OTR Question, will they eventually keep me regional?

You will go all over the country most likely.

 

Depends who you work for. If you look for what areas a company runs that will give you a better idea. For example I am sure there are plenty of carriers that just run the i-5 corridor (mostly). There are others who run produce from California all over the country and return back with whatever loads. Some will pinball you around the country and you will have no reasonable estimation if you will ever see your house again. So, when the pinball company tells you they will get you home every week or 2 weeks or whatever...you know they are likely lying to you in order to get you into the seat. There are plenty of those out there too.
@Chinatown can suggest some companies for you if you put your location in your profile. Once you get a list of carriers you want to look into you can ask drivers about how that place operates to get a better feel for operating area and a general feel if they are happy working there or dread every day.

 

With my job it is completely random. Certain cities like Chicago, Laredo and Atlanta I go to often. But expect to go to any place, any state.

 

You can get a regional job that will do that. Some of the megas do just the opposite, you live on the west coast they keep you out east, makes it harder for you to quit or take impromptu home time.

 

its what lanes they run and what customers they serve, the only way to kno that is to work there or find someone who has or does and ask them where they run. or if your running 48 already and want to kno where a certain company runs pay attention to where you see alot of their trucks. i see certain companies owner op and company trucks all the time in my area, certain ones i never see, that tells me who runs where as far as otr freight is concerned in my area, when im on the road i pay attention to who i see where, whether its company trucks or owner ops.

and most of it would depend on how often your wanting to go home

 

When I was otr the companies I drove for kept me far away from my state till home time.There is regional and dedicated that would get you home every week.

 

Swift have dedicated accounts so if you got on one of those you would be running in the same areas. Avoid any dedicated account servicing any of the dollar stores.

 

No, no, no, no, no. As usual, most people come here with assumptions that are wrong and then they get confirmed by people that make the same assumptions and have not thought things through, or figured things out. So goes trucking.

You said Swift. So, I will tell you what Swift does. However, most mega-crap trucking companies do the exact same thing:

If your on the west coast (like you say) running Swift OTR, Swift will send you to the East coast to run loads. If your on the east coast, Swift will send you west. This does a couple of things:

First, it is harder to quit when you 2000 miles from home. This is an important consideration when your running a company that has 100% turnover. Keep a guy away far away from home their is little chance he will do any job searching. And, if he does, his chances of making it back to a job interview in the next two weeks are slim to none. I am sure Swifts turnover would be much higher, if it wasn't for this simple fact.

Secondly, after running you across country they like to use your time for running locals for low or no cost to them. Thats right, they give you a nice cross country load to fill out the planner's weekly quota for planning you, then they hit you with load after load of non-paying runs (Since you get paid by the mile). Of course they say they will spiff you an hourly fee, but you would have better luck pulling teeth from a hen then getting it. But, who are you to complain? You are half way across the country. You can't just load up your car and leave. You just can't get another job. If you complain to much, they just won't answer the phone. It will be weeks before you get back to the terminal to ring your dispatchers neck. You would have forgotten all the free work by the next time you see him.

Thirdly, companies like Swift make lots of money servicing crappy customers. They have customers that will suck-up a driver's day for nothing. You will be sitting at the dock on loads and unloads while the hours tick away. And I do mean hours. Those hours would cost Swift money if they gave those loads to hourly paid local drivers. But, now since your miles from home, and they found a sucker to driver for CPM, all that time you spend sitting at the dock is free to them. Want to complain? Sure, take a number, and wait on phone. Want to see a dispatcher about the problem? Great, you dispatcher is 2000 miles away and about time you see him months from now, you would have forgot about the whole thing? Feel like quitting or getting another job? How you going to do that when your 2000 miles from home?