For those that want local driving jobs...

4 wheelers are like a pack of wolves... they can sense your weakness. If you look even the slightest bit polite, they will not stop. You must put yourself in P&D mode and drive like a crazy A-hole.

We have one place we pick up at in New Orleans... I wait for a break in traffic and come across the grass median with my horn blaring and a wild look in my eye--swing it across all 5 lanes and proceed to back up with reckless abandon. They stop... they don't want to ding their Lexus anymore than you want to scratch your trailer. If they're in the way and that 53 foot chunk of metal is moving towards them at a fast clip, I guaran-friggin-tee they will jump a curb to get the hell out of your way.

Now when I'm not driving in a madhouse city, I'm as polite as can be.

 

Delivered to the downtown Houston usps once, wow what a joke that was. Almost impossible to back in there, they wanted me to put my 53 in between two trailers told no way was it ever gonna happen unless there yard jockey hooked to it. So they had me back into a dock with one open on each side an still pretty much blocked the road.

 

I asked my company why they require 3 yrs exp. (which is funny because I only had 6 mos. exp), they said it wasn't so much them as it was the insurance company. In most cases the Insurance wants to prove that you can actually drive the truck in a straight line and not kill anyone. Also, they figure if you have 3 yrs OTR exp. then you've probably driven in all kinds of weather, most of the states, and many different cities and docks and have a better idea of what to do without tearing things up.

Tell you what, 3 mos. out of driving school I worked for a local McD's distributor. I learned more in the 5 mos. I was with that company than I could driving OTR. All our trailer were 48' or 53', the current crop of daycabs that I see them driving are 388 and 389 Pete's, all about 185" to 200" WB. The road drivers all drive 388's with 60" sleepers and 225" WB. Next time your at McD's, look for where the back door is and then figure out how they get in there. In some cases, it makes the pic of the Volvo in the alley dock look like childs play.

I had one store that required me to back in off the street, up a 10% 20 ft long incline, then basically jack-knife to get the trailer in to the spot. Oh, and when I got backed into the spot to unload, they would have to yell at me when to stop (I couldn't see the spotter), because my trailer bumper had to line up perfect with the curb for the drive thru, 1" too far back and it would cause a problem for the drive thru, and 1" too far forward and the rollers from the trailer to the freezer wouldn't line up.

I've had companies tell me now that even though I have as much exp. as I have, that because it's local/regional it doesn't count. I just laugh.

 

Try driving an 85' oversize super tanker in the city all day long. We're just the opposite of most companies because we do NOT perfer OTR drivers and will take a local tanker driver much faster. I've done all kinds of OTR driving from vans to oversized flats and I can tell you it takes all your skills to maneuver safely all day long in the city. I love to get out to a couple of our stations that were away from town. Turn up the stereo and set the cruise control, now that's driving.

 

Ran a P&D route for 3 years with a 53' swing door hand me down Truckload wagon and it's definitely work..haha.. Did all the residential's delivering everything from a hot tub to a wine fridge and everything in between.. Every Thursday for about the last two years I had that route I would deliver a skid of pesticide or something along those lines to a dude that owned a forest reclamation service way out in the boonies of North Central Pa.. If you look at a Motor Carrier Atlas he was at least 10 miles from anything resembling a road - the last mile was all in reverse because his hilly twisty gravel driveway was exactly 1.1 miles long..

That sounds like it sucks and it did at times when you knew you had multiple stops to get off after that, but looking back now, those are the ones you remember and they teach you how to handle your equipment.. Let's face it, we all have tough stops but we remember and learn the most from the hardest ones.. I don't remember much about bumping an easy dock but I can probably tell 10 good stories about trying to deliver that one skid in the winter - the only one that still pisses me off is when Con-way decided it was a "preventable accident" when I got stuck pulling a hard grade on a 10 ton road during a snowstorm.. That's the only company or DOT accident/point I've ever received.. I can honestly say I've never hit anything ever and I take a ton of pride in that.. I think I owe a lot of that to common sense and a lot of it to the fact I was placed in some very difficult driving situations as a new driver at a very young age and was afraid of screwing up so I would get out and look, managed space on the road, and asked the old time drivers questions.. Just don't get stuck on the road in a snowstorm..haha..

 

Hey Gears you didn,t say how much you made on your 6 pu load. I pulled a reefer in a co. truck,had alot of 8 to13 stop loads in a sleeper truck.I talked to o/o that did ltl stops,they said 4 or5 stops is there max,because anymore the load takes to long to get off,which I agree.

 

Yes you are either a otr or local driver usually not both. Guys that run otr hate local work and guys that do local would rather not do otr. I am a local driver for sure. Did otr for a few years not my cup of tea. Now if I have trip to Erie 3hrs away I dread it. Most of my loads are only 30 miles but I do anywhere from 3 to as many as 12 in a day. All flatbed! and I love it.

 

Lol thats almost a long haul right there...........

 

One of the good things about running local is alot of us get paid by the hour. Sitting in traffic,at docks, getting lost, etc is just more money for me, usually overtime.

Don't get me wrong, some days I dream about hitting the interstate with a nice 1200 mile load.

They are both a different beast for sure.