Experiance - Local vs OTR

Can anybody give some advice about local vs otr. I'm a newbie coming out of school, and there are a few option where i live for local driving positions. I'm wondering if you go local right out of school, then down the road you want to go otr, will local experience count or will they start you from scratch like your out of school?

 

Local is nice but like OTR is not for everyone. I recently left a local gig that was the highest paying around my area that I know of but the work week was cut by better than half which killed our pay checks other wise running 70 hours a week was the best money I ever made. Not many local gig's pay that well though. Dump truck drivers in my opnion make the poorest of wages and get worked to the bone. 98% of companies will not except local work as experiance without prior OTR experiance. Where I was I liked the money when it was there but the same old back and forth run night after night was getting old and boring bumping the same docks 8-10 times a night. Local jobs are hard to get. Most want prior OTR experiance most being 2 years or more and want you to have experiance in their field (i.e. Van, flat, tank, bulk, etc.) I have tank and hazmat which I got for local oilfield work but no one will take me because I have no tank experiance. I've been trying to land another local gig but no luck so I'm facing the firing squad again for OTR.

 

Local is tougher, more backing up. According to Hartford Insurance Backing is 5% of your time but 95% of the accidents.