"You have to drive OTR 1 Year before anyone will hire you-Myth or Fact?

The reason I've invested so much time with this thread is because I don't want any of you new drivers to think that just because you landed with a cool job in your first try that your dues paying ends. It doesn't work that way. Very seldom will a truck driver work for just one company in his entire career. I'm sure there are some who did but that's not the rule.

Your "dues paying" ends when you retire. Until then treat your job like its a stepping stone for the next one. Keep your record clean and don't do anything stupid especially if the company asks you to. I've driven with ex UPS drivers and ex US Postal drivers. Are these not supposed to be dream driving jobs? These guys left or got laid off. Hence keep your driving record clean.

With 20 years in the bank and over 13 with this outfit I still drive with a wide eyed alertness that I had the first time I was left alone in a Schneider cab over 20 years ago. If sheet hits the fan I want to make sure my application gets put on top of the pile, not the bottom.

Safe driving guys.

 

I don't think OTR is crap but if you were new to the industry and you have the choice of two jobs one of them you went to work in the morning, came home at night to see you wife and kids or just to sleep, got paid for all the work you did and OT at some point whether it be 8/40/55 etc OR go OTR, barely be home, make less on average and you stop getting paid every time the wheels stopped, would you really pick OTR? No question theres plently of guys making really good money OTR, but I've seen VERY few job listings where the OTR paid more than local, so why give up your life for the truck? To each his own but I don't see the point.

 

the local jobs in VA must pay a lot better then they do in Green Bay no one driving local around here makes $68000
besides if I was home every day it would be divorce number 3

 

Well said. I copied that way of life right up to the day I retired. However, I added another task that was to do better today than yesterday. Didn't always work but it kept me in check with myself. I can say with no doubt that I never got a ticket or paid a fine. Sure I've been stopped a few times but who hasn't.

I've also worked more than just one job. My advice goes to what I've seen and what I know was true. I don't believe in repeating rumors and until I see it right there it stays a rumor. I would never go on and say something is a fact or not a fact when I haven't experienced the situation and anyone that does goes in the idiotic book.

 

Actually its a bit of both every company out there has a million different criteria for recruiting drivers when there is low unemployment and not alot of people want to drive then their less fussy with what they ask for in other words they start to bend the rules a little otherwise they'll have no freight moving, one of the things you need to look at if your a rookie is what is the companies turnover rate for drivers a high turnover rate would indicate alot of driver dissatisfaction its up to you to work out why there dissatisfied. I always found if when your waiting to get loaded or back at the depot having a chat with other drivers you got alot of feed back on the politics of the company.

 

Well Mercer wants a year otr. Farm2fleet wants 2 years otr. I'm almost 2 and half years on driving experience. Now I'm leased on to an intermodal company, since june. Which Mercer doesnt count towards otr. I have 7+ months otr. The rest is oil field.

 

Never went to trucking school, and never drove OTR but after a year of driving I pull doubles every night and sleep in my own bed all while making about 65K a year. With a little perseverance, and a healthy dose of work ethic it is very possible to find good paying local work with little to no experience.

 

It's a myth. I started trucking for a local logging outfit in 2010, with no trucking school either (the logging outfit trained me- I started for them by operating a skidder & saw) I got laid off about 6 months after getting my CDL-A, and would up working for a small regional flatbed company. Did that for about 3 years, I went back to work locally just over a year ago, pulling an end dump around.

The largest trucking company I've ever worked for has 6 trucks; I've always been paid hourly or percentage, and paid very well.

The idea that you have to start by going to trucking school then working for a large otr outfit is absolutely garbage.

 

there are 3 million truck drivers everyone can't do it the same way
so starter companies take advantage
most wont have contacts enough to find places out of the box
in 1978 i bought a truck before i knew how to drive it
times are different