how difficult would it be to find local work?

So which parts are you not enjoying? The long days of work? Or the being away from friends and family?
If it is the work, then local will not work much better, since in many cases it is still going to be 10-14 hours a day. But you will be home, and in most cases you can make a decent living, just less than in OTR in many cases.
Allot will depend on where you live.
You really need to stay and get trained, try and get a good 4-6 months in. Flatbed you will be home most weekends generally, once you are on your own and running. So it really will not be that bad. And you would not see many people during the week running local anyway. Cannot really hang out and have some beers when you need to be at work at 5 am, and will work till 7 pm.

Once you are off your trainers truck start looking at your area. Check out the concrete company's, see who is hauling the portland to them. Bulk tank is good work.
Check your area for LTL carriers. New England, YRC company's and others. As I said, allot has to do with where you live. But many company's will hire newer drivers.

 

Why don't you wait until you're off the trainers truck to see if you like the job or not? I had the same mindset as you when I first started out. I hated being in the trainers truck, my trainer was a cool guy and taught me a lot, but it was still a pretty rough experience. Once I got off the trainers truck and went solo, I enjoyed the job much more. And I still do 2 1/2 years later.

If you can, try and get yourself at least 6 months to a year (preferably a year) of experience. The potential to find a home daily job grows substantially after that year. Otherwise, future potential employers will think you're a quitter for leaving a job so quickly.

 

just make sure you have a job before quitting. but i agreee with the above statements. so i wont repeat it lol

 

You should try your best to hang in there a year. Job hoppers have a tough time getting job offers and being new makes it worse. The other advice here is spot on. Good luck one day you will look back at it and wonder why it seemed bad.

 

I did the over the road thing for 8 months and grew tired of it. I then drove a propane delivery truck for a year and a half. The pay was not good. Once you get two years experience driving then you're pretty much golden especially if you have a good driving record. I moved on to LTL freight and make more money now then I did over the road but it is true you're home but not a lot. I run linehaul usually and I go to work at 8pm and get off work at about 930 am the next morning. By the time I drive home, shower, and eat then I have enough time to sleep before I go again. It's kind of the same thing with city work. You usually work 12 hours a day. You can find a job local if you give up the road but the pay in the beginning may not be that great. Good luck.

 

I can't stress enough (from personal experience) the commute time you have to add on to any local job, which even just a half-hour each way is an hour added onto a 14 hour day that is probably more like 14.5 to 15 hours when you get there early and stay late, talk with co-workers, whatever. So that is an hour minimum out of 10, you now have 9 hours left to cook get up, cook and eat breakfast, pack lunch and dinner (it's too late to eat by the time you get home), sss, all that another hour at least, let's hope you can fall asleep without too much time tossing and turning to get 7 or 8 hours sleep. It gets to be a real grind, too.

Compared to rolling into the sleeper when you get the full ten hours. Plus the not insignificant cost of transportation.

Not to mention if you quit now, you'll never know if OTR was really not for you or not. Right now you just think it's not.

Give it a year, then you've got nothing to explain to anyone, and valuable experience for everyone.

 

Good point VT-
I had a straight truck job but the commute was one hour both ways M-F. I had to get up at 0300 to make it to work, put in 10-12 hours, then make that 1 hour drive home. I did make good money but its bigtime wear and tear on the mind and body and plus the cost of fuel.

 

Go to your local Home Depot and Lowe's stores, (or other home improvement stores in your area). See who is hauling for them. It'll be flatbed work, or other types of hauling, back and forth from the DC center to the stores. Most of the trucks I see are day cabs, so I can only imagine you would be home daily.

 

I never rolled into the bunk and got 10 hours when I drove over the road. I ran for a small company that used paper logs so I was run nonstop. I got a nap here and there but I rarely got a full 10 hour break. It was usually a 4 or 5 hour nap and that was it.