breeze, I worked at both and that"s a fact. The Big R was the big dog but Ryder was the better job. Even when we merged with P.I.E it was still a better job.
Roadway Express 75 Years of Service
- Thread starter Jeff
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I worked my last 20 years with Roadway and it became a lot better job than it was when I worked at Lazy J and Ryder. Back in the 70's when it got slow Roadway was always looking for casual drivers and nobody wanted to go there. They thought nothing about putting 40 deliveries on one of them orange tin can 12'6'' trailers and then tried to give you pick ups to do in the afternoon.
The good thing about Ryder is they didn't hold you to the 3 trip crap, I ran many 2-trip weeks.
We thought them that nitpicking warning letters cost more than their worth, so that wasn't a problem
Back in the pill-popping days some of our dispatchers were worse than our drivers.
How about 35' round nose trailers?
Yep, and do away with the ribbed sides.
And steel wheels on the dolly legs and no maxi brakes. Make sure to connect the air lines before hooking or else!
I ain't giving you a like on this until I clear it with Slave.
They also manufactured clutches. It was called Lipe 'rollaway'. It did compete for a while with Spicer. The adjustment was a spanner nut type. Spicer had too much of a foothold in the industry & eventually won out. A lot of Internationals especially dump trucks had the 5 speed & Brownie for off road. I liked having the ability to keep the engine in the peak torque range. The low, low was great to start moving a rig with a heavy load on a hill from a stop.
At first on the busy days I would work through my breaks and take a short lunch to get the job done.They thought nothing about putting 40 deliveries on one of them orange tin can 12'6'' trailers and then tried to give you pick ups to do in the afternoon.
On slower days I would take my breaks and a full lunch and get the job done.
So one day the terminal manager wants to talk to me. How come on the busy days you get 30 stops off in eight hours and on the slower days it takes you eight hours to get 20 stops off?
So I told him how I would operate. His reply was, the way you operate on the busy days, that's how we expect you to operate every day of the week.
From that point on every day of the week I took my breaks and lunch.
Never heard another word about this from the terminal manager.
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There are management types in the shop with the same mentality. Sometimes a job goes well & sometimes the same job takes longer regardless how hard you work. Usually it is a young, green on the job foreman that has to be trained about expecting men to jump when he walks through the shop.
I loved breaking in a new shop foreman.
It didn't take long for him to learn to switch out a tractor or make repairs.
Anybody who has done P&D will work his day out to benefit himself. You are the captain of your ship. If the TM doesn't appreciate the job you are doing and questions your way of operating he is the one who will suffer. Some managers never learn to leave well enough alone. That's how us P&D drivers make extra money, it's called pay back time, OT baby. I always told my dispatchers and TM'S if you don't like the job I am doing on my route give it to somebody else and see what gets done. Strangely enough that didn't happen once in my 40 years.
That's why they were successful, they weren't afraid to: A. Lay the law down with discipline. (I sometimes felt like I was in the military) good life lessons, none the less.I worked my last 20 years with Roadway and it became a lot better job than it was when I worked at Lazy J and Ryder. Back in the 70's when it got slow Roadway was always looking for casual drivers and nobody wanted to go there. They thought nothing about putting 40 deliveries on one of them orange tin can 12'6'' trailers and then tried to give you pick ups to do in the afternoon.
B. The management was well run.
drv.forman
TB Lurker
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it was a harder nosed work envirionment.. in LH used to fight over every click.. a guy at the clock , we were like punch it driver.. I got 6 mins to get you out lets go.. dont have time for this :
: ! you did not have guys chatting it up on the dock. it was like WTF ya doing lets go. .. you slammed the lanes and they checked out units to make sure they were good........ again lets go
: ! you did not have guys chatting it up on the dock. it was like WTF ya doing lets go. .. you slammed the lanes and they checked out units to make sure they were good........ again lets go
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it was a harder nosed work envirionment.. in LH used to fight over every click.. a guy at the clock , we were like punch it driver.. I got 6 mins to get you out lets go.. dont have time for this :::
Watch those digits! I did a couple of stints in the yard as a break from LH, if they caught you talking to another jockey it was "theft of time".
At the early age of 14, I always thought Roadway was the place I wanted to work.
I think I would have had a very short career.
I'm glad I chose this outfit. 
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Breezer, I think you would have benefited from Roadway, you needed some severe discipline.
You're probably right, Ryder was an easy place to work.
You had to screw up big time to get in trouble.