so heres my problem...i have 4 months otr and 3 years local, i would like a western or southwest regional or dedicated run but i keep hitting dead ends because of my experince, seems like local drivers are punished i've even been turned down by jb hunt and i dont want to end up working someplace like swift...anyone have an suggestions?

Why not stick with local? Ya may not make any more money going on the road. And perhaps being turned down by Mr. Hunt was a blessing. Most drivers would kill to have local experience, in my opinion anyways...
If you really want western or sw regional, check with all the other companies that run it.........Good Luck

Yeah you should be glad JB turned you down. Driver you really need to reconsider what your wanting to do. Check out truckerdaves thread about running 100% legal and see if you really think going back regional or OTR is right for you. Your probably making as much or more than most OTR drivers are at this juncture. Most of these slimeballs that would take you with no recent OTR experience will make you go back to school for a refresher course, then back with a trainer, then you'll be lucky to make what your making now. Then they don't want you to idle and be comfortable sleeping. Who cares if it's 100 degrees or 10 degrees out. Be careful what you wish for you might just get it.

Are you needing another job? Or is this something you just want to move into?

When you consider all the factors involved. The money is the same, maybe even less now for OTR or regional. With a few exceptions...very few.

I run regional, and wouldn't consider local....yet. But no way in hell would I consider OTR again, unless I absolutely needed another job. I say that now, and will wind up OTR within a few months

You're going to have to pound some pavement and find a small regional company if it's what you want. Many of the smaller companies don't advertise. If they do, it's generally in local papers or word of mouth.

__________________
Insuring polititions fear that
which goes bump in the night.
Seek out their personal homes
and family members. -- SU 83
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after reading up on jb hunt im glad they did turn me down!..as for staying local theres only a few companies that hire in the area i live and more than half of them require at least 1 yr otr , the one im at currently i have yet to see a day less than 16 hours start to finish plus its a 40 miles drive from my house to get my truck and 40 miles home. moneywise, my average take home pay is $200 a week. theres over 300 miles unpaid deadhead because 40% of the time there is no backhaul and to pay for fuel they slice 3% out of my loaded miles and you have to carry a min of 27 tons or they take the difference out of my pay and this truck weighs close to 26,000 with half full tank and the inside gutted thats hard to do.im fed up with this place, anyone that wants to be a local driver should seriously reconsider unless you can get on someplace like sia or r/l that pays by the hour, i have appplied there 6 times in 3 years and have never been accepted by either

Sounds like you're doing sand and gravel. Under the loader at 4 am, gettin' home at 8 pm, but , Dude, $200 a week net? That's bad. There's a bunch of regional out of Phoenix (May, Market, Heartland Express, Watkins/Sheppard, McKelvy, Ruan, First Fleet,) plus a small company out of Tucson called Tucson Transport. I believe they buy old North American trailers, or, at least they have the same color scheme. Start calling around.

heartland turned me down today, i didnt know that the others had terminals in az besides ruan, i never heard of tucson transport but im deffinetly going to be checking into those places!

Bent im in about the same situation. Local work has dried up and the only option is OTR. The economy hasnt gotten any better and i dont see any relief in the near future. What baffles me the most is the fact that local drivers cant get an OTR or regional job without OTR in the last three years. Good luck.

OMG !!! You'd make better money as a burger flipper, or a door greeter at Wal-Mart !!

A cheap local company pays at least $13 an hour.

What you're doing, is not local. It's criminal. Personally, I don't think you could do worse even if you did go to JB hunt.

Do your co-workers even speak English? I'm curious.

__________________
Insuring polititions fear that
which goes bump in the night.
Seek out their personal homes
and family members. -- SU 83
__________________

more or less and suprizingly most of them aren't even hispanic, alot of drivers from odd ball countries that some how ended up in az, i know of 2 that are from the ukrane 1 from italy and theres another im not sure of but from his name im guessing maybe egypt