What does it mean to be OTR

OTR is actually irregular route, meaning you go wherever the load goes. It could be short or .long depending on what is available in an area.

 

I would think that the most consistent long miles for a large carrier might be pulling reefer. Plenty of coast to coast runs.

 

OTR means you go anywhere they ask you to go. Oh and ask is the polite way of saying you dont have a choice about refusing the load. You could get a load that leaves Boston and are destined to go to Los Angeles. Yoou might get there or the company might inform you that you are to repower some ones load whom is going to run out of time. Then you swap trailers and that driver gives you the BOL (bill of lading) and your off to where ever that receiver is located. Usually your DM (Driver Manager) will find you a load before you get to your destination. Then you drive with an empty trailer to the next shipper.

Depending on the company you may be on the road for 3 weeks. MAKE SURE you are out for 21 days! I drove for Western Express of whom decided my 5 days off were to be cut short as I was only on the road for 18 days.

Regional might have you drive with in your own state or even drive local with in 150 air miles of the wharehause you get the truck from. This is typically some one whom drives for Pepsi or Budweiser (some bottling company). Tho with a bottling company or delivery with some one like UPS or FedEx you will get nightly home time and weekends off.

I hope this helps clarify your questions. Just remember. There are no dumb questions. The only real dumb question is the one never asked.

 

It usually means irregular route (not the same Salt Lake City to Las Vegas trip) long-haul operating in multiple states (some insurance carriers define that as 5 or 7 states. If you stay away form home, operate in multiple states, don't have the same schedule/route for long times it's probably OTR.

 

O - over
T - the
R - road
This mean you go wherever whenever however. To get the load delivered. Real truckers are never late with their freight.

 

He’d experience the same thing at Swift or any other national “mega trainer” carrier that has many different regional fleets within their overall “OTR” system. But it comes down to the gross pay at the end of the week. If you’re not running a lot of miles but you’re making decent gross pay, you’ll have a hard time complaining to your immediate manager.

But if the short haul pay and multiple other accessorial pay items and acceptable home time still isn’t enough to keep you happy, then you need to start complaining and asking who do you have to kiss to get treated better.

 

it helps if you're on time for appointments you need to show to the load planners that you can get stuff done without problems, its slow this time of year but they still should be getting some miles for you . now I am not suggesting this is what is going on with you but companies don't like to fire drivers for in competence its easier to starve them till they quit, that way no unemployment or law suits. I would suggest you talk to someone a little higher up the ladder than your dm and find out what is the deal , even change dm

 

Oh, another thing I forgot about schnSchne, for the first three months you get a bunch of ########. The planners have a driver rating system, which means after your first few months they give you a tag in the system that tells them how likely you are to get a good load done. So after your first three months if you've gotten everything handled then when the longer runs come up you'll start getting them.

 

Rule#1 for all new OTR drivers,
Learn to say no, I'm not doing it.
And stand by it.
Let chips fall where the May.
The sooner the better.

Or keep your mouth shut and do one
Crappy load after another because they
Know you'll do it.

It's why mega's have their own CDL mills,
And reapeatadly hire and fire rookies.
They know, any experienced driver worth
His salt,is not gonna play their games.

But a new driver doesn't know any better.
And by the time he figures out how much
Time and money he's been screwed out of
And quits, the mega has his replacement
Sitting at the yard waiting on your truck.

It's a never ending cycle.