Local Jobs Out Of Driving School

It is hard to get a decent local job that pays well. Most go to the ones that have stick time. It can be done, just not often. Another point if you go get a local and you decide later to go OTR a lot of companies will not hire you unless you go to a refresher course. No recent OTR, not a recent Grad; catch 22.

 

Ryder is always DESPERATE for drivers. Don't know how well they pay but I knew a guy that used to fuel trucks there for $11-12 an hour so the drivers must get decent pay for local work.

 

This question comes up pretty often. The general consensus is that it is very difficult to get a local delivery job with no experience. To get started you can try checking local excavating / construction companies or gravel pits. Some will hire newbies to drive dump trucks, truck and pups, side/end/belly dumps, etc.. Likewise you could try lumber yards. Food service or soft drink / beer delivery jobs are often another option if you have no experience. There are drawbacks to all of the above but you will be getting experience and will be home every night. My school instructors always said just because an employer says it 'requires' 1 - 2 years OTR in their ad doesn't mean they won't consider you as long as you have practical behind the wheel experience, even if it's not OTR.

 

You won't find very many companies that will consider that exp. All the jobs you listed if you decide to go OTR later most will make you go to a refresher course. No recent OTR, not a recent Grad, slim chance of moving on somewhere.

 

The OP said he doesn't want to go OTR. If he wants to go OTR later I would hazard to guess that with practical TT experience, he would probably need to go out with a trainer for a few weeks but would not need to restart training from scratch since he would already have his CDL and practical driving experience.

As far as experience in the areas I mentioned goes towards getting a different local job later, I would have to disagree with notarps unless I missed what he meant. I've seen lots of ads in the paper that don't specifically say OTR required, only that a certain amount of TT experience is required. In fact, local companies would go to the school I went to looking for drivers with a little experience and when I was in school I saw a number of local job leads tacked on to the bulletin board and none of them required OTR experience, only a certain amount of TT experience. I also know that that drivers I worked with in construction have moved on to other driving jobs. Of course it is highly unlikely that FedEx or UPS would hire you after a few months of doing construction or food service work but that doesn't mean it won't get you a 'better' local job.

Who knows, you might like construction work (or food service, for that matter). I've worked with a lot of former OTR drivers who love construction work.