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FedEx Freight | Road vs City

BumpDraft said:
Thinking about going from the road to the city, I have a day bid now but the interstate driving is absolutely horrible anymore. You can't even get from point A to point B without taking a alternate route to get around a crash or construction. The road is just not enjoyable anymore it has changed big time. It's very stressful and boring. It's a tough decision, but I'm at a time in my life where I don't need the big money anymore. What do you guys think?
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if you dont need big money, just take what will make you and your family happiest
 
Jeff said:
17 years city (2 companies) 14 years road...

I always enjoyed city work until they started giving the hard chargers (like me) 16 deliveries every day and the slackers 4 or 5

Switched to road , when it's good it's great but when it's bad it gets worse.

Road Construction every 15 miles and loud beeping trucks and bad bad drivers, worse than ever, especially truck drivers
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A road opportunity popped up in my center this week. After the day I had on Friday, 8 skids of 2K each off a liftgate into a storage unit, I'm considering it. Hate driving at night though.
 
Just think, as a road driver, you get less traffic, dont have to deal with customers, or liftgates, and barely see management at your home terminal.

The driving at night is a bit annoying, simply due to our tractors having the worst headlight design in the industry. (brand new headlights in a volvo barely reach a truck length ahead of you).
 
Loucifer said:
Just think, as a road driver, you get less traffic, dont have to deal with customers, or liftgates, and barely see management at your home terminal.

The driving at night is a bit annoying, simply due to our tractors having the worst headlight design in the industry. (brand new headlights in a volvo barely reach a truck length ahead of you).
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Agreed, there are many advantages to driving at night vs daytime...and yes, the headlights SUCK out loud!! During the last spec meeting drivers requested we bring back the driving lights like Watkins had to help with visibility at night and in the fog and it was shot down pretty quick!!
So much for “SAFETY FIRST”!!
 
Just get some of those awesome Amazon LED direct replacement bulbs!

I've been daylight road for awhile now and frankly, I miss my couple decades of being a night driver...
 
My second driving job, was driving for a dairy processor. 1100 cases of milk a night off the 45’ into bobtail trucks. Good workout for a guy in his late twenties. Went to a freight company for five years, on the dock. Lots of hand freight. More good workout. They didn’t survive deregulation. Went to food service. No lift gate, 20 stops a day and 18000 lbs a day all by hand. So at the ripe old age of 35 said screw this and got a real job.
Line driver for Viking Freight, 27 years later, best decision I/we ever made. Only took 19 years to be the junior guy on days.
 
Richard Cranium said:
My second driving job, was driving for a dairy processor. 1100 cases of milk a night off the 45’ into bobtail trucks. Good workout for a guy in his late twenties. Went to a freight company for five years, on the dock. Lots of hand freight. More good workout. They didn’t survive deregulation. Went to food service. No lift gate, 20 stops a day and 18000 lbs a day all by hand. So at the ripe old age of 35 said screw this and got a real job.
Line driver for Viking Freight, 27 years later, best decision I/we ever made. Only took 19 years to be the junior guy on days.
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And THAT is what made RC & Co. the pillar(s) of the community, they are today. :1036316054:
 
Crazy Trucker said:
I would stick with Road for the simple reason you will go to bottom of city board and have to do all the crappy stuff like a newbie.
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I've been here 20 years, I'm number 17 out of 75 or so on the board, I get sort and segregate food warehouses regularly. I also drive a 14 year old truck. Guts here for just 3 years get a new truck, and a cushy peddle route. Refuse to pull overweight loads, take a stand for safety, you get punished. Keep your mouth closed, talk sports with dispatchers, you get treated like gold. When we bid, we don't choose trucks or routes. Management determines who drives what and goes where. It's shame. We have a new center manager, but I'm not holding my breath on things changing. Dispatchers have been doing this for 15 years, it's going to be hard to change them.
 
skippy said:
I've been here 20 years, I'm number 17 out of 75 or so on the board, I get sort and segregate food warehouses regularly. I also drive a 14 year old truck. Guts here for just 3 years get a new truck, and a cushy peddle route. Refuse to pull overweight loads, take a stand for safety, you get punished. Keep your mouth closed, talk sports with dispatchers, you get treated like gold. When we bid, we don't choose trucks or routes. Management determines who drives what and goes where. It's shame. We have a new center manager, but I'm not holding my breath on things changing. Dispatchers have been doing this for 15 years, it's going to be hard to change them.
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You need to say where you're at so we don't go there.

I know my Center wouldn't put up with this stuff. If it's overweight rework it or get a twin-screw. Though it would be nice if they'd just load it properly to begin with. We're not forced to pull it if overweight.

Bids are for times and trucks are by seniority. Other than that, from what I've seen, routes are by seniority and are mostly adhered to.
 
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