Part-time Dock To Full Time FedEx Road Driver In 10 Months!

Anyone who's interested in making good money, just letting you know it's possible. Long story short, hated my last job, gave 10 years of dedicated service bending over backwards whenever needed, and never got anywhere for it. So I found LTL Linehaul and decided to go for it. I started working at FedEx as a part time dock worker while still working my full time job (don't quite one without another one ready to go). After about 2 months of working I started talking to my manager and asking questions about the Driver Apprenticeships they offer. He was very easily approachable and always made time to talk to me. Went and got my CDL permit with help from the training tests on this site and just waited for an apprenticeship job to be posted. As soon as I saw the job post, I went straight to my manager and he logged me on to an internal computer, and I filled out the application. Then he immediately walked me into the Road Manager's office and told him I just applied. Answered a few questions in a piece of cake "interview" about a week later and was hired on full time for the apprenticeship. Did about 3 weeks off and on in the yard hostling to practice moving and backing of all different types of trailers. Then started the apprenticeship with a one on one instructor for 4 weeks with 2 remedial weeks if needed. Passed everything the first time with no remedials needed. After that, I did one road week with a road coach driving his route. After that, I was cut loose on my own! Been driving solo now for about 2 months. It's not to bad at all. Starting off, because of seniority it's a lot of dock work. I basically run what they call shuttles from my terminal to a bigger terminal 32 miles away, work the dock most of the night and come back in the morning. However, some nights I get double turns, and for the last couple weeks I've been kicked out a lot for road runs. Plus, it's a good thing when the older guys take days off too, cause us new guys get to fill in for them on those runs, so that gets us the mileage and off the dock. There's some BS here and there, but you'll have that at any job. So I'm grateful for the opportunity, it's gotten me out of the job I hated and I'm making way more money with potential to make real good money in the future. I'm ranging from $850 to $1050 a week right now AFTER taxes. And, P.S., since I went through the apprenticeship I didn't have to pay for a CDL school either, and was paid for all of the training. So far, I'm digging it. It's a little tough on the family with working nights and all, but the wife likes the money coming in. If you're thinking about it, go for it. It's attainable!

Great to hear about your success Jared! Your seniority will come with time, and then you'll get more and more desirable runs available to you - I know you realize this. The night shift life can be trying, especially on a family, but the trade-off is the pay and being able to get home more frequently if not every night. Being a linehaul driver isn't for everyone, but I'm glad you're appreciating the opportunity you received. I remember when I first started getting my paychecks, definitely makes it worth it! But for me, I love it beyond the great pay. I love the routine, not dealing with the public or shippers / receivers, and the familiarity of going to the same places - and doing nothing but drop and hooks!

Oh yeah, I'm liking it. It's an "easy" job. Gotta pay attention, but really pretty simple for what we get paid. Only thing that would make it better would be straight driving and no dock work. I'm a little nervous about winter coming, gonna have to see how that goes. I've surprisingly taken to nights pretty good. As long as I get my sleep during the day, it hasn't been a problem for me. Yes and I agree, not having to deal with customers is great in itself. Gate times are ridiculous sometimes, as they don't account for ANY type of mishap. And not big on doing rail runs. But other than that stuff, piece of cake. :)

So you're doing intermodal work too? I'm assuming that's what you meant by doing 'rail runs.' How long till you might see a bid run? I'm assuming you're something like a 'wild' or extra driver. Our new drivers all start out on the extraboard.

In regard to your comment about gate times, is the dock always late on getting your trailers ready for your scheduled departure? We have a few runs where trailers are habitually late or close to their cut time. All of our runs have their cut time 1/2 hour before the schedule gate time. But for the most part at my terminal , we get our trailers in a timely fashion. Definitely not waiting around like someone doing live loads / unloads pulling a reefer , that's for sure! Some guys complain about being a 1/2 hour late. I know enough about hauling reefers to laugh at these guys - they wouldn't know what to do with themselves if they had to wait for hours on end!

Glad to hear you're making the transition well for night shift. It can be tricky. It was helpful for me to hear experienced linehaul drivers say that some drivers never actually adjust to night shift. That made me feel better. 0400 seems to be the start of most linehaul drivers' witching hour. And there can be days where you get what you think was good rest, like a solid 7 or so hours, and still be randomly tired during your night run. Simply put, I believe we are diurnal creatures. Some people just cope better. I'm actually thinking about going back to night shift for a bid or two. There are things about running nights that I miss. As my kids are getting older, life at the homestead is starting to get a bit more flexible. I like running days and nights, and thankfully I have enough seniority now where I can choose to run days or nights. Linehaul is primarily a night shift job. Even at our terminal where we have an unusual amount of daylight linehaul runs, the majority of our linehaul schedules are nights.

How many linehaul drivers does your terminal have? We have close to 160. I was just at one of our terminals recently where they only have 6, since it is an end of the line terminal.

Anyone who's interested in making good money, just letting you know it's possible. Long story short, hated my last job, gave 10 years of dedicated service bending over backwards whenever needed, and never got anywhere for it. So I found LTL Linehaul and decided to go for it. I started working at FedEx as a part time dock worker while still working my full time job (don't quite one without another one ready to go). After about 2 months of working I started talking to my manager and asking questions about the Driver Apprenticeships they offer. He was very easily approachable and always made time to talk to me. Went and got my CDL permit with help from the training tests on this site and just waited for an apprenticeship job to be posted. As soon as I saw the job post, I went straight to my manager and he logged me on to an internal computer, and I filled out the application. Then he immediately walked me into the Road Manager's office and told him I just applied. Answered a few questions in a piece of cake "interview" about a week later and was hired on full time for the apprenticeship. Did about 3 weeks off and on in the yard hostling to practice moving and backing of all different types of trailers. Then started the apprenticeship with a one on one instructor for 4 weeks with 2 remedial weeks if needed. Passed everything the first time with no remedials needed. After that, I did one road week with a road coach driving his route. After that, I was cut loose on my own! Been driving solo now for about 2 months. It's not to bad at all. Starting off, because of seniority it's a lot of dock work. I basically run what they call shuttles from my terminal to a bigger terminal 32 miles away, work the dock most of the night and come back in the morning. However, some nights I get double turns, and for the last couple weeks I've been kicked out a lot for road runs. Plus, it's a good thing when the older guys take days off too, cause us new guys get to fill in for them on those runs, so that gets us the mileage and off the dock. There's some BS here and there, but you'll have that at any job. So I'm grateful for the opportunity, it's gotten me out of the job I hated and I'm making way more money with potential to make real good money in the future. I'm ranging from $850 to $1050 a week right now AFTER taxes. And, P.S., since I went through the apprenticeship I didn't have to pay for a CDL school either, and was paid for all of the training. So far, I'm digging it. It's a little tough on the family with working nights and all, but the wife likes the money coming in. If you're thinking about it, go for it. It's attainable!

Good deal! You're making more than I am :) I'm doing 95% P&D with the occasional road run. Good that you hired-on as a Road Driver as the money is great!

Sorry for the late reply....been busy. Yeah 6 string, rail runs as in intermodal work, taking trailers to the rail yard. I've done a few now, so it's getting better, just confusing getting in and out of the place. It will be "years" before I see a bid run. Unless like 12 guys retire at once. And probably at least 1-2 years or so to wiggle onto the extra board. Seeing some driving (anywheres from 650-1400 miles/wk, depending on if I get kicked out or not) and a lot of dock work right now, just gotta put my time in. And I've done pretty good with the night time adjustment. Does kinda suck losing half of my Saturday cause of getting home in the morning and having to take a 3-4 nap to make it through the day. But the money kinda makes up for it. It's a little stressful on the wife and kids, but they are being supportive since this has gotten me out of a job I hated, plus a greater opportunity for a better living. You would probably consider my terminal "small," but we have about 35 linehaulers. 120 dock doors. The terminal I shuttle to 32 miles away has 300 dock doors, but don't know how many linehaul drivers, quite a few. And then yeah there's a couple I've been to with 20-30-40 dock doors, and like you said only about 5 linehaulers. But overall so far, I'm enjoying it. None of it it is "hard" by any means. Bout to be my "bedtime" right now, so that's where I'm head to to get ready for tonight. :)