I really work for a small co. We have one truck! I drive,service and work on it. My boss dispatches, and gets contracts set up. I am home every night. The longest haul is 90 miles one way. The load unloads easy in the top, out the bottom. Its a grain buggy. Pay is not bad for rural kansas. A little over 35,000. I dont think otr work is for me any more I am staying put. Did otr for 30 plus yrs. Good experance

So how would you rate your company? Is it great to work for? Do they treat you fairly? Do they know you by name?

Just having fun with you. Is your wife your boss? I heard a driver on the CB in Albuquerque one time mention that he must have ticked off his dispatcher because she had him on a run from California to Maine in the winter and then told us his dispatcher was his wife. Sounds like you have a great deal.

When I did OTR, i was working for the same company I do now. We had my tractor leased on with Warren Transport, I was the only point of contact between Warren and my company, it was like being an O/O without being one, I didn't like it. didn't like being identified as a number, being lied to about trips( they didn't pay bounce miles and would try to bounce trucks 400 miles or more, emptied out in Miami once, was promised a load back out of Florida( the only reason I took the load) then wound up bouncing over 600 miles up into Georgia to get another load....that was the first and last time I did that, learned my lesson quick. After that i stayed in lanes that i knew i could run loaded back and forth, and resisted the"gravy" runs they would offer..it's not gravy if you get emptied out in a place where you sit for a week waiting on a load, or have to bounce 5 or 600 mile to get it...what ever the "gravy" run paid, the " big" money got eaten up by the wait/bounce, usually resulting in a loss of money.....when I think back to that, it reminds me why I came off the road...lol

I am with a small company now. Except for Werner - whose recruiters flat lied to me about a regional tralier shuffle job (yes, Werner folks, it's the relay/NetOps thing), I ahve not really had a BAD experience with a larger company. This one just fits our needs for now. I go from Omaha to the east coast and back every week, get to be home the same two days each week, and still manage 2500-3000 miles a week at a good cpm rate. The challenge with this and other small companies is the ability to ride out periods of slow freight. Eight of our eleven drivers stayed HOME this week for lack of freight. That means no paycheck. The compeny was build on hauling meat for one of the large meat companies, and earlier this year that meat company got their OWN fleet. SO... we start losing loads, and freight back from the east coast, even with our regular customers, is way, way down. So despite the great home time, and the good pay, we are looking at going somewhere with a larger freight base and more of an ability to ride out downturns. That probably means a fairly large company. Want to try to ride it out until spring when our two oldest kids will move out on their own... but if it stays like this through Christmas and New Years (and who is betting against that?), we may have to jump earlier. (I keep saying "we" because although I am a solo operator, my wife is definitely part of the equation! She is the one who gets to stay home with the teenagers while I am on the road!)

Judging on what I have read, and how closely you are related to my father, I would keep doing what you are doing. My dad makes reletave the same pay as you, and he said he will never go back over the road. As you may have been told, you are lucky to have the kind of job you have being an O/O. Depending on what you haul OTR, I don't think it will pay as good as what you are doing now.

Thats my 2 cents.

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