Is OTR Really For Me?

Getting paid while he takes a break? But I'm glad he's enjoying himself and I hope he does well on his test! I wish him the best of luck! Keep me updated?

 

I surely hope your being sarcastic, I run more miles than you most days and I'm home every night usually, which means I can enjoy my home cooking, my lazy boy, and my wifes company...

 

Try scrap yard or gravel pit garbage co. home every night trash your csa but we all have choices. OTR is not for you. Just my 2 cents

 

You can certainly start off with a local job and plenty of people have done it but there are disadvantages. Trucking isn't rocket science but it takes a while to learn the tricks and get the knack of it. The learning curve is steep and when you start out, everything you do, shifting, maneuvering, braking, backing, space management, on and on, involves plenty of thought and practice.

In six months or so, you'll be amazed to find yourself doing many things automatically which took serious concentration -- and maybe some anxiety -- just a short while before. In a year or less you'll do thing even better and overconfidence might even become your problem.

So ask yourself, do you want to go through that learning and experience-building phase for less money -- while bumping plenty more docks, maybe fingerprinting more freight and fighting more city traffic -- or would you rather gain experience out on the highway. At least with OTR you get a chance to take a breather and ponder what you've learned that day.

OTR might also be better in that you'd lessen the chance of a career-ruining accident right at the start of your trucking career. Even a simple goof up backing into a dock can result in minor damage that might find it's way onto your DAC and then what? Oops!

Another thing you'll find with many local jobs is that they tend to pay peanuts unless you get on with the right company. Companies know that young guys who look for local work probably place a premium on being home and around friends/family/ girlfriends for the obvious reasons, so they pay accordingly.

I drove local long ago, before road rage and incredibly clogged highways. If I screwed up, I'd rarely get even a toot of the horn from an annoyed motorist, but today's drivers are far more impatient and intolerant.

Think it over and we wish you the BOL.