ABF | Start the Picketline

Hah!........ABF ought to be worried if they let all their available driving talent stand in a group outside the gates of an idled facility.

Every trucking company recruiter in the area would be circling that bunch of guys like vultures.......

If ABF takes an obstinate and ignorant position,........the TM can look out the window and watch his labor force melt away.

The stupidest thing ArcBest could do is a lockout......The drivers and dock workers would be employed within minutes........while the TM would have to learn to play solitaire until bankruptcy.......
 
Hah!........ABF ought to be worried if they let all their available driving talent stand in a group outside the gates of an idled facility.

Every trucking company recruiter in the area would be circling that bunch of guys like vultures.......

If ABF takes an obstinate and ignorant position,........the TM can look out the window and watch his labor force melt away.

The stupidest thing ArcBest could do is a lockout......The drivers and dock workers would be employed within minutes........while the TM would have to learn to play solitaire until bankruptcy.......
I understand that your retired but you don't really think that nonunion carriers, which is about all is left, would actually be circling around these so called strikers wanting to hire them do ya? I bout spilled my coffee laughing when you posted this.
 
I understand that your retired but you don't really think that nonunion carriers, which is about all is left, would actually be circling around these so called strikers wanting to hire them do ya? I bout spilled my coffee laughing when you posted this.
‘So-called strikers’? No gray area there...either we will or we won’t. Just for kicks, I threw some apps out last summer to two LTL outfits...got called by both within 5 days, and I was just testing the water! Nationwide driver shortage. Yes, us ‘no-good Union guys’ would find work in a heartbeat.
 
I understand that your retired but you don't really think that nonunion carriers, which is about all is left, would actually be circling around these so called strikers wanting to hire them do ya? I bout spilled my coffee laughing when you posted this.
I disagree with your post. Years ago there was a select few carriers that would not hire you for that reason. Times have changed. If you have experience it don't matter where you came from. Your being hired on with the quickness
 
I understand that your retired but you don't really think that nonunion carriers, which is about all is left, would actually be circling around these so called strikers wanting to hire them do ya? I bout spilled my coffee laughing when you posted this.

I know where you're coming from, Rollin,......you think that non-Union recruiters would deliberately ignore Union employees,.....merely to avoid ..."infecting"....a non-Union facility.

C'mon , Brother! Even though I'm retired, I'm not out of the loop! You're thinking "last decade",......and that style of thought might have been ....valid......10 years ago. Nowadays,....the non-Union companies would jump at hiring out of the increasingly shrinking pool of available experienced LTL drivers..........look at how FedEx and OD hoovered up all the YRC drivers that left because of their pay cut.

I've had a saying for the last five years,.......and in my grey wisdom and dotage,.......I will impart it to you..........No Charge.....

" You Can't Teach LTL Freight........You can LEARN it,....but You Can't TEACH it."......... And it takes about five years before you become reasonably proficient to where you're actually making the company money on the street,....regardless of how much "driving" experience you have.

Truck "drivers" think that the money is made sitting behind the wheel. LTL drivers know the money is made in the box behind the cab,....and that the driving part is a sideline to your LTL job. I have yet to see an.....LTL...."training facility".........

LTL companies NEED you to hit the ground running from Day One of employment......Therefore LTL companies,....Union or non-Union,.....will hire ANY experienced guy,....and turn a blind eye to his Union membership.

What do you think, Brother?
 
The only non union LTL company that didn't call me when I was looking to leave ABF was Saia. With the "driver shortage" most companies have had to be a lot less picky than they have in the past and will snatch up just about anyone with any sort of LTL experience.

Best of luck to all of you in the negotiations this time round.
 
I know where you're coming from, Rollin,......you think that non-Union recruiters would deliberately ignore Union employees,.....merely to avoid ..."infecting"....a non-Union facility.

C'mon , Brother! Even though I'm retired, I'm not out of the loop! You're thinking "last decade",......and that style of thought might have been ....valid......10 years ago. Nowadays,....the non-Union companies would jump at hiring out of the increasingly shrinking pool of available experienced LTL drivers..........look at how FedEx and OD hoovered up all the YRC drivers that left because of their pay cut.

I've had a saying for the last five years,.......and in my grey wisdom and dotage,.......I will impart it to you..........No Charge.....

" You Can't Teach LTL Freight........You can LEARN it,....but You Can't TEACH it."......... And it takes about five years before you become reasonably proficient to where you're actually making the company money on the street,....regardless of how much "driving" experience you have.

Truck "drivers" think that the money is made sitting behind the wheel. LTL drivers know the money is made in the box behind the cab,....and that the driving part is a sideline to your LTL job. I have yet to see an.....LTL...."training facility".........

LTL companies NEED you to hit the ground running from Day One of employment......Therefore LTL companies,....Union or non-Union,.....will hire ANY experienced guy,....and turn a blind eye to his Union membership.

What do you think, Brother?
About five years to become proficient sounds about right.

Kind of makes the argument for driving ( CDL driving ) to be a skilled trade.
 
Hah!........ABF ought to be worried if they let all their available driving talent stand in a group outside the gates of an idled facility.

Every trucking company recruiter in the area would be circling that bunch of guys like vultures.......

If ABF takes an obstinate and ignorant position,........the TM can look out the window and watch his labor force melt away.

The stupidest thing ArcBest could do is a lockout......The drivers and dock workers would be employed within minutes........while the TM would have to learn to play solitaire until bankruptcy.......
Don't forget the business that will be lost. Those companies will be calling the competition to move their freight. Those salesmen will be chasing that freight like lawyers chasing clients after a wreck.
 
Don't forget the business that will be lost. Those companies will be calling the competition to move their freight. Those salesmen will be chasing that freight like lawyers chasing clients after a wreck.
That’s what you call leverage. If ArcBest wants out of the LTL business a “lockout” would almost make that certain. ArcBest better know what they want because even I know what they will get with a “lockout.”
 
After the last major Teamsters strike in 1994, the parent company Roadway Services spun off Roadway Express as a debt free company. Roadway Services like ArcBest was founded and built from the profits of the original profitable LTL carrier. Roadway Express in one case and ABF in the other. After the spin off of Roadway Express, Roadway Services became Caliper. Caliper floundered and their various trunklines were shut down or sold off. Roadway Express continued to prospered before and after the Roush family sold the company. Could history soon be repeating itself with ArkBest and ABF?
 
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At the end of the day, the driver shortage is real.

The fact that I got hired by Brown off the STREET is proof of that.

******* it, I'm hoping you guys get through this not just unscathed, but prosperously.
LTL companies these days have dock to driver programs. Most dock workers are lined up for these programs because of the additional money drivers get. Here at SAIA we get many of our drivers from these programs and the turnover is very low. Things are different these days in recruiting because of the driver shortage. LTL companies have been forced to be creative and its working very well. You can be hired off the street these days but it’s becoming less necessary. Things are changing. And it’s not necessarily a good thing.
 
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