Happy "oops" is still,,, um inconvienent?

You've got 6/7 months in now? SNI has an OC in Harrisburg and you may find a dedicated run in that area with good/decent hometime.

 

My wife stayed with me for a month on the road...she also went home with "one in the oven".


Daniel was born 3-25-07...I was in Ellensburg, WA at the time and it sucked. Maverick was going to let me have some time off to be there when he was born, but he was born nearly a month earlier than expected. They did all they could do to get me home (2,400 miles away) as soon as they could but I had 3 more stops to make on the load before I even started home. I made those stops the next day, waited 6 hours before they found a load heading back. When I got to Evanston, WY...I80 was shut down all the way across WY due to a snowstorm, sat there at the Pilot for 3 days.

When I finally got home Daniel was a over a week old...I hate that I have missed the birth of both my sons but there is nothing I can do about it now except provide for them as best I can.

How do I do it??? Its easy, I do it for them because its what I'm good at.

 

Get a resume together and start knocking on the doors of every local company in your area,...By local I mean the home every day jobs like ltl freight, beer and booze distributors,...grocery distributors,..ect......,.....Sooner or later they will get sick of you stoping in and put you to work,........The really good local jobs don't advertise,..they don't need to....

 

Good advice . Yesterday I ran a Google on company driver forums . I came across a site where companies needing drivers posted . There were actualy quite a few companies hiring for good paying local jobs . But all he jobs involved work - beer distributors , dumpster rolloff drivers , etc . Hard work won't kill you . Holding a steering wheel hour after hour , day after day is very bad for your health .

 

Infosaur,,, there is a company, Transtech here in Harrisburg looking for drivers for local work running to Dover Del. daily. Also National Carriers is looking for locals drivers here in PA.
Check the craigslist in your area, there's plenty of local work.
You're also in a good area to run containers, which your'e home daily.

Yes you'll be a happy camper being home with your family...
My son after running over the road for several years got off the road to work local and loves it. He refuses to go back even though he misses it sometimes.

LOTS OF LUCK!

 

I did the whole newbie thing with local community college truck driving school and trained after that with Roehl OTR last year. At about my sixth month solo the miles started dropping (they weren't that great to start with) and sitting around miles from home and my life were taking a toll on me. Your post struck a chord with me reading it, because that's about how I felt after six months in my own (company) truck.

I had constantly read post after post on here about how you needed 1-2 years before even dreaming about landing any sort of local gig. I didn't let that stop me. When I parked that truck every evening I was on the internet checking my LOCAL listings on craigslist, careerbuilder, monster, etc. I filled out a lot of online applications every week out there on the big road reguardless of how much experience the ad said you needed.

I checked online local yellow pages for companies in my area and got the phone numbers and called human resources requesting a fax number I could send them my resume to. I must have faxed over 40 resumes from whatever truckstop I was at back to companies that were within 50 miles of my home when I was out there.

After a month of doing this, a job came up on monster that was 2 miles from my house!! It requested 1 year tt exp. to apply but I called anyway with my 7 months exp. I explained on the phone why I was very interested in the job and if I could fax him my resume, MVR copy that I had, etc. even though I was 5 months short of meeting his criteria. He bit and told me to send it. I got a call back 3 hours later asking me when I could interview and I was to be on hometime in 2 days and I dropped my bags by the front door and ran on over as soon as I got home. The rest is history. I work about 40-45 hours a week and get in my car and drive the 2 miles home every night and off weekends.

I started out on the hourly pay averaging about $100 less a week than I was making OTR logging near 70 hours a week at my now 40 hours a week. But 2 raises later after getting through the 3 and 6 month probationary periods is helping but it pales in comparison to getting MY LIFE back! That phone call I used to get "what ya want for dinner?" every afternoon used to not mean much, now it's priceless!!!

My long winded point driver is this: Don't quit a job/career you already worked so hard to get your foot in the door on and have spent substantial amount of time and money on to do so. You have to be persistent and dedicated to getting what you want, that local or regional job. You have to make phone calls. You have to fax resumes. You have to do it daily until you achieve your goal of maintaining your current career (if you really love driving like I do) and getting that be home every night or every few days if you get regional/ded.

DO NOT let the experience requested in any ad stop you from applying. Apply anyway, you never know! The worst they can do is throw it in the trash and that's what's gonna happen to 25, 50, 100 of them that you send it to, but all you need is the 1 good job to give you a call back! I hope my little story helps and keeps you positive and hopefully a little bit of useful advice.

I wish I had read something like this on here when I was at my 6/7th month out there and all I read was negativety: No you need 1 year, no you need 2 years, hell driver you'll never get out of OTR, etc.!!! Be positive, patient, and persistent. It WILL pay off for you. Keep a good attitude as well. I wish you good luck and hope the best for ya.

 

Btw...... Congratulations on your "productivity".

 

My wife is 5 months pregnant, so I have some knowlage on the situation. My advice is to spend the first trimester OTR. Women in thier first trimester are mean as grizzly bears.

Good luck

 

If your living in the Harrisburg Pa area JB Hunt has local intermodal work there home every day, 2 days off pulling containers in and out of the rail yard. I just seen the ad last week, they are hiring. I think you only need 6mos exp not 100% sure though.