Side loaders

Soooo, in a couple years down the road I plan to get into trucking as a career. Thing is, at this moment in my life, I can't see myself having only 2 days off every couple weeks cause I'm always out doing something on the weekends (fishing, paintballing, hanging with friends, visiting, etc.). I would want to get just a regional route that's home on weekends but I know they are usually all taken by people who have payed their dues doing OTR driving and what not.

Given, my attitude might change a couple years down the road and I might be able to be out for months at a time. I'm thinking for right now, side-loader jobs would be the best bet.

Are side-loader jobs decent? I'm a really sociable person so I think it would be good considering you get to meet a lot of people (managers, and their designated unloader). However I could also see how some people could be total ########. And you usually get to go home everyday and have 2 days in a row off (wether it be on the weekend or not).

 

Side-loader refers to the trailers that have bay doors running along both sides of the trailers. Beer distributors, Coke, Pepsi, etc. all use them for local routes.

Yea, that's how our company is. You take all the beer in, count it out loud to the manager, sign off the receipt, and then go into the freezer and restock everything. Sales do the rest (tags, displays, pictures, etc.).

One thing that I was also curious about though. What exactly is "regional" driving. Our company has drivers who basically drive a 250m round trip from warehouse to warehouse like 2x a day. Would that qualify as some kind of "regional" driving?