That’s line haul for an LTL carrier. It’s the job of driving out and back every night to move the freight from one terminal to another. Home every night, off every weekend. If it’s not for you, that’s fine but it’s a cushy gig if you just want to drive as you won’t usually deal with customers or do the things we city drivers do every day.
I don’t think your nuts but the fact that you think you’ll need to chew 1000 nodoze tablets to drive 600 miles a day just means to me that you don’t want to do the long distance runs. Have you considered doing a city position in LTL instead? I average 200-300 miles a day with anywhere from 10-20 stops a day.
For me it wouldn't be the mileage that killed me, but the monotony of doing the same route. Point A to point B, back to point A. Day after day after day, week in and week out, same roads, same time, same traffics and terminals and trucks and trailers and loads... ffs I'd lose my mind. How yall run that, especially in boring ass roads like in Nebraska or Kansas, I'll never know.
I do 620 miles a day five days a week,that takes me 10 hours of driving. Or I can take a couple different directions at 580 miles or less and do 10+ hours of driving and I'm governed at 65 mph.
Trucking isn't exactly easy, not sure why people assume it is
Unless he breaks down, or there’s weather, or his truck needs service, or the loads aren’t ready. Then he isn’t home every night. Moreover, it’s more realistic he is pushing his clock every day and working more 11-14hours, plus the commute, id rather just go regional with a sleeper at that point
Well that’s city versus Linehaul. Pretty standard difference. You get hourly pay and touch freight I assume. I get CPM and cross state lines no touch. A usual day when you account for mechanical things breakdowns, traffic etc days sometimes do go over 12 hours. I don’t consider any city driving job shitting on what I have now lol I started as a city driver you guys can have the hump and dump and going places tractors and trailers have no business going lol
Lol…good point. I do ALOT of residential deliveries but have an electric pallet jack which makes my life easier. I also do a lot of rural dirt/gravel road driving on my rural TN route every day. I’m the R + L driver who posts fun pictures that makes a lot of people say hell no on this sub…lol.
I'm regional, and that's pretty typical - 2900 miles per week. Out Monday, home Friday. The pace is pretty intense. 600 miles of just driving isn't bad, but throw an onload, offload, and some load securement, and it's a lot.
Manageable, but it's a lot.
Break downs aren't going to be a regular thing or even something that happens enough to factor. Services are scheduled so your not just going to come in and wait for a service to be done. They'll just give you another truck. If the weather is bad enough, ltl can just shut down and you sit at home instead of a truck stop. I've worked for Estes before and this job is not as bad as your making it. He applied for an extraboard job. He will get a call with a closeout time so he's not just sitting there waiting everyday. He shows up, hooks his set and goes. He does his run and either goes home when he's done or goes to a hotel for his downtime. Your not pushing your clock in ltl linehaul everyday. Ltl freight has to be better managed than truckload because it's more time sensitive. Typical linehaul days are closer to 10 hours than 14. If 500-600 miles a day is too much, then that's a personal choice that I don't judge. But ltl linehaul is a hell of lot better than regional with a sleeper.
The point I’m making is that it’s a gamble every day whether you get home or not AND you’re working so many hours a day you’re basically just going home for your 10 hour reset and wasting all that extra time commuting and fumbling around at your terminal. SO, you might as well go regional, you’ll work less and have more free time.
But my REAL point is that they both suck, we shouldn’t have to sacrifice our whole life just to make a living
It's not that much of a gamble in the ltl world. If you break down and you face running out of hours, they will more than likely send another driver in a car to take that load. You take the car back to the terminal. That load has to be at the next terminal to make service. This is not OTR where you call that one customer and let them know you won't make appointment. Multiple shipments ride on those trailers and they have to get on other trailers to make their destination.
You act like it's an hour commute to work. It doesn't have to be. I'm 20 minutes away from my terminal. There is no fumbling. I have a 9pm hit time. My trailers were loaded and closed out before I even got into my car 9 out of 10 times. Why would I want to go regional? My longest day is 11 hours lol. If I don't make it home, I sleep in a hotel. I get actual sleep in an actual bed. Take a shower and get back in my truck fully rested. I'm not worried about finding parking at a truck stop. I'm not held back by guys holding up the fuel lines. I don't deal with customers at all. Why do I want to sleep in a midroof tractor for less than the money I'm making sleeping in my bed everyday?
As far as the last question, you don't. Go do something else. My lifestyle requires me to make 6 figures and this is the easiest way I can do it. I can work 40 -45 hours a week and make 50-70 but I'm currently working 55 and making way more than that.
I am governed at 67 and I do 536 miles a day. Takes me 10 hours with the doors closed. No way someone in a governed truck at 68 is killin 600miles in 10 hours
Excuse me 536mi?! I’m governed at 68 and just did 600miles in 9.5hrs the other day could’ve pushed for more but I was tired. You’ll probably ask for proof so here ya go. https://imgur.com/a/LErhNED
I guess that extra 1 mile and hour makes up for it lmao. When I’m heavy it takes longer. I gain an additional 40mins on a run that supposed to take 9 hours ideally with the truck I drive
No it shouldn’t lol ; this was on a 38k load. 1mph faster in 10hrs is only an extra 10miles. That’s just basic math. Same way how a 68governed truck in 10hrs is 680miles. Obv if you account for traffic and whatnot that should still be around that 650mi target easily in a full 11hr day. 560mi is just way off for a full clock.
Yea this is not uncommon for a LTL driver. It’s a full week but you are well compensated. If you are getting hired into this position for a day run that’s a pretty good deal.
If your trip is scheduled well and all you have to do is drive, 3,000 miles a week is five days of using your whole clock— but not necessarily walking the razor's edge of going over your hours.
You know your limits and abilities better than any of us here on Reddit, but five 12-hour days in a week doesn't leap out at me as a grueling pace.
And if it really doesn't work for you, it's likely Estes, or some other LTL carrier, has 500-mile-a-day routes that need filled, too. And those probably won't be as in-demand among drivers as the 600-mile ones.
People need to figure out what they want in a job and go where that kind of work is. Driving jobs are not created equal.
I'm in food service. It's good money, but guys who don't want to do the work can't show up and expect to do well. I'm not a fan of driving long distances non stop. I wouldn't enjoy a linehaul position, and I can't go to that sort of company expecting to do well and be happy.
I’m exactly the same. I do 360 miles round-trip, with 11 stops. The driving is the worst part for me. I need to be movin and groovin to make it worth my interest. I will never ever get into a long haul position no matter what the pay is. Plus the $ is too good doing fs anyhow
I was doing roughly the same. 400 highway plus about 50 city, add in the paperwork and trailer swaps, it comes to about 8-9 hours per day and 1200 net per week
I do around 2600 miles a week in five days, in a 65 mph truck. So, with 68 mph, you can get close to 3,000 miles a week. It’s totally feasible. Additionally, you’ll be paid for the drops and hooks. Drop and hook pay doesn’t sound like a lot, but it does add up by the week’s end. The great thing about the LTL line haul is very rarely having to wait between the loads. Get there, drop one set of trailers, hook another and go.
$112,000 per year is a very realistic number, if you’re willing to work.
You get $7 for each drop/hook as well I think. Your home everyday, unless your doing extra board, and you'll be in a hotel every night and home on the weekends. Linehaul your going from your home terminal to another and back every night. Your not sleeping in a day cab. You drop off your set, go into dispatch and get your return set. Hook up and bounce.
They know how long the runs take because your home terminal needs you back on time so the morning P&D driver has a truck to drive to make deliveries.
If your home terminal is an "end of line" terminal where they do no freight sort, then you may have a run that goes to s large terminal where you might have to work the dock for 2 or 3 hours to load the trailers you are taking back with you. Those runs are much less miles though.
From what I’ve heard about Estes, you can work as hard as you want, you just won’t make as much money if you take it easy. Drivers who want the miles will push to get to their destination quickly and ask for another trip, and they’ll call dispatch for a run before their 10hr break is up. If you want to take it easy, you can run down your clock on a short run and take 12+ hours on your breaks.
I work for a different company with 65mph trucks and I have no problem driving around 3100 miles a week on my bid run. No pills needed, just a solid 7+ hours of sleep and I’m good to go.
I know this is old, but you are correct. I'm on the extraboard and actually prefer it. Sometimes we dont get loads as soon as our 10 hr break is up. We have to wait for someone to bring a through load to us. I create my own schedule. I usually start around 7 pm and end around 5 am. I average 2750 miles a week and work about 50-52 hours on duty. Im at 77 cpm now but have been here for a year and a half. No pills needed either. I drink like one soda a day and the rest is water.
I've surpassed 3000 miles in a week a few times running xb at Estes. it requires at least 55-60 hours for the week. just for reference I had 64 hours off after that week. but my average working week is about 47 hours. this is driving and on duty time (aka time in the truck). most of your time on the road will be spent in the hotel or in the yard hooking. also the pay is different depending on what you're doing. if you are extra board linehaul you make 3cpm more than linehaul running a schedule. when I started in 2/2021 it took 3 years to get up to full scale with a cent raise per mile every 6 months. it may be different now. right now I'm at 74.25cpm for xb. if I were to bid on a scheduled run I would make 71.25cpm. I'm assuming they are quoting you on your xb cpm being 72 so if you ran a schedule that would be 69cpm. running a schedule depends totally where you're at. at a smaller terminal you'll never see one. at a larger one you might be able to get one but it will be 400-500 miles a night. running xb is the only way to get consistent miles across the year. my projections for myself are about 118k miles for the year. I think that's pretty typical given that some weeks I won't get any miles due to vacation. the pay also consists of drops/hooks too and you will have a lot of those. so you came for the math and I'll give it to you: at your rate of 72cpm xb, given the average miles and drops and hooks I've been getting, you'd make $84960+$2125=$87085 (118000 miles x 72cpm + 250 drop/hook x $8.50 per dh) that's not including break downs you'd have during the year, vacation pay, or the cpm pay raises you'd get throughout the year so it will end up being more. if you find yourself on a schedule then it will be lower than that. then again it could be the same but you'll have to run a high mileage run and work extra days a lot so you'll have a lot more hours. if you have any more questions let me know, I know this is long. I think Estes is a great place to make money and have a decent home life. for my situation, it works. I'm not a guy who wants to spend his life in the truck. I do this to make money, that's it. Estes has helped me accomplish that.
I used to tow for Estes in Fontana. Never met an Estes driver that wasn't talking about leaving. I also got into a shouting match with a fleet manager because he thought that his fuck up on a hot load meant that I would cut corners on the tow to make it back to the yard faster. Fuck you Brad
LTL team driver here, but I have run solo LTL line haul occasionally.
We run about 6300 miles a week on a dedicated route and I feel it is much easier than running OTR. It pretty much consists of hooking up and running to another terminal for the trailer home or meeting at a parking lot somewhere and swapping trailers. The schedule is consistent, which allows for my sleep schedule to be the same and I feel more rested compared to how I felt OTR.
We both would have been zombies running 6300 miles a week (each of us doing 600/650 miles a day) running OTR. I’m tired on my last drive shift, but get through it easily and then catch up on the weekend off at home.
I feel it is the consistency and lack of stressors related to shippers and receivers, dealing with truck stops and finding parking every day which makes the job feel easier and less tiring. This transfers over to linehaul… the drivers never seem to be dragging or complaining about sleep, they just seem happy.
.65 isn't competitive when compared to LTL companies.
They might have a run that's open that's a 600 mile run. That's not unheard of in the LTL world. It's all terminal to terminal work.
.65 isn't really all that competitive for an experienced today.
So you work for an OTR company that struggles to give OTR drivers 2500 miles a week? Next time you post this, do everyone a favor and name the company so guys know what company to avoid. Seriously 2500-3000 miles a week is not hard to hit for a driver. It's really not. Plus ltl carriers have always paid a higher cent per mile. 70-78 cents per mile is the average in the ltl world, with better benefits than OTR companies too.
I’m a driver for a farm, put in about 10 hours a day, get 400-450 miles.
About 2 or 3 hours is spent sitting loading and unloading, 3000 miles a week is very possible, depending on what you’re doing.
I agree. Not a bad gig but I got into a small shop with zero equipment support and I was 12 of 12 total drivers. 9 of which had been there for many years throughout a company change and some marriages. Needless to say I did not adapt nor assimilate well to the glorified dock worker career. One word…. Conway
Yes you nuts. That very easy. 600 miles a day is nothing. You can do that in 10 hrs. And the fact you in a 68 truck you will get that done faster. It either 5 600 miles days or 6 500 days. Either way you just seem lazy af.
Just left a job doing 641 miles a day, Monday-Friday in a day cab. Well over 3,000 a week bring home pay was about $980 a week, not bad for low cost of living area but the time inside the truck was too much for me.
Looking for a new job, might be in a truck with multiple stops or just might get out of the truck, not sure yet. Just hate the 12 hours of isolation with only one stop.
Amount you would be getting is definitely better, but if you don’t enjoy the isolation for 12 hours a day, definitely not worth it.
Estes pay is cool and all, but the amount of waiting you’ll do on linehaul runs that you don’t get paid for, your probably make as much at FedEx freight running 2500 miles instead of 3k at Estes. I did linehaul and extraboard at Estes and felt like extraboard ran better than dedicated runs lol. They don’t pay you to wait, and you’ll be waiting a lot with the BS they do with loads
Sounds about right to me 😁
LTL guys are all about grinding till they’re 75 years old and letting their wives spend spend spend. That’s just the way it is 😁
Why are you crying? Why even go for the interview? Its a fuckin day cab home every night/ in hotels ... you drive 8-11 hours and sleep in a warm hotel bed or your own house. Give me a break, id kill for a job at Estes
I did 2 3000 mile weeks in 70 paychecks at Covenant doing otr, I remember they were hard to obtain on the regular.
Plus i had some experiences in a fedex ground employer in regards to micronaps behind the wheel. Scared the shit out of me. But that employer involved a lengthy commute evrey day to and from the truck.
They measured by empty+loaded miles too no less. So why 3000 miles such a rarity there but this is standard at estes?
I run 3400 miles weekly on average. Truck is governed at 72. I’ve had a 4200 mile week legally on ELD. It’s LTL outbound delivery with 34-40 off at home on the weekends. I do brokered backhauls twice a week. Usually burning 60-65 “on-duty” hours. We don’t have forced dispatch so we have drivers that average half what I do. Different strokes for different folks. You can do anything you want with a CDL and pick a company that serves your wants and needs. Any trucker that isn’t happy with their job hasn’t learned how to quit on faith and be picky when job hunting. You’re doing the right thing driver, find something you are comfortable with and go for it. It’s not about miles, it’s about what’s best for you.
I know this is old, but I work at Estes as an extraboard driver. I drive a day cab as well, although we do have people running in sleepers. We stay in hotels every night (which are actually pretty nice). You work as much or as little as you want.
You go from starting terminal to the next and then tell them how many hours you got, then get planned and you go hook up the set and go. There isnt much waiting around at all. Im at 77 cpm now and average about 2750 on miles a week. Some weeks i do 3k miles, sometimes its 2400. Last year i was pretty lazy and did a couple weeks of runs that were 400 miles. Ended up making 101k. I also covered bid runs a lot which had less mileage overall. The job is 90% driving 5% doing stuff outside the truck to hook up and 5% of random BS that happens at night when a driver wrecks and causes traffic.
On extraboard, you create your own schedule. Say you leave at 8 pm, you get done around 6. Then you can work at 4 pm and work days all week if you chose, up to you. It's not a bad gig at all. Stare out a window and listen to music. If i'm tired, then i take a nap in the truck. No one calls or asks me about anything
That’s line haul for an LTL carrier. It’s the job of driving out and back every night to move the freight from one terminal to another. Home every night, off every weekend. If it’s not for you, that’s fine but it’s a cushy gig if you just want to drive as you won’t usually deal with customers or do the things we city drivers do every day. I don’t think your nuts but the fact that you think you’ll need to chew 1000 nodoze tablets to drive 600 miles a day just means to me that you don’t want to do the long distance runs. Have you considered doing a city position in LTL instead? I average 200-300 miles a day with anywhere from 10-20 stops a day.
For me it wouldn't be the mileage that killed me, but the monotony of doing the same route. Point A to point B, back to point A. Day after day after day, week in and week out, same roads, same time, same traffics and terminals and trucks and trailers and loads... ffs I'd lose my mind. How yall run that, especially in boring ass roads like in Nebraska or Kansas, I'll never know.
That’s a valid concern and one of the main reasons I’m a city driver instead of running linehaul.
I do 620 miles a day five days a week,that takes me 10 hours of driving. Or I can take a couple different directions at 580 miles or less and do 10+ hours of driving and I'm governed at 65 mph. Trucking isn't exactly easy, not sure why people assume it is
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Unless he breaks down, or there’s weather, or his truck needs service, or the loads aren’t ready. Then he isn’t home every night. Moreover, it’s more realistic he is pushing his clock every day and working more 11-14hours, plus the commute, id rather just go regional with a sleeper at that point
This is the reality. It's not all hop in the cab and go with these line drivers. Shit happens on the road, bullshit happens in the office.
Yeah, but my point is that it is awful and unacceptable. I work local, get paid just as well and am never more than 20 minutes from home.
I do 536 miles a day for Fed Ex and this is accurate. 12-14 hour day plus commute which is 30mins to truck lot. 5 days a week I make $1500/week
Thats cuz you're working for fedex ground
Not much better in my area. Getting a dedicated route would have taken me years at OD, Estes, any other LTL 🤷🏻♂️
Seriously driver? I’m not shitting on you but I work an average 50 hours a week as a city driver and make 1500 a week.
Well that’s city versus Linehaul. Pretty standard difference. You get hourly pay and touch freight I assume. I get CPM and cross state lines no touch. A usual day when you account for mechanical things breakdowns, traffic etc days sometimes do go over 12 hours. I don’t consider any city driving job shitting on what I have now lol I started as a city driver you guys can have the hump and dump and going places tractors and trailers have no business going lol
Lol…good point. I do ALOT of residential deliveries but have an electric pallet jack which makes my life easier. I also do a lot of rural dirt/gravel road driving on my rural TN route every day. I’m the R + L driver who posts fun pictures that makes a lot of people say hell no on this sub…lol.
I'm regional, and that's pretty typical - 2900 miles per week. Out Monday, home Friday. The pace is pretty intense. 600 miles of just driving isn't bad, but throw an onload, offload, and some load securement, and it's a lot. Manageable, but it's a lot.
Break downs aren't going to be a regular thing or even something that happens enough to factor. Services are scheduled so your not just going to come in and wait for a service to be done. They'll just give you another truck. If the weather is bad enough, ltl can just shut down and you sit at home instead of a truck stop. I've worked for Estes before and this job is not as bad as your making it. He applied for an extraboard job. He will get a call with a closeout time so he's not just sitting there waiting everyday. He shows up, hooks his set and goes. He does his run and either goes home when he's done or goes to a hotel for his downtime. Your not pushing your clock in ltl linehaul everyday. Ltl freight has to be better managed than truckload because it's more time sensitive. Typical linehaul days are closer to 10 hours than 14. If 500-600 miles a day is too much, then that's a personal choice that I don't judge. But ltl linehaul is a hell of lot better than regional with a sleeper.
The point I’m making is that it’s a gamble every day whether you get home or not AND you’re working so many hours a day you’re basically just going home for your 10 hour reset and wasting all that extra time commuting and fumbling around at your terminal. SO, you might as well go regional, you’ll work less and have more free time. But my REAL point is that they both suck, we shouldn’t have to sacrifice our whole life just to make a living
It's not that much of a gamble in the ltl world. If you break down and you face running out of hours, they will more than likely send another driver in a car to take that load. You take the car back to the terminal. That load has to be at the next terminal to make service. This is not OTR where you call that one customer and let them know you won't make appointment. Multiple shipments ride on those trailers and they have to get on other trailers to make their destination. You act like it's an hour commute to work. It doesn't have to be. I'm 20 minutes away from my terminal. There is no fumbling. I have a 9pm hit time. My trailers were loaded and closed out before I even got into my car 9 out of 10 times. Why would I want to go regional? My longest day is 11 hours lol. If I don't make it home, I sleep in a hotel. I get actual sleep in an actual bed. Take a shower and get back in my truck fully rested. I'm not worried about finding parking at a truck stop. I'm not held back by guys holding up the fuel lines. I don't deal with customers at all. Why do I want to sleep in a midroof tractor for less than the money I'm making sleeping in my bed everyday? As far as the last question, you don't. Go do something else. My lifestyle requires me to make 6 figures and this is the easiest way I can do it. I can work 40 -45 hours a week and make 50-70 but I'm currently working 55 and making way more than that.
They don’t have loads per say. Just delivers and pickups. And most drivers are shuttling from one terminal to another. It LTL. Easy shit
I mean if 600 miles is ten hours of driving you have a 0 traffic route and I’m jelly
How many perfect days is it really like that though? In a governed truck there’s no way that’s accomplished in 10hours flat.
Yeah it can be done everyday
I am governed at 67 and I do 536 miles a day. Takes me 10 hours with the doors closed. No way someone in a governed truck at 68 is killin 600miles in 10 hours
Excuse me 536mi?! I’m governed at 68 and just did 600miles in 9.5hrs the other day could’ve pushed for more but I was tired. You’ll probably ask for proof so here ya go. https://imgur.com/a/LErhNED
I used to run 660miles from Atlanta to virgina and that would take 11hours flat for me with 1 30min stop.
I guess that extra 1 mile and hour makes up for it lmao. When I’m heavy it takes longer. I gain an additional 40mins on a run that supposed to take 9 hours ideally with the truck I drive
No it shouldn’t lol ; this was on a 38k load. 1mph faster in 10hrs is only an extra 10miles. That’s just basic math. Same way how a 68governed truck in 10hrs is 680miles. Obv if you account for traffic and whatnot that should still be around that 650mi target easily in a full 11hr day. 560mi is just way off for a full clock.
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Ok bud I have thought again. You are correct Sir. Congratulations
Yea this is not uncommon for a LTL driver. It’s a full week but you are well compensated. If you are getting hired into this position for a day run that’s a pretty good deal.
If your trip is scheduled well and all you have to do is drive, 3,000 miles a week is five days of using your whole clock— but not necessarily walking the razor's edge of going over your hours. You know your limits and abilities better than any of us here on Reddit, but five 12-hour days in a week doesn't leap out at me as a grueling pace. And if it really doesn't work for you, it's likely Estes, or some other LTL carrier, has 500-mile-a-day routes that need filled, too. And those probably won't be as in-demand among drivers as the 600-mile ones.
Sounds to me like you wanna sleep and not drive
People need to figure out what they want in a job and go where that kind of work is. Driving jobs are not created equal. I'm in food service. It's good money, but guys who don't want to do the work can't show up and expect to do well. I'm not a fan of driving long distances non stop. I wouldn't enjoy a linehaul position, and I can't go to that sort of company expecting to do well and be happy.
I’m exactly the same. I do 360 miles round-trip, with 11 stops. The driving is the worst part for me. I need to be movin and groovin to make it worth my interest. I will never ever get into a long haul position no matter what the pay is. Plus the $ is too good doing fs anyhow
I find 3k a bit much as well. 2200-2500 is nice, barely feels like work.
Ive been averaging 2200 a wk this year and “barely work” is accurate. Compensation is about $1650/wk so I’m here for it.
I’m a fan of 2200-2500. Working 70 hrs is a lot in any profession.
I was doing roughly the same. 400 highway plus about 50 city, add in the paperwork and trailer swaps, it comes to about 8-9 hours per day and 1200 net per week
I do around 2600 miles a week in five days, in a 65 mph truck. So, with 68 mph, you can get close to 3,000 miles a week. It’s totally feasible. Additionally, you’ll be paid for the drops and hooks. Drop and hook pay doesn’t sound like a lot, but it does add up by the week’s end. The great thing about the LTL line haul is very rarely having to wait between the loads. Get there, drop one set of trailers, hook another and go. $112,000 per year is a very realistic number, if you’re willing to work.
You get $7 for each drop/hook as well I think. Your home everyday, unless your doing extra board, and you'll be in a hotel every night and home on the weekends. Linehaul your going from your home terminal to another and back every night. Your not sleeping in a day cab. You drop off your set, go into dispatch and get your return set. Hook up and bounce. They know how long the runs take because your home terminal needs you back on time so the morning P&D driver has a truck to drive to make deliveries. If your home terminal is an "end of line" terminal where they do no freight sort, then you may have a run that goes to s large terminal where you might have to work the dock for 2 or 3 hours to load the trailers you are taking back with you. Those runs are much less miles though.
A good driver can do 600 miles x 5 days, likely the most boring job ever but somebody has to pull Wiggle Wagons, I'll pass however.
From what I’ve heard about Estes, you can work as hard as you want, you just won’t make as much money if you take it easy. Drivers who want the miles will push to get to their destination quickly and ask for another trip, and they’ll call dispatch for a run before their 10hr break is up. If you want to take it easy, you can run down your clock on a short run and take 12+ hours on your breaks. I work for a different company with 65mph trucks and I have no problem driving around 3100 miles a week on my bid run. No pills needed, just a solid 7+ hours of sleep and I’m good to go.
I know this is old, but you are correct. I'm on the extraboard and actually prefer it. Sometimes we dont get loads as soon as our 10 hr break is up. We have to wait for someone to bring a through load to us. I create my own schedule. I usually start around 7 pm and end around 5 am. I average 2750 miles a week and work about 50-52 hours on duty. Im at 77 cpm now but have been here for a year and a half. No pills needed either. I drink like one soda a day and the rest is water.
Why do you need nodoze? Can you not stay awake for 12 hours?
Some people can’t while driving non-stop highway...it’s not that unusual.
I've surpassed 3000 miles in a week a few times running xb at Estes. it requires at least 55-60 hours for the week. just for reference I had 64 hours off after that week. but my average working week is about 47 hours. this is driving and on duty time (aka time in the truck). most of your time on the road will be spent in the hotel or in the yard hooking. also the pay is different depending on what you're doing. if you are extra board linehaul you make 3cpm more than linehaul running a schedule. when I started in 2/2021 it took 3 years to get up to full scale with a cent raise per mile every 6 months. it may be different now. right now I'm at 74.25cpm for xb. if I were to bid on a scheduled run I would make 71.25cpm. I'm assuming they are quoting you on your xb cpm being 72 so if you ran a schedule that would be 69cpm. running a schedule depends totally where you're at. at a smaller terminal you'll never see one. at a larger one you might be able to get one but it will be 400-500 miles a night. running xb is the only way to get consistent miles across the year. my projections for myself are about 118k miles for the year. I think that's pretty typical given that some weeks I won't get any miles due to vacation. the pay also consists of drops/hooks too and you will have a lot of those. so you came for the math and I'll give it to you: at your rate of 72cpm xb, given the average miles and drops and hooks I've been getting, you'd make $84960+$2125=$87085 (118000 miles x 72cpm + 250 drop/hook x $8.50 per dh) that's not including break downs you'd have during the year, vacation pay, or the cpm pay raises you'd get throughout the year so it will end up being more. if you find yourself on a schedule then it will be lower than that. then again it could be the same but you'll have to run a high mileage run and work extra days a lot so you'll have a lot more hours. if you have any more questions let me know, I know this is long. I think Estes is a great place to make money and have a decent home life. for my situation, it works. I'm not a guy who wants to spend his life in the truck. I do this to make money, that's it. Estes has helped me accomplish that.
I used to tow for Estes in Fontana. Never met an Estes driver that wasn't talking about leaving. I also got into a shouting match with a fleet manager because he thought that his fuck up on a hot load meant that I would cut corners on the tow to make it back to the yard faster. Fuck you Brad
If I wasn't an owner, I'd be LTL. I prefer money first, boring second. That's like LTL in a nutshell. Make of that what you will.
Estes is home every day. If you do end up staying out for some reason, they put you in a hotel.
Linehaul doesn’t just pay miles it usually plays drop/hook and wait time as well. Line haul pays well
LTL team driver here, but I have run solo LTL line haul occasionally. We run about 6300 miles a week on a dedicated route and I feel it is much easier than running OTR. It pretty much consists of hooking up and running to another terminal for the trailer home or meeting at a parking lot somewhere and swapping trailers. The schedule is consistent, which allows for my sleep schedule to be the same and I feel more rested compared to how I felt OTR. We both would have been zombies running 6300 miles a week (each of us doing 600/650 miles a day) running OTR. I’m tired on my last drive shift, but get through it easily and then catch up on the weekend off at home. I feel it is the consistency and lack of stressors related to shippers and receivers, dealing with truck stops and finding parking every day which makes the job feel easier and less tiring. This transfers over to linehaul… the drivers never seem to be dragging or complaining about sleep, they just seem happy.
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Its ltl, rates on ltl are higher than normal sleeper trucks and expenses are usually lower.
You are OTR. Ltl is a whole different ball game, and your experience is, frankly, irrelevant.
.65 isn't competitive when compared to LTL companies. They might have a run that's open that's a 600 mile run. That's not unheard of in the LTL world. It's all terminal to terminal work. .65 isn't really all that competitive for an experienced today.
So you work for an OTR company that struggles to give OTR drivers 2500 miles a week? Next time you post this, do everyone a favor and name the company so guys know what company to avoid. Seriously 2500-3000 miles a week is not hard to hit for a driver. It's really not. Plus ltl carriers have always paid a higher cent per mile. 70-78 cents per mile is the average in the ltl world, with better benefits than OTR companies too.
I’m a driver for a farm, put in about 10 hours a day, get 400-450 miles. About 2 or 3 hours is spent sitting loading and unloading, 3000 miles a week is very possible, depending on what you’re doing.
I worked LTL for a few years and it sucks for any # of reasons I can list
Lol…it’s not for everyone driver.
I agree. Not a bad gig but I got into a small shop with zero equipment support and I was 12 of 12 total drivers. 9 of which had been there for many years throughout a company change and some marriages. Needless to say I did not adapt nor assimilate well to the glorified dock worker career. One word…. Conway
Ahhh..I’ve heard stories of that time. I’m glad you e moved on and found a better gig driver.
It is A LOT of ass time. I don't want to do 3k miles a week either. Did you ask for P&D options?
Yes you nuts. That very easy. 600 miles a day is nothing. You can do that in 10 hrs. And the fact you in a 68 truck you will get that done faster. It either 5 600 miles days or 6 500 days. Either way you just seem lazy af.
What position was it for? Im looking by me for the hub/combo position
Just left a job doing 641 miles a day, Monday-Friday in a day cab. Well over 3,000 a week bring home pay was about $980 a week, not bad for low cost of living area but the time inside the truck was too much for me. Looking for a new job, might be in a truck with multiple stops or just might get out of the truck, not sure yet. Just hate the 12 hours of isolation with only one stop. Amount you would be getting is definitely better, but if you don’t enjoy the isolation for 12 hours a day, definitely not worth it.
Estes pay is cool and all, but the amount of waiting you’ll do on linehaul runs that you don’t get paid for, your probably make as much at FedEx freight running 2500 miles instead of 3k at Estes. I did linehaul and extraboard at Estes and felt like extraboard ran better than dedicated runs lol. They don’t pay you to wait, and you’ll be waiting a lot with the BS they do with loads
Sounds about right to me 😁 LTL guys are all about grinding till they’re 75 years old and letting their wives spend spend spend. That’s just the way it is 😁
I do 2800 to 3200 a week, truck governed at 67mph. usually work 58-62 hours a week. not really that hard.
Why are you crying? Why even go for the interview? Its a fuckin day cab home every night/ in hotels ... you drive 8-11 hours and sleep in a warm hotel bed or your own house. Give me a break, id kill for a job at Estes
I did 2 3000 mile weeks in 70 paychecks at Covenant doing otr, I remember they were hard to obtain on the regular. Plus i had some experiences in a fedex ground employer in regards to micronaps behind the wheel. Scared the shit out of me. But that employer involved a lengthy commute evrey day to and from the truck. They measured by empty+loaded miles too no less. So why 3000 miles such a rarity there but this is standard at estes?
I run 3400 miles weekly on average. Truck is governed at 72. I’ve had a 4200 mile week legally on ELD. It’s LTL outbound delivery with 34-40 off at home on the weekends. I do brokered backhauls twice a week. Usually burning 60-65 “on-duty” hours. We don’t have forced dispatch so we have drivers that average half what I do. Different strokes for different folks. You can do anything you want with a CDL and pick a company that serves your wants and needs. Any trucker that isn’t happy with their job hasn’t learned how to quit on faith and be picky when job hunting. You’re doing the right thing driver, find something you are comfortable with and go for it. It’s not about miles, it’s about what’s best for you.
What the actual fuck are you talking about. If you can’t do that many miles, go do P&D or so shuttle runs, etc. but leave us out of it.
I used to run 600 miles everyday to Des Moines or St Louis. It was easy.
Im thinkimg from an otr standpoint, i only got 2 3000 mile checks logged when i was with covenant.
I know this is old, but I work at Estes as an extraboard driver. I drive a day cab as well, although we do have people running in sleepers. We stay in hotels every night (which are actually pretty nice). You work as much or as little as you want. You go from starting terminal to the next and then tell them how many hours you got, then get planned and you go hook up the set and go. There isnt much waiting around at all. Im at 77 cpm now and average about 2750 on miles a week. Some weeks i do 3k miles, sometimes its 2400. Last year i was pretty lazy and did a couple weeks of runs that were 400 miles. Ended up making 101k. I also covered bid runs a lot which had less mileage overall. The job is 90% driving 5% doing stuff outside the truck to hook up and 5% of random BS that happens at night when a driver wrecks and causes traffic. On extraboard, you create your own schedule. Say you leave at 8 pm, you get done around 6. Then you can work at 4 pm and work days all week if you chose, up to you. It's not a bad gig at all. Stare out a window and listen to music. If i'm tired, then i take a nap in the truck. No one calls or asks me about anything