Are you content???

I started off 17 years ago OTR, did that for a few years then went local, night time LTL line haul, out and back everyday for almost 12 years and I HATED IT after the first year and a half, but the money was killer, 80k/year. Decided I just simply couldn't take the stress and lack of sleep that job created so I thought I'd go back to OTR, home weeklyish with a company not far from me with (didn't know at the time) way too small bunks on their non-pulling piece of junk Pro-Stars. I'm the type that has to have everything in a truck in it's place and I bring everything but the kitchen sink as I hate eating at truck stops. I had to have them take out the passenger seat just to fit my refrigerator (a cooltron) in the truck, that should have been the first warning sign. Then there was the battery APU... 95 degrees outside in a truck that had been sitting in the yard for two days doesn't work out well. Then there was trying to sleep with one elbow in the back of the drivers seat and the other one against the back wall of the sleeper, it's just the way I sleep.... I'd been doing the LTL thing since I got together with my wife (almost 10 years) and she wasn't one bit pleased with me being gone for the three days I was, she really, really likes me being home and truthfully I didn't like being away from her either, so I didn't even get through the orientation of my first and only OTR job I tried after the LTL gig. Since I knew I did not want to run regular van freight at all and couldn't go back to OTR. I found a bulk pneumatic local gig that ended up sucking really bad, the pay and equipment was much worse than they claimed, go figure. So I bided my time there until I found a better paying local gig running with an environmental services company that runs tankers, roll offs and some vans and best of all, hourly pay. The work is quite a bit harder SOME DAYS, dragging 200'+ of 3" or 4" hose or pushing drums and totes off the back of a van trailer at the landfill but I'm usually doing something different everyday and not all days are that demanding, it depends on the job for the day... Here, there's no waiting for other trucks at a dock as we're the only ones coming in to do the job we do and even if there is a delay because a customer doesn't have everything transferred into the tank we're pumping, we're still getting paid to wait on them. If we're caught at a railroad crossing (happens quite a bit here) we're still getting paid because we're always on the clock, I sat for 90 minutes one day because the gates started down just as I made it past the point of no return. Then there's the emergency call in list. That pays $125 per week JUST for signing up, if there's a spill and I get called in, I get another $50, PLUS DOUBLE TIME for all hours from the shop to the site and back until I punch out.... My first spill made me $406 for 6 hours work which really wasn't work considering that all I did was run the vac tanker while our technicians did the hard work of shoveling, etc... Spills for us aren't as common as they used to be but I still sign up for the extra $125 a week for doing nothing but signing my name to a list. Sadly, my boss has a hard time getting guys to sign up, it's cuts into some guys drinking time I guess, because you do have to be ready to work at any moment.

Do I miss being OTR? Absolutely. OTR got into my blood and I miss travelling across this beautiful country of ours everyday. BUT..... I do not miss, even for a second, sitting for hours on end at shippers or receivers for NO PAY, I do not miss UNPAID delays caused by traffic jams or bad weather. I do not miss rolling through the beautiful areas of this country in the middle of the night, not seeing a danged thing. I do not miss Chicago, New York City, Philly, Boston or any other cluster fluck of a major city anywhere, but especially the east coast and dealing with all the delays those places can bring.

So am I content? Nope! I'm happy

 

Coast to coast, Use a airplane. Enjoy your well earned vacation time in with the company not driving. Who wants to drive coast to coast while on the job? Retirement, I'll rent a RV with my 18 kids and 4 ex wives and drive to south america

Welcome to local

 

Well in the little time I have driven a truck I have done everything but bedbugging and being a line hauler .

Local is not the dream job everyone seems to think it is and over the road is not the hell that everyone seems to think it is .

At this point in my life I am very content with my job.
I just drop and hook never haul any freight other than the wagon of the day .
No long waits for anything in out and on to the next one.

Great company doing a great job what more could a guy want ?
Maybe I am just easy to please but no complaints from me about my trucking life !!!

 

I did the OTR thing for 9 yrs,can't recall wanting to be home more but many times wishing I was with a better company.Now im local because mom got sick and decided to stay local.But one day I may go back OTR.

 

OTR and I like it. Thought about doing the local thing, but decided to stay out on the road. I like seeing all the states(except Wyoming) I couldn't run the same route all day and I dont mind living in the truck.

 

Why not Wyoming....because of the wind?

 

I don't really know if I'm content. I'm a Class B/DZ driver.

I'm hauling fuel locally for a company located in Toronto. The pay is above industry standard here in the city ($20/hour) and when you add up the benefits, medical and yearly wage it ends up working out to about $60k/year. They have new equipment and what seems to be a decent corporate structure. A downside is that it's a direct-to-equipment operation, so we're filling up anything from a small jerry can to a fleet of trucks, construction equipment, generators, etc. We probably have 10 calls per day (average day is approx. 10 hours) so there's a lot of physical work involved (climbing up and down from and to the cab, lugging the hose around) and a lot of math involved for calculations and such. I'm usually stuck in traffic on the way to and from work, anyone who's driven in Toronto knows how bad rush hour can be and my route snakes me from the downtown core to the airport in Mississauga which is about 35-40kms, usually all in bumper to bumper traffic.

I miss being on the open road and getting a little more solitude that I got from expediting. I miss the truck stops, the terrible food and the ridiculous people you'd get a chance to meet. What I don't miss is the DOT, low pay and physically missing events, birthdays, family and friends alike. I drove the only 2005 Peterbilt 387 expedite truck that Paccar ever made and that was really cool. I feel like I belong on the road but I don't want to sacrifice what I have now.

I wouldn't say I'm completely content but it's nice to be home every night and off every weekend. I'm making more money but putting up with a little more headache. I'm able to enjoy the fruits of my labour now without being lonely on the road. It's hard to meet a good woman while you're working in another country and only stay in the same place for a maximum of ten hours, most of which are spent sleeping. I'm going to stay where I am at the present time but under the right circumstances I'd go back to OTR.