were starting over again would you look somewhere else or start right back here? Union is my only option. Local or Line Haul is all that I would be interested in. A couple of my questions are:

How long casual typically:
Layoffs:
Anything out of the ordinary in your contract:

Thanx for any and all help
 
Could some of you shed some light on your operation....the good, bad, and ugly with me?
Click to expand...

Welcome to the forum.

I can only speak for what I see in Linehaul.

The Good? Well they basically leave you alone...Until you screw up. We have one of the best men you could ask for a dispatcher in Portland...Central is luck of the phone call. Newer equipment. We are Union.

The bad? The TM...But then aren't they all? No delay pay if you are waiting for your set unless you go to the dock. Lack of yard space. Getting into the place is like breaking into Ft. Knox. I think strip searches are next. Our contract is up this October. I have a gut feeling that it will a long and drawn out proceeding like the last one. Get use to driving 59.9 MPH.

The ugly? Your co-workers.

Right now things are slow for everyone but OHFL did have an ad in this Sundays paper so I would get on down and apply. Even though it has been slow I think most of the extra board is getting out most nights. You can download an application from Oak Harbor Freight Lines, Inc. and send it in to:
Safety and Recruitment Supervisor
Oak Harbor Freight Lines
9026 N. E. 13th Ave.
Portland, OR 97211

Linehaul has no casual board just an extra board. So when your 90 days are up you start getting seniority. I haven't seen any layoffs in Linehaul but they will layoff in P&D. I *heard* that the last batch of linehaul they hired started at full scale. In the past they started at fourth year pay. With your experience I wouldn't take anything less than fourth year. Be prepared to spend at least three nights out as you never know. I always packed five pairs of underwear.

All said it really isn't a bad place to work. I never have heard of a place that was perfect. If there was a perfect place it wouldn't be called work.
 
Yellow

Come on, everything in the contract is out of the ordinary. In the last year or so quite a few have made the jump to yellow and still ask themselves why the hell they even worked over their. Besides, not much better than $5 in the pension.

Rockee said:
Hi all, I am going to be looking for a new job soon, probably at the end of march (not sure yet) and have been thinking about the facility in PDX. Could some of you shed some light on your operation....the good, bad, and ugly with me? I plan on stopping down there one day but thought it might be better to get the real scoop from the drivers before I hit the office. I have 18 years exp with all endorsements, 14 of those are in the PDX area. If any of you were starting over again would you look somewhere else or start right back here? Union is my only option. Local or Line Haul is all that I would be interested in. A couple of my questions are:

How long casual typically:
Layoffs:
Anything out of the ordinary in your contract:

Thanx for any and all help
Click to expand...
 
Could you be more specific please? Why have so many people left and what is out of the ordinary? Tell me why Yellow is better.

strokeharbor said:
Come on, everything in the contract is out of the ordinary. In the last year or so quite a few have made the jump to yellow and still ask themselves why the hell they even worked over their.
Click to expand...
 
Rockee said:
Hi all, I am going to be looking for a new job soon, probably at the end of march (not sure yet) and have been thinking about the facility in PDX. Could some of you shed some light on your operation....the good, bad, and ugly with me? I plan on stopping down there one day but thought it might be better to get the real scoop from the drivers before I hit the office. I have 18 years exp with all endorsements, 14 of those are in the PDX area. If any of you were starting over again would you look somewhere else or start right back here? Union is my only option. Local or Line Haul is all that I would be interested in. A couple of my questions are:

How long casual typically:
Layoffs:
Anything out of the ordinary in your contract:

Thanx for any and all help
Click to expand...


It is a great place to work. Hope it all works out in you favor!
 
Yellow is covered under the National Master Freight Agreement, Oak Harbor spun out of the agreement years ago and works on a paper contract that is modeled after the NMFA but is considerably weaker in all aspects, everything from wage progression and pay rates to pension and sick pay. ABF is hiring now, Yellow/Roadway will be hiring again soon.

I worked for Oak Harbor for five years I work at Yellow now and the difference is night and day. Yellow is a great company; Oak Harbor is far from it. Favoritism, sick pay, so many things that were such a hassle at OHFL are almost non-issues at Yellow. Not to mention the companies anti-union stance, read these forums for more info on that. If you have any specific questions by please feel free to message me.

Good luck!
 
Oak Harbor Portland had a line driver that quit working for ABF early last spring. He quit after one week at ABF and came back to Oak Harbor. He told me he wished he never would have left.

Another P&D Driver that works in Portland was laid off last January. He went to Yellow but quit Yellow last fall and came back to Oak Harbor. He told me he is glad he is back.

I only bring these two examples up as it is important to point out that there are some people that believe Oak Harbor is a good place to work and has advantages over those Master Freight companies.

However it is important to mention that there are two P&D Drivers that I know of that left Oak Harbor Portland for ABF that like it much better there. That was back about 4 years ago when Portland cut OT by initiating some 4 10 P&D bids on some of their out of town long stem bids. The two P&D Drivers that I am reffering to needed the extra hours that they were used to. Ironically now Portland has more OT than a lot of the P&D Drivers want.

Fair & Balanced
 
At Oak Harbor you will have a nice new automatic truck that has the A/C removed line power does have A/C, you will probably have a defined Monday through Friday start time. You will not spend much time casual if any, and layoffs are few and far between. More than likely you will spend most of your time driving.

At Yellow/Roadway/ABF you will not have any of these things, but you will make more money, make more pension, be treated better, and those pile of crap trucks almost all have A/C now. You will get paid on your first day out if sick, you are paid out if you don't use your sick pay. After 2 years you will be at full scale currently $21.86 with 2-3 personal days 5 sick days and 2 weeks vacation. You will have the opportunity to work overtime and double time frequently and you will not be forced over 8 hours at Yellow Portland.

OHFL's contract is weak and is a constant battle, the company is greedy, and favors their non-union employees. At Yellow we have about seven guys that have come over in the last three years for different reasons, too many forced hours of OT, favoritism, but pension is the big one. I can't really think of anyone that left last fall, maybe he was in line haul or was a casual.
 
Just to weigh in on this...

- In our last contract, we did make substantial gains in all areas, but I would be the first to admit we have a ways to go to be where we need to be. Fortunately, we have very good union representation at Local 81, and we have made strides forward.

- Our top of scale in Portland is now $20.21/hr. for city. Line is at .5155/mi. for doubles and .5355 for triples.

- You are a casual typically for 90 days. Portland has a split board, so city and dock are on one list, and linehaul is on another seniority list.

- You actually get a life at Oak Harbor, as usually we don't work much on weekends, either on the city side or line. As line, you might finish a run on a Saturday morning, or you might go out Sunday night, but you will not be running across the weekend normally. City does do some P&D work on Saturdays, but such work is offered by seniority.

- You will get plenty of overtime at Oak Harbor on the city side, and you will work very regularly on the line side, unless freight volumes just completely die, and even then you ought to work at least a couple of days a week. This winter has been slower than in recent years, and even the bottom line guys have only had a couple of really slow weeks.

- Equipment is decent, but underpowered and very governed-back, compared to even the other freight companies. Get used to seeing Con-Way, Old Dominion and Fedex blow your doors off on a regular basis.

- We have a very decent and fair line dispatcher in Portland, whom we all respect a great deal due to his fairness. We all wish more of Oak Harbor's management was like him, but we seem to going the opposite direction in that regard, unfortunately.

All in all, Oak Harbor is a pretty decent place to work... as long as you can put up with the BS they are always shoving down our throats, and if you can deal with a lot of stupidity on the part of management. But then... isn't that the gripe of most drivers at most companies?

Feel free to ask more questions, or PM me directly for specific details. Don't hesitate to contact Local 81, either, at: [email protected]

Good luck!:smilie_132:
 
Thanx everyone for your input, right now I am just getting a feel for places to see where I might want to be when I get laid off but still not sure when that will be. I am already a member of Local 81 so know how to get info in that area.
 
Good luck to you! I would urge you to put in an online application at Yellow. They are currently accepting applications for everything at the Portland, Or. terminal. City Driver, Dock Worker, and Linehaul.
Job Openings
As for Oak Harbor, we have several former Oakies currently working for us and all are glad they made the switch! Now you might have to work weekends for a year or 2, but I guarantee, within a couple of years, with all the guys planning on retiring, you'll move up the board pretty quick.
 
Yes, it is a great place to work and a great bunch of guys and gals! OAKH!
 
Well its all water under the bridge anyway. OHFL did not want me working there for whatever reasons that they would not disclose to me. Lol I put in four aplications each time I seen an ad in the paper and when I first got laid off. I have a feeling that it could have had something to do with the person that referred me there in the first place but really dont know. Someone mentioned that it could have been because I dont have any doubles experience but that dont sound right either. I would have put in an app. at Yellow but didnt want to go through the hassle of being a casual again or stuck working on a dock sometimes. Anyway it all worked out.
 
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