Ask a Feeder Driver, Feeder Driver FAQ

[FeeDerp]

Don't even think about joining yrc.

I came from Holland (owned by yrc) because yrc was wanting more give backs in their latest contract. They already give back 15% of their paycheck along with only paying about 25% into the pension. That's all company wide, and it was certainly better to work at Holland than it was for Yrc

 

[pickup]

Well my CDL class had around 20 different recruiters come in. All of the recruiters personally knew my instructor & had hired his students before including Old Dom. Only reason I can come up with. We had Ryder, Schneider, Old Dom, FedEx, Conway, YRC, & a lot of local companies come through. I was told UPS is considered #1 & Old Dom is #2 with YRC being #3.

Well, for my own curiosity's sake. I googled a bit and I saw that Old dominion does hire guys out of trucking school and then trains them for about a week with a driver(from what I read). A little odd but apparently true.

I remember years ago that a company that guys really liked to work for was New Century Freight . The guy who ran it at the time was also the guy who once owned and ran Jevic and the drivers loved working for him. When he sold Jevic, many of those drivers followed him over to New Century once he got that up and running. And for many years, New Century was very very Very selective about who they hired. And they could be, because they had many qualified experienced applicants(word of mouth).

So I just assumed Old Dominion would have followed the same pattern. I guess I was wrong.


By the way, before anyone reading starts submitting an application for New Century. They went out of business a few years ago. I think a venture capital firm bought out the majority shares and then when there was majority "yes" vote for a teamsters union, they closed their doors pretty much the next day and "poof", end of New Century. They were based in South or Central Jersey(depends where you draw the line) but their trucks were seen over a good portion of the country (east of the Mississip).

 

[pickup]

That's dumb but Ok lol.

That may be dumb but if it were policy, you would be waiting on the back of the line to make the transfer because the higher seniority drivers who wanted to transfer out of north Dakota and Wisconsin, or New Jersey (examples) in order to be warmer would beat you out when it came to the transfers.

 

[moldsporh]

I've always been told that transferring when you're full time is a nightmare & almost impossible. Because I looked into transferring from Indianapolis to Clearwater FL.

You would lose all your seniority if you transfer. You basically quit and get rehired at the new location.

Also to lowats, if you want feeders eventually, and a more sane lifestyle, whatever you do, don't go into management....no matter how good they make it sound.

If you are a real go-getter, you will likely be presented with an opportunity to go into management real early after you start working, but once you go, you can never come back. They tend to forget to tell people that sometimes.

 

[lowats]

You would lose all your seniority if you transfer. You basically quit and get rehired at the new location.

Also to lowats, if you want feeders eventually, and a more sane lifestyle, whatever you do, don't go into management....no matter how good they make it sound.

If you are a real go-getter, you will likely be presented with an opportunity to go into management real early after you start working, but once you go, you can never come back. They tend to forget to tell people that sometimes.

Oh ik once u go management there is no going back, they've begged me to become a sup because I'm a leader at work. After I told them that I was planning on going into feeders they kinda backed off...kinda lol

 

[MaceFremonti]

WTF Feeder Moment #13

Roll into BALMD with a chassis from the railyard. Security guard starts cutting anything like looks remotely like a seal before I even have the brakes on. I walk around the back of the trailer and see that not only are all the seals cut but both of my door tie downs have been cutoff as well!!!!!!

WTF?

 

[retiredTxfeeder]

Got one similar. I rolled into the yard with an EMPTY pup once. No seal of any kind. We used a thumbs up/thumbs down sign to signal the guard. I thumb down. Empty trailer. brand new guard. should be end of story. I'm on the phone with dispatch. The guard walks up to my cab. I say "I'm ok. I don't need anything." She nods her head and walks away. I'm still OTP and I hear a loud BOING. What in the hell was that, I'm thinking? Another loud BOING. followed by a loud bang and my whole rig shakes. I hang the phone up and jump out to see WTF just happened. I get to the backl of the trailer and there stands the guard, bolt cutters in hand. What the blankity blank did you do? ." Obviously very pleased with herself she replied "I cut yo' seals." She had cut the cables on both sides of the roll up door. The last sound I heard was the cable rolling back inside the trailer and going round and round the spool mechanism. Those doors weigh hundreds of pounds and I couldn't even budge it trying to roll it up. The mechanic at the shop was not amused. I can imagine how much work it is to respool one of those doors. Next time I'll tell you about the security guard who lost, yes lost my keys not once, but twice in 1 night between the trailer and tractor. lol.

 

[silenze]

yeah ive had them cut the door chains.
But the roll up door thats a new one hahaha

 

[Brown Note]

Yeah the lawsuit was in 2011, I think, and they have been paying overtime at time and a half since, as far as I was told by drivers. Old Dominion is loved on the Twisted Trucker Facebook page too. Whenever people ask about best LTL companies to work for, UPS, UPS Freight and Old Dominion are the clear favorites......lol

They pay time and a half after 60 hours. They also dont pay delay time or fueling. They say its already calculated in the mileage rate which is .60 cpm. Give or take a penny.

 

[Mugarolla]

Got one similar. I rolled into the yard with an EMPTY pup once. No seal of any kind. We used a thumbs up/thumbs down sign to signal the guard. I thumb down. Empty trailer. brand new guard. should be end of story. I'm on the phone with dispatch. The guard walks up to my cab. I say "I'm ok. I don't need anything." She nods her head and walks away. I'm still OTP and I hear a loud BOING. What in the hell was that, I'm thinking? Another loud BOING. followed by a loud bang and my whole rig shakes. I hang the phone up and jump out to see WTF just happened. I get to the backl of the trailer and there stands the guard, bolt cutters in hand. What the blankity blank did you do? ." Obviously very pleased with herself she replied "I cut yo' seals." She had cut the cables on both sides of the roll up door. The last sound I heard was the cable rolling back inside the trailer and going round and round the spool mechanism. Those doors weigh hundreds of pounds and I couldn't even budge it trying to roll it up. The mechanic at the shop was not amused. I can imagine how much work it is to respool one of those doors. Next time I'll tell you about the security guard who lost, yes lost my keys not once, but twice in 1 night between the trailer and tractor. lol.

At least it was empty. Red tag it and drop it.

If it was full, they could have gotten it open with a few guys, but a PITA.

 

[pickup]

They pay time and a half after 60 hours. They also dont pay delay time or fueling. They say its already calculated in the mileage rate which is .60 cpm. Give or take a penny.

From what I read , it seems like the more senior drivers at Old Dominion bid the city runs, i.e pickup and delivery. That has to be a paid by the hour job. The younger newer drivers get on the extra board or spare list and end up with the longer mileage runs at night . Those same runs might come with the delays that you say the company doesn't pay for. Oh sure, there might be some higher seniority guys that pass over the day/city job to go line hauling at night but you can be certain that they get the runs in which the return loads are already out there in the yard or on the door ready to go while the lower senior guys get the line haul jobs that require waiting at the turn around. All speculation on my part, I suppose.

That might explain why Old Dominion has to fish in the waters of a C.D.L training school. No offense to the guys who are applying there. Everyone has to start or progress somewhere. I did it when I was quite younger. And if you don't mind working nights or can handle not getting paid when your wheels aren't turning and the pay is more than decent or something you can be happy with , then good luck and enjoy.

I am not being sarcastic, i wish you guys (who are trying to go with Old dominion) good luck and good fortune.

 

[pickup]

Anyone hear of ups creating more sleeper teams to try to get away from rail service, while improving time in transit?

I don't pay too much attention to the sleeper job on the bulletin board so I don't know . What I have noticed is that we do a lot more by pass loads. Loads going from point A to Point E. And I might do that load from point B to point C after the first driver drove it from Point A to Point B. And when I drop it, I will often encounter the next driver who will take it to point D.

I am seeing more and more of those in my dispatches as well as sitting around on property(but not too long). These are sleeper runs in disguise. 5 drivers are doing the work of a sleeper team. So if we are doing this work, we are either not using the train( some I can tell by the destination that this is the case) or we are doing the work of a sleeper team( and if it is an airport destination, that is usually the case).


I am not sure if I answered your question, but if ain't on a train, we are using more drivers. Sometimes these are loads that were processed after the train has left the yard and it was planned for.

 

[MoarTape]

Anyone hear of ups creating more sleeper teams to try to get away from rail service, while improving time in transit?

We certainly don't have any in NewPA. There are a few that SHOULD be run out of there, but aren't. Don't see us getting some anytime soon. They also use the crap out of the train here..

 

[Josh_]

Can someone explain the beginning hourly pay for Feeder Driver
1st pic below comes out about $34.65/hr, and it's from his first paycheck as Feeder Driver, Second pic below said Feeder Driver starting out at $18.75/hr
***I'm approved to drive for either Old Dominion (LineHaul) and UPS (seasonal PKG driver) sometimes in October, but if that $34.65(Feeder) is true for beginner then I probably would choose UPS.

***confused about "current pay rate of $16.69", can't ask the original poster, he hasn't been active on the forum for over a year.
http://www.browncafe.com/community/threads/question-about-feeder-pay.355633/#post-1304251

 

[lowats]

Can someone explain the beginning hourly pay for Feeder Driver
1st pic below comes out about $34.65/hr, and it's from his first paycheck as Feeder Driver, Second pic below said Feeder Driver starting out at $18.75/hr
***I'm approved to drive for either Old Dominion (LineHaul) and UPS (seasonal PKG driver) sometimes in October, but if that $34.65(Feeder) is true for beginner then I probably would choose UPS.

I believe seasonals drivers are the same as beginning feeders pay which my hub (Ohio valley district) is 18.5 starting an hour with a 4 year progression. Top pay is currently between $33-34 an hour

 

[MoarTape]

@MaceFremonti So what happened the other day on the way to the rail? Heard a Baltimore guy rolled one on exit 57.

 

[MaceFremonti]

Indeed he did.

No one is giving up details though.

Just after it happened they sent everyone a message about slowing down in rainy conditions. Only thing I can gather is that he was going too fast. From the pic they had up in dispatch it looked like he was on the inside lane of the immediate left turn right after you get off the turnpike at exit 57. The chassis was laying on it's right side in the outside right lane right before the bridge that goes back over the Turnpike.


There were two other accidents that day involving BURMD/BALMD guys as well!

 

[FeeDerp]

Edit...
Derp

 

[FeeDerp]

I believe seasonals drivers are the same as beginning feeders pay which my hub (Ohio valley district) is 18.5 starting an hour with a 4 year progression. Top pay is currently between $33-34 an hour

Seasonal feeders were making $30 an hour a year ago, and $27 before that in Indy....can't imagine it would be changed for this year

 

[lowats]

Seasonal feeders were making $30 an hour a year ago, and $27 before that in Indy....can't imagine it would be changed for this year

So if they get hired from seasonal to full time do they start at that rate?