[stimpy]

Originally Posted by GStage1

Just an idea...what does the local FedEx or UPS guy make?

unless you have alot of experiance you will not get one of these jobs and it varies from hub to hub as there contracts are differnet .

25 years and I am retired , I ussually tell people who work in a office that think it must be a great job that they don't see the bs of it like we do , you will make less than minimum wage , you will work a average of 65 or more hours a week the first 2 years of your employment , you will get screwed outof money by your employer , you will sleep on your time off at home , you do not have a set schedule . in otherwords some days you start at 2 am some at 8 pm and you have to be on time , and you will sit alot at customers and not get paid because the company made a deal with them on unloading times and no you won't get the shiney truck till you do your time , and you find out your dispatcher is worse than a politician when it comes to promises and lying . you will fight for spots at the truckstop when your tired and need rest , you have people bang on the truck while your trying to sleep or have a 20 year old reffer next to you that fires up every 10 minuutes , your wife will cheat on you since your not home , your kids won't like you because your not there . the dog well ditto . the cat won't care ( they are so narcisstic anyways ) you find out customers can be a pain , coffee that tastes worse than gear oil . the waiting for 5 hours to take a cold shower and having to pay for it . shall I go on??? and right now buying a truck unless you have business savy and connections is a bad thing to do especially with fuel prices and licensing fees going up .

[quick67bird]

I have worked for local LTL companies for the last 25 years and can say that you are better staying with computers. You can make decent money, but at the expense of your home life. The trucking companies do not care if you daughter or son has a school function; they need you to deliver freight. If you look at most local Pickup and Delivery drivers you don't see many old ones because the work breaks down your back and knees.

Most local trucking jobs start out at $15-$17 an hour and they top out around $20-$25 an hour. UPS pays the most, but you have to work part time there for a couple of years to get a full time position. You do get OT if you work over 40 locally, but a lot of local companies are getting around the OT law by working you hourly for 8 hours and then sending you on a line run later in the shift which pays mileage.

I got out of the LTL business and work as a driver at a nuclear facility and hope I can retire here as I have never been happier.

Robert Rife