So, you're wanting to run local...

If you want to work local and make a decent wage look into driving for an equipment rental company. Most have good benefits, "normal" 12 hour or less days, and five day work weeks while paying a living wage. Cardinal Logistics handles Home Depot's material delivery and is something to consider.

 

Hi Dna, that's true, but again, exceptions to every rule here. Quick story. I worked for a trencher dealer in S.Wis. as a driver/yard man. They also had rentals, as well as new sales. Once, I took a machine to N.Wis., new sale, was about as far as one could get, like 6 hours away, way back in the woods, a utility co. was laying a cable, finally found them. Said, I have your new machine(obviously) the lead man said, "Great, only problem, the old one won't start". So I'm thinking, what to do? Finally, they had some tools, I unloaded the new machine, took the starter out, took the starter out of the old machine, got it running, loaded it, put the starter back in the new machine, plus, I had another machine to pick up on the way home. Didn't get back until 1 am. And to top it off, the boss chewed me out for taking so long on the run. I told him to cram it, and quit shortly afterward.

 

Some of those Cardinal Logistics jobs pay good money to; $45K-$55K.

 

I have a couple lanes that run "local" 250-500 mile trips. Driver is usually loading steel at 4am at the latest and home by 2-6pm depending on the shipper and receivers that they are going to that day. More wear and tear on the truck and trailer "spread axle flat", doing 2-3 loads a day that includes throwing the covered wagon tarp 4-6 times daily chaining and unchaining. It is in my opinion twice or three times more work that OTR, but like everyone says the trade of is home time. Pay is not bad I have drivers that pull in 1000-1500 a week gross depending on how hard they want to run. My OTR is still regional getting through the house at least once mostly twice a week. Good luck!

 

Great post, OP, thanks a bunch!

 

Excellent thread, I agree. I gave up OTR and run from Texas to North Dakota weekly pulling a tank. It's only a four day run with three off and still pays what I was making staying away from home for 7-10 days. But I still have my eye on a few equipment rental places within 20 miles of my home. Also like I mentioned before, Cardinal Logistics. The guy who delivered the lumber for my garage a few years ago had nothing but good things to say about the job. The store loaded the flatbed and he secured it. Good hours, decent pay and of course "extras" He said the contractors would ask if he could lift a pallet of shingles up to the roof. He would say "no way, I'm dropping them here and I have to go. I have plenty to do." Well a few bucks cash right then and there would always buy an extra few minutes. I talked to this guy 3 years when he came to my property for my delivery and just saw him last month up at the store. He's still there plugging right along. There's three Home Depots within a comfortable driving distance of my home and might try to throw my name in the ring sometime. Cardinal services lot's of accounts ranging from pure hell to gravy so do your research.

 

There's another part of it, and I touch on it from time to time. I'm a local/regional container hauler, I rarely if ever fingerprint a load, but, in the course of a 10 to 13 hr day, which most all are, I might be in/out of that truck 40 times. Depending on the company, and the nature of the work, there might be a ton of paperwork to keep track of, which gets to be a killer. By the end of the day, I turn in what borders on a novel, my overall trip sheet showing every trailer I moved/hauled that day, my log sheet, VIR sheet, P.O.D's for each delivery, P.O.D's and copies of the bills for every load we pick up, interchanges for the railroad and the depots. It's not uncommon to spend 15 or 20 minutes at the end of the day making sure all the paperwork is in order. Not to mention, in most cases, your moving 1 to 1.5 trailers per hour, each time your out cranking landing gear, making sure it's road worthy, if it's not finding someone to fix it, while keeping an impatient dispatcher at bay about what's going on. Figure each time picking up a trailer at the rail, you're in/out of the truck at least twice, same at the customer. Cutting seals off trailer doors, etc..

The OP is right, it's not all wine and roses, I have as many if not more days where I ONLY get 10hrs off between shifts as an OTR driver. I look at this past week, I was gone Sun. to Tues. on a run, parked it Tues. @ 7:15 pm, was back in the yard @ 5:15 Weds. morning, worked until 5pm, then back in the yard and on the road at 3am. Sure, I've got a 3 day weekend this weekend, but Monday morning my first delivery is 6 am, while clock in at 3:30 am, I doubt I'll work less than 13 hrs.

Sure, that local gig looks good, yeah you can kick back in your recliner at the end of the day. But, that was one long day, and most likely, you don't have enough time from bottle to throttle to toss back a frosty brew either.

 

Yep, container hauler or intermodal work is another local/regional gig that doesn't get talked about as frequently when discussing local options instead of OTR. It's not mentioned in the OP's post either. Funny you bring it up, because outside of being a linehaul driver, doing intermodal work was the other local/regional type of gig I had my eye on. JB Hunt and Schneider both have home daily schedules for intermodal jobs in my neck of the woods. I also see Swift, Hub Group, and a few others in the area.

How long have you been hauling containers? Do you find long wait lines with other trucks when picking up and receiving? I've heard that's common w/ your line of work.

 

I've been doing it almost 17 yrs, since I don't deal with the Ports, only the rail terminals, our only wait is if something is being bad ordered and needs a flip to a new chassis, or if we bring in a load on one of our special chassis that the rail flips to their own or to the train. Longest I've ever waited was an hour, and that was because I showed up just at the packer drivers went to lunch. It's been 10 yrs since the last time I was at the Port, yeah we did have some waits though.

 

I've been doing local, regional for 15 years 8 as a O/O I'm home most nights working Monday to Friday
Saturday for maintenance there is a lot of benefits to it.
You use a lot less fuel, your insurance should be less but you use more rubber hard on tyres and sweat the shorter the run the better for me. I make more money taking loads less then 10 miles do about 4 or 5 loads a day I do a lot of handling of freight on both ends and run back empty.
It's a good place to learn as you get to load a lot of loads in a short amount of time. You also don't have to take them that far so if your learning load restraint if you have done something not quite correct it can be not so bad.
You may get home every night but sometime it's just to have dinner shower and straight to bed after the family goes to sleep.