Can you go local anywhere after OTR?

You need to think for a while. I'm otr. I've tried home nightly and I hate it. Not because the family but mostly because of needing to get to the truck. Before I went on duty could take a while sometimes, being a one car household. And it just seems more hectic being home nightly and getting up with kids who are rushing to school. Or being up before the kids trying not to disturb them. That's my thoughts.

 

Trucking companies hire based on the address that's on your cdl.
Estes Express Lines is in East Tennessee and has line haul, which is drop & hook/terminal to terminal. Big bucks and good benefits.

 

You hae several problems.

First if you run local long enough and have a new residence to support that local job you are likely going to be told to surrender your Class A when it's up at the 3oth day of residency running local. You said that you are not going back to the state that issued your CDL that means you need to find another state, establish a home surrender and retake the state's required tests for Class A cdl etc.

The risk is that if you are running local that does not have class A trucks and you are required to retest with class B then that's a real problem.

Eastern TN is not that much, bedroom communities and what not. Oakridge in Knoxville west is nuclear for America nuclear bombs and such, those kinds of people have a education that is very expensive to get these days. That's one example.

Most local work Ive done end up being 16 hour days and get a few hours a night most week days. Daytime flatbedding comes to mind when you start at three AM from Frederick with Shingles of Tamko and in Fishertown by 8 Am in the morning and then you will be given another load to fetch and deliver into say Reading PA. It's nuts. Radius of 250 miles. Money was good, but none of that nice 8 hour home time to sleep. You get home, fix dinner, set timers go to bed up at 1 am and getting ready to be there at 2 am to crank that truck. She should be at warmed up coolant temp by 10 to 3.

One local jobber in Maryland, TBH Concrete told me I was overqualified with my CDL A since his yard was full of sitting 18 wheel low boy trucks outside that man's window in the rain. The actual problem with that yankee was discrimination against my hearing and recent deliveries into their TBH Plant with bulk cement tankers. I was not welcome then and was not welcome later. But the cement was. Unless it's 18 inches of snow, no chance for anyone to call for ready mix that day concreting, but they have to sit 90 minutes baby sitting me and their silo. HA...

Here in Arkansas I did that same local work without a thought about my so called over qualification. Ha. they don't care about that silly stuff. So I got lucky that way when I made Arkansas my home. Even with two or so years roughly ready mix etc including front end loading rock and sand etc I still will not be welcome in TBH. Ha. It's something that's there for life, you work around it. Maryland wasnt much for me in my time thats why I am where I am. All that invested in education etc and not be much more than a dishwasher in their economic workforce that intend to price everyone less than a masters or doctorate out of the market for living there. They brought that on themselves.

 

I think most states now, when you change your CDL, just do an eye test and update the hazmat. Some corrupt states require everything over again, such as California and Illinois.

 

I think Crete has a daycab fleet running ConAgra loads out of Newport, TN.

 

Think long and hard before going local from OTR. I tried it last year, and local isn't all it's cracked up to be, at least for me it wasn't. Yes you are home every night, but local work is a LOT harder physically than OTR work, and many days you are working a full 14 hours. When you do get home, you are usually too exhausted to enjoy time with the family, and you need sleep to wake up the next day and start all over again. The pay structure is generally different as well. So you might go from a decent check getting a lot of miles each week, to an hourly gig for $20-$25 an hour and wind up not making as much as you were OTR.

I would suggest staying OTR, but trying for a regional or dedicated route that gets you home every few days or weekends. Running the same route every week has its advantages, and you at least know how much your paycheck will be every week. My last OTR paid a flat day rate so my checks were always the same. Local pick ups and deliveries darn near killed this old body.

 

Oh have I got stories of these daycab days after my 11 years of OTR working for Megas,
I just bottle it up and pretend it didn’t happen. But now I have an eye tick sort of like Diane Chambers had in the early seasons....

Local is a whole different beast.

 

Do NOT go on salary for local. They will work you to death. Always go hourly. Now, if you move to Nashville, there are tons of dedicated runs that will get you home every night. So much auto parts around here. 400-500 miles and salaried. There are a many companies that have shuttle work starting at $18. Some do both. You might get some fill in work. Check Craigslist Nashville.