Could switching from Long hauling to regional or local make all the difference?

Depends on what YOU want and expect out of the job. Yes some do some don't. You may find you love being on the road or you might decide you hate it.

 

I'm not sure about your area, however it could make a big difference if you had a 5 on, 2 off schedule, or something similar.

 

i enjoyed it for the first 3 months and then i just wanted to be home. i did it for 8 months and found a good job were i run mainly from northern new york to ohio and im home every weekend and through my area every couple days. but i still want to be home everynight. you dont want to switch jobs a lot so i will be regional for a while unless a day cab job opens up in this company. like the other guys said its all about what you like. i loved it when i started and started resenting it the last couple of months but im enjoying it now cause im more often.

 

If you still like driving, regional or local will make a big differance. I ran OTR for a couple of years and miss it every once in a while and then went to LTL for a yer and a half. Hated some of the bs that comes with LTL but loved being home at night. I now run local and regional, have some early starts and long days but get some good days on the highway for the regional which helps feed the OTR fix, and just bounce around town for the local and am still home everynight.

 

Every "division" in trucking has it's own problems. As the old trucker song said "There ain't no easy runs".

 

Completely agree....its all in what suits you best, what you like and what you are willing to put up with

 

Good comments in this thread. Thanks. It's encouraging.

I ran OTR my first year. I loved seeing the parts of the country I'd never been to before but having never-enough home time eventually wore me down. When I'd just about had it, a shortline shuttle position opened up in my company. It was a huge relief. Since then I've been home every weekend and, more recently, several nights a week. Now my route varies day-to-day and week-to-week. I like the variety and I like the combination of stops and highway time, which also seem to maximize my pay. I like that I deliver to customers who keep normal business hours so I can keep a fairly regular sleep schedule. I like doing 2-day turns: enough miles to earn a paycheck, and can shut down and sleep at the end of a long day rather than having to turn around and drive home, as a day cab driver would. I also like having a sleeper cab so I can catch a 10-minute nap when I need to, and carry healthy food with me. I don't like that I'm still working 60+ hours a week and I have no time or energy to do anything but work. Spend my weekends catching up on paperwork, laundry, and exercise. But it works for me for now about as best as anything could. No job is ideal, or nobody would be paying us to do it, right? I hope you can find something you can live with.

 

You ever stop and think that we're being paid to do a job that, as a kid, we'd have done for free??

 

switching to Giaco would make a big difference