Been at it for almost year, looking for advice on the next step

You are looking for local work only MA but it also shows out west. How does this work?

 

You seem conflicted.

You speak of local work only, but dream of running the west.

If you think a little bit of sea salt at -20 cold in Mass during a nor'easter wait until you meet a proper -65 windchill howler at 50 mph and white out conditions that may last a day. As in may. While piling snow deep around your drives to need a shovel to move only to find out they slammed the interstate highway gate shut at the entrance ramp. Who knows how long it will be closed. A day, a week?

Fuel tanker work is generally 25 years old and over with experience. That is not work handed to young people.

My family has a history of fuel tanking (Gasoline in particular) in time of war with the Red Ball Express while being shot at. And survived a runaway tractor trailer with more gasoline back in the 50's on big savage prior to I-68 in Maryland. I think it was old 40 then.

I wont touch fuel myself.

You seemed to go loving on the heavy equiptment. Well, there is a heavy hauling section here in these forums you can feast your eyes on.

You can either be a homebody staying home local across town every day or you can be a trucker gone who knows how long before you get home again. You need to resolve this first before anything because once they send you far way with a load and you get homesick, sorry you are not excused to go home right now. You have a load to deliver.

 

Ok let me see if I got this. No OTR, no Regional, Fuel is OK, Equipment is OK, West OK, MA not OK. Am I getting close?

 

Dont misunderstand the replies I am just trying to understand what you are asking. You are doing the right thing by searching now. Demonstrates good planing. Have you looked at some of the threads for both. I find reading these very helpful? You might find sarcasm and humor but they dont charge any money. You can just read the threads and cancel netflix.

 

For local work... location is everything. You will want to be in a large metro area that is expanding (If you want to get into moving equipment) so think about an area with a large housing boom.

For fuel.. a large metro area.. but could be an area already established.

In these types of places you will find companies looking for local drivers that actually pay well vs local positions in slow not so busy rural areas.

It's a double edged sword in my opinion. Your going to be dealing with local traffic and congestion on a regular basis that may or may not make you wish you were back to being otr or regional.

If you have a young family at home I can understand. I dropped out of trucking completely after my second child was born and pursued a different career path. Now that my kids are grown and out of the house. OTR is where the money is at for me.

Hurst

 

I've never done liquid tanker work, started OTR with dry van then had to get off the road to help care for the oldest generation and ended up in dry bulk.

Don't know if it would work for you but might be something to look into. I live in a suburban area of Chicago so there is work for it at least in some metropolitan areas plus I think you might be able to get work in that area in a more rural area also where agriculture is more prominent then industry as mills and whatnot are in some of those types of areas also, but don't quote me on that part.