ABF Freight

ABF was a good company to work for. They make their drivers carry 400 lbs tread mills into basements with NO equement at all. If you get hurt they fight you with attorneys. They will not take care of their employees when they bust them up. Dave Durham in Columbus Ohio lies to his men all the time. He dose not care about their safety. He made you drive trucks with no defroster and you could not see if it rained. If you care about people and there safely think call into ABF and complain to ABF in Columbus Ohio. Most all other terminal around are good. I am still trying to get help on my back that was busted in Feb 2013. I had to quit work because Dave Durham was going to fire me if I missed any work. I have 3 disk pushing on my spine. And they will not pay even on my medical. I have to pay my doctor myself. It is Apr. 2018 and i am still fighting ABF to pay my medical bills. Please call corporate ABF in Ft. Smith Arkansas and give me a voice. Thank you.

Terrific company. Blessed to work with such an amazing team.

Great place to work. They take care of their employees.

Great company

Great place

Great place to work

Great place to work!!!

Great company to work for, great people to work with.

You're hired with the expectation of being a permanent employee, but once you're no longer needed, you'll be let go. On the upside, if you can afford to be on unemployment, you can stay on it indefinitely.

ABF is an average place to work. I’ve had better and worse experiences elsewhere. Management focuses more on writing people up than actually overseeing the freight operations. Benefits are decent but could be improved.

I can only speak for my terminal, but it’s run terribly. Management is indifferent and lacks competence. They expect employees to work 12-13 hours a day, Monday through Friday, all year long. Some may be fine with that, but few actually want it. There’s no work-life balance, and the atmosphere is highly toxic. Despite being a union workplace, there’s no unity among drivers. You’ll be worked hard all week, only to be laid off on Friday after a grueling 13-hour shift as a “thank you” for your effort. I’ve heard great things about ABF in the past, but either those days are long gone, or my terminal is poorly managed.

Overall, a good place to work. Standard city driving with pickup and delivery duties. After driving, I had to work on the dock, where seniority dictates everything—being at the bottom meant getting stuck with the worst shifts. Pay and benefits are solid.

Work-life balance improves with experience and seniority, but aside from that and the pay, there’s not much to brag about regarding this company.

A great company overall. Pay could be better, but having a pension and free healthcare is a major plus. This is a Teamster job, where seniority is everything. Highly recommended.

When I was hired as a line-haul driver at ABF, I was told it would take 5-10 years to get a set schedule, as if I should be grateful. Even then, I would only get the shift no one else wanted. Until that point, I was on call 24/7, with possible shifts starting just 8 hours after clocking out. I never knew if I’d be gone for a day or a week until they called me. After two years, I was laid off in mid-July 2023 with no timeline on how long it would last. Even now, ABF drivers nationwide remain laid off. While pay and benefits are great, this job suits single individuals or those who don’t mind being away from their families—it’s not ideal for those who value family time.

Everything operates as expected—no shortcuts. The team is respectful, dedicated, and passionate. The only real challenge was performing a pre-trip inspection. The on-site supervisor wanted us to skip it and just hook up and go, which is completely unsafe. I strongly disagree with that approach, but otherwise, things function as expected.

Management doesn’t care about employees—you’re just a number. Pay is decent, but shop stewards in certain locations don’t advocate for workers, often seeming to side with management.

Expect mandatory overtime frequently—working a standard 8- or even 10-hour shift is uncommon. Be ready for 12+ hours, with 12 to 15 stops a day, drop-and-hooks, and u-packs. After all that, you’ll still have to work the dock until the job is finished.

What’s the best part of working at ABF? There isn’t one. Management is ineffective, equipment maintenance is nonexistent, and the aging fleet is insufficient. Their supposed care for veterans is just marketing—they prioritize profits over worker safety and injuries. What’s the most stressful part? Management lacks leadership skills, and communication between management and labor regarding customer service is poor. Both trailers and tractors are regularly filthy. What’s the work environment like? Leadership is disengaged, lacking accountability. There’s never enough time to do things correctly the first time, yet somehow enough time to redo tasks multiple times. What’s a typical day? Drivers arrive early, waiting for dispatch to show up whenever they feel like it. After a lengthy delay, dispatch scrambles to organize workloads and begins assigning jobs aggressively because deliveries are already nearly an hour behind schedule.

ABF is an average place to work. I’ve had better jobs and worse ones. Management prioritizes disciplinary actions over efficiently managing freight movement. Benefits are decent but have room for improvement.