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ABF | Starting pay

5NC.Canes said:
That would be me lol 28 years old and a Road driver for UPSF been one going on four years now but I know exactly what you mean
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Hang in there and you'll be top man there for a long, long time.
 
I was chatting with a local ABF er the other day and he told me to go apply for an opening that they have. I checked the website and it's for a casual job. No thanks. Getting yanked around and wondering if I'm going to work each day doesn't fit my busy schedule.
 
And we've been telling management that. This is the Twenty-First century, not the Twentieth,.....
Or the Nineteenth. If you want quality people, you have to make a commitment to them......If you want casuals, with a casual attitude toward work, or their appearance, or life in general, by all means, hire casuals. Maybe you'll casually go out of business. I've got two sons that drive truck, and I don't want them to come here,....they are better than casuals, and deserve better.
 
Northern Flash said:
I was chatting with a local ABF er the other day and he told me to go apply for an opening that they have. I checked the website and it's for a casual job. No thanks. Getting yanked around and wondering if I'm going to work each day doesn't fit my busy schedule.
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They call them all casual positions at first. You should check with the TM to see if it's full time with no vacation for two years and no sick days 'til 2016.
 
Local management has the ability to supersede the casual language and go straight to new-hire. I guess it all depends on how tight the labor market is in your area, and whether the manager is still stuck in the ancient mind-set. The last 3 guys we hired went on as new-hires immediately. One guy still resigned, though,....mainly over the vacation issue. He got on with a tanker company that paid more by the hour and gave him immediate personal days and a week's vacation after a year.
 
So the local mgt. has some say in what classification you become. Hmmmmm.:1036316054:

But that vacation and lack of paid time off thing stinks.
From what I'm hearing in the LTL industry, it's feast or famine. At most companies the line haul guys are working 14 hours a day (70 hours) and making 100K per year, and the city guys are lucky to get 50 hours per week and making 55K per year. Geez. The companies all want city drivers, but think that they can treat them like crap and they'll still stay. Well at 55K a year, most city people aren't going to put up with much crap, especially when the company down the street pays just as much.
It's a driver's market right now, there are jobs everywhere.
 
Northern Flash said:
So the local mgt. has some say in what classification you become. Hmmmmm.:1036316054:

But that vacation and lack of paid time off thing stinks.
From what I'm hearing in the LTL industry, it's feast or famine. At most companies the line haul guys are working 14 hours a day (70 hours) and making 100K per year, and the city guys are lucky to get 50 hours per week and making 55K per year. Geez. The companies all want city drivers, but think that they can treat them like crap and they'll still stay. Well at 55K a year, most city people aren't going to put up with much crap, especially when the company down the street pays just as much.
It's a driver's market right now, there are jobs everywhere.
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When you use the word 'classification' I assume you are referring to 'casual' or ' immediately probationary' and yes local management has say in it. But that won't stop them from lying to you and telling you that they can't do that, we had one here who would do that. The shortage of drivers has road drivers working all the laws will permit and one downside to those jobs is you have to work it. And the hours the city guys are getting will vary greatly based on location.
 
Back when the "casual" language first surfaced, at my former employer, the TM tried to get me to go there as a casual and quit my full time job to do it. I laughed at him and told him "no way" and left the interview thinking that it was over with. Three days later he called me back and said that he had a full time job for me after all. lol

I didn't know if they still had any say in that type of decision or not. Sometimes the pencil pushers at corporate have rules that are set in stone. But I know that I'd never quit a full time job to become a casual at a different company.
 
Northern Flash said:
Back when the "casual" language first surfaced, at my former employer, the TM tried to get me to go there as a casual and quit my full time job to do it. I laughed at him and told him "no way" and left the interview thinking that it was over with. Three days later he called me back and said that he had a full time job for me after all. lol

I didn't know if they still had any say in that type of decision or not. Sometimes the pencil pushers at corporate have rules that are set in stone. But I know that I'd never quit a full time job to become a casual at a different company.
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The last several guys hired here went STRAIGHT to full time, they didn't even go through the probationary period. They waived that when they got desperate for drivers and had several Holland drivers wanting to come over but didn't want to take the risk of a minor accident putting them on the street.
 
Sorry to interrupt but my local in Tulsa wants me to go to YRC, he said they will start me with a seniority date right away, I'm really thinking about it, part of me thinks I should go to ABF, or try, instead. I have been out of freight of 8 yrs or so, never worked for a union freight outfit, only AF/FXF, FXF ruined me on the industry, thats when I went back to Foodservice.

What do you guys think?
 
I'd stay away from anything YRC myself. If you're really a glutton for freight punishment ABF is as good as it gets on the union side unless there is some sort of local outfit in your area that pays the full ante and is a healthy company. What's your story on pension where you are? And would Tulsa be in the Central States Pension Fund? You might even want to go non-union if they are. The Teamsters don't have a lot to offer a driver these days.
 
ABFer said:
I'd stay away from anything YRC myself. If you're really a glutton for freight punishment ABF is as good as it gets on the union side unless there is some sort of local outfit in your area that pays the full ante and is a healthy company. What's your story on pension where you are? And would Tulsa be in the Central States Pension Fund? You might even want to go non-union if they are. The Teamsters don't have a lot to offer a driver these days.
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Yes we would be covered under CSPF, I don't want to go non union, been there and done that with FXF, I want work rules, I love my union and want to remain a part of it, just getting to old to work 65 hrs a week throwing groceries. Here in the area we have YRC, ABF, and UPSF, the latter makes alot at top pay but I'm told they are hard to work for, at my age I want the least amount of BS that I can get, I have a pension at Sysco, at 5 yrs I can draw it at 62, 10 yrs at 55, I figure if I'm gonna change it best be now, I'm turning 48 soon.
 
grocerythrower said:
Yes we would be covered under CSPF, I don't want to go non union, been there and done that with FXF, I want work rules, I love my union and want to remain a part of it, just getting to old to work 65 hrs a week throwing groceries. Here in the area we have YRC, ABF, and UPSF, the latter makes alot at top pay but I'm told they are hard to work for, at my age I want the least amount of BS that I can get, I have a pension at Sysco, at 5 yrs I can draw it at 62, 10 yrs at 55, I figure if I'm gonna change it best be now, I'm turning 48 soon.
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Well then...if you feel you must I would reluctantly recommend ABF for the following reasons.
1) They are paying the full amount into the pension fund, which is in poor health there for YRC and ABF.
2) YRC is still a struggling questionable company and ABF is getting rich on our last contract.
3) From what I have seen and heard ABF is hands down a better run company. But you will not like the trend towards residential deliveries of anything and everything Amazon, Costo et al.
4) ABF has better uniforms. :hysterical:
 
Thanks Brother!

Edit 3 hrs later: Residential deliveries would be a cake walk compared to what I do now, I could do that ::shit:: all day long and then some.
 
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