Ask a Trainer - For New Hires and Potential Employees

Discussion in 'Millis' started by Baritone, Sep 11, 2013.

  1. cincypapaw

    cincypapaw Bobtail Member

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    Sep 12, 2013
    CIncinnati
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    Well my wife is starting to have second thoughts about me going otr as I would be gone from home for such long periods of time and leaving her alone with no support system. and also concerned about me not seeing my 3 little grand kids as much ( 7,5 and 4 yrs. old). I noticed on one of the threads that Millis also does regional so my question's to you or who ever can help me are:

    1 - Without looking like one who doesn't want to bust their butt and do their share,what is the average amount of time one is out before you have home time when doing regional and otr ( I'm not a slacker by any means & will pull my
    own weight & want to make money, again it's just that the wife is having 2nd thoughts and I'm looking at options PLUS I am really interested in getting my career as a trucker started with Millis)

    2 - How long our you typically home for before heading back out....2 or so days ?

    3 - I know the mileage will always vary e.g. daily and weekly, but on average what would be the difference between doing regional vs otr and what is the cpm difference between them?

    I suppose I should have phrased this as... What are the pros and cons between regional and otr. Well, I will stop here as not to upset anyone with questions and answers which are probably somewhere in these threads and I have not found them yet.
     
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  3. jlccaa

    jlccaa Light Load Member

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    Sep 18, 2013
    Chicago
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    Well I'm OTR and for me,

    1. I'm out for about three weeks at a time and then I'm home for five days. I know other drivers are out shorter and longer periods at a time and that is more of a preference for each individual driver. I will say that OTR drivers generally benefit from staying out longer to be able to stay in the freight lanes for Millis.

    2. I'm home on average 5 days at a time, but if you need to be home longer for something dispatch is usually pretty good about working with you.

    3. I average between 2700-3000 miles a week for a full week. I.e. no hometime that week. As far as cpm, that's based on pay plan and experience but OTR and regional on the same pay plan(entirely different debate) would make the same cpm.

    Hope this helps.
    Ball is in your court regional guys.
     
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  4. cincypapaw

    cincypapaw Bobtail Member

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    Sep 12, 2013
    CIncinnati
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    Hey Tater what week of training are you in? Hope all is going well for you. Yea, from everything I have read on some of these threads it sounds like the instructors for Millis are great. Hopefully if I get the opportunity to go to MTI that they will have patience with my old brain in picking this stuff up LOL .

    Where are you guys staying at and what is the cost of the room and all? Originally I was thinking that since I live only 30 minutes away that I could stay at home ( if that's allowed ) to save money on boarding and meals BUT then I started to think that maybe it would benefit me to stay at the motel with my classmates
     
  5. cincypapaw

    cincypapaw Bobtail Member

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    Sep 12, 2013
    CIncinnati
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    Thanks for the reply jlcca any info does help. Hopefully I will get some input from other OTR drivers as well as some regionals as I am just trying to come up with some valid ideas to help ease my wife's concerns.
     
  6. Truck It

    Truck It Light Load Member

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    Jun 19, 2012
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    Hello cincy,

    I am not a trainer Millis ( God Bless you guys who can do it ) .. and I no longer work with Millis. However I still frequent the forums here because Millis was a great company for me to start at. I am one month into my new employer so I can still answer your questions concerning OTR vs Regional.

    I originally started OTR with Millis and made pretty good money doing it. I would take home on average 750-900 and I would run 3 sometimes 4 weeks than go home for 4-6 days. 4.5 days after 21 days is the max, however depending on freight and your loads you often might get a day or two extra, you work that out with dispatch. In Febuary of this year I switched to Regional to be home more with my wife and 3 yr old. I took a hefty cut in pay doing it. I would take home on average 550-600 a week but I had weekends off. Keep in mind differences in taxes and benefits will affect what you take home, I didnt take the health insurance. I generally would get home sometime friday and go back out either sunday evening or very early Monday AM. The pay scale is the same for OTR and Regional however for the most part you don't get the miles on regional you do on OTR. There are a few guys who run out of Trenton that do quite well on Regional, I think they are in the OTR trucks though. The heavy haul regional trucks are very dependent on beer and glass and what that freight is doing. I ran out of Richfield, WI as well which is a little different than Trenton. One thing to keep in mind, if you join the school now you will be coming out at the SLOWEST time of the year for regional and it won't pick back up until March- April. You might only get 1800 miles a week on average through winter.

    Hope that helps. One thing I want to say is you might want to really really really think about this if your wife is already having concerns about being away. It honestly only get harder as time goes on in terms of that. I am not trying to deter you, but from my own experience it gets very hard and tiring on a marriage and especially if any kids are involved ( in your case, grand kids ). Even on regional you arent home much, and generally your weekend will be mostly catch up on lawn, laundry, shopping for the truck and any other things you just cant do when you are in a truck all week. My wife was very supportive of me, but I could tell as time went on it was bothering her more and more, so I now drive Local and we are both much happier, however I don't quite make what I did OTR, but I don't need to wear flip flops to take a shower anymore either :)

    If you are serious and you can make your wife feel secure in the decision ( if you want to stay with her anyway lol ) .... than Millis is a excellent choice, even though I don't work there anymore I still recommend them to anyone starting out. Hope that helps a little bit anyway. Good luck!
     
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  7. cincypapaw

    cincypapaw Bobtail Member

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    Sep 12, 2013
    CIncinnati
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    Hey Truck, thanks for taking the time in answering my questions and giving me your view of things from both sides. It will be a tough choice as what to do in regards to going into trucking or not. It is a career i would like to pursue BUT at the same time I need to make the wife happy. Well thanks again and be safe out there.:biggrin_25525:
     
  8. Old - School

    Old - School Medium Load Member

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    Dec 18, 2011
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    Truck It has it right in what he posted. I worked for Millis about a year and a half myself and was on regional for almost all of that time. The last 6-9 months I was trying to find any job that would get me home every night. I now drive a 16 foot flatbed locally and couldn't be any happier. While I did take a big cut in pay it was worth it to me. I ran pretty hard and was making good money but all I could think about was I have a wife I've been married too for 27 years and I wanted to be around, have a nice house and pets that I love and wasn't enjoying any of them. Being able to get home for the weekend allowed me to hang in there for my first year but that was just not enough for me.

    I would advise you too find someone to ride along with for at least a week to see exactly what a trucker goes thru on a daily basis. We all know someone that knows a truck driver. Maybe one of the people on this Millis thread would invite you to ride along with them if you were to compensate them for their time and effort. If I were to do that I think 100 dollars a day with a three day minimum or 500 dollars for the week might make it worth it for me. I know that sounds easier than it really would be but at the same time it could be worked out. That might just be the best 500 dollars you ever spend. Hey, it's better then spending 5000 dollars for all the training and then finding out its not for you.

    Good luck in what ever you decide to do. I too would recommend Millis to anyone just getting into trucking.
     
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  9. nicknack

    nicknack Light Load Member

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    Aug 3, 2013
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    All of you who responded to the OP question, great job, a lot of guys get into trucking not realizing the full ramifications of what it takes to make a living driving a truck. Yeah you can make a decent living but at what cost , if you get into this industry do your homework find what works best for and your loved ones.
     
  10. TheyCallMeTaterSalad

    TheyCallMeTaterSalad Light Load Member

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    Jul 23, 2013
    New York State
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    Today was actually the last day of classes for us. Now on monday we start our 3 day orientation. We are staying at the Days Inn in Middletown ( Right off of the 75 ). They "finance" the hotel and it gets taken out at "X" amount of dollars a week right along with the schooling. They let us use a vehicle from the terminal to go back and forth to class with so that way we were not using up all of our gas. Which was cool.
    Your on your own as far as food goes. Breakfast is provided in the hotel if you want that but other than that its up to you. And seeing that you live so close im pretty sure you could drive right from home to the terminal every day if you wanted to. We had a guy from cincy start class and thats what he did. If it was my choice id stay at home and drive every day. Save you from the hotel bill at the end
     
  11. Baritone

    Baritone Road Train Member

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    Aug 9, 2008
    Lexington, Ky
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    "Truck-It" said it very well - Not much more I can add other than the longer you are out OTR the more you can make. That is mainly due to the more often you go home the less distance from your home they can send you so they can get you home on time (LOL). I also agree that if your wife is going to have any issues with you being gone then it's best you don't try it. I can only imagine how hard that must be as I am single and my son's live on one of our busiest freight lanes so I am able to see them often.

    Best of luck to you and let us know if you have any other questions!
     
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