A few questions

Kentucky is a great place to live for trucking. So many things go through Louisville, and up and down to Atlanta, north to Indy and Chicago. You may want to look into intermodal. That's what I did out of Chicago, but they go all over, and much of it is local. Just be careful who you go on with, with that. Try and talk to other drivers from that company, and take an average. Some may hate it, others love it.

 

I wonder what the advantages of OTR are and the disadvantages of local.

 

Again, and this is an informational site, so we can't get tired of repeating this, BUT, trucking is a very personal deal. What works for one, may not work for someone else. PERSONALLY, I had 2 kids, a farmette (with a ton of grass to cut) old car hobbies, not to mention fixing up an old farmhouse, so I HAD to be home. I wanted to be home. Many times, family gatherings, school plays, soccer, was in the evening, so I'd do that, and finally get to sleep about 9 pm, and have to be up at 1am. ( disadvantage local, advantage OTR) But OTR, you'll miss birthdays, holidays, Bar Mitzvah's, because OTR can be unpredictible. Weather delays, shipping snafu's, truck problems, all of which will happen while local, it's just, for me, if that happened, I usually made it home, pretty late sometimes, but a good dispatcher, which I usually had, will recognize that, and give you something in the aft. the next day. Again, there's nothing wrong with OTR. Eating on the road is bad, while it has gotten better, parking can be bad, with these new rules, it seems EVERYBODY stops at the same time, and that can be a nightmare, bathroom facilities, disgusting on the road. There's ways around that too, (except the bathrooms part) and many love it, and wouldn't want the hassles of local. Trying to do both, OTR and family home life, rarely works. The divorce rate on that is through the roof. Hope that helps.

 

You said a mouthful there.

 

Insurance companies could care less if you went to trucking school. Age, license, citations, accidents. Some require 6 months. Most don't. Companies want experience to keep their rating down. When the driver pool is deep, you need 2 years, when it gets shallow 6 months.

 

Insurance companies care about everything anymore,they make the call who companies can hire.

 

But whether or not insurance cares if the new cdl holder or not they still need some sort of schooling before any of the starter companies will hire them and my guess would be that is one of the insurance requirements.