Do some drivers do all - (OTR, team, solo, regional, local)

W. W. Transport - Charlotte, NC drivers - $1,000 - $1,200 a week
No Experience required for Dry Bulk division. We will train you.
Tanker Endorsement preferred for dry bulk drivers.
Click here > Apply On Company Site

 

Gastonia, NC is local work within North Carolina.
www.valleyproteins.com

 

That was actually how I got started OTR. I ran local food service, I didn’t have a regular route. Some times, I would have to help other drivers with heavy routes. Some times,they would have a truck go to the nuke plants and that was an all day thing, because the security went through every box. When I say “all day”, I mean ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL DAY. Log off duty, eat in the cafeteria, go to sleep, get lunch, go to sleep, possibly dinner.

They would also have these big long runs out to the other side of the country. Or big special events. And so I floated around until they got me a regional gig where I got home every day and a half.

 

I have met drivers for bigger companies who have gone from 48-state OTR to home-weekends dedicated/regional or home-daily daycab work within the same company. For example, Werner in my city has daycab work out of an Anheuser Busch brewery and Schneider has daycab work running containers out of a railyard. Many of those drivers started off OTR and transferred to the local positions.

Usually big companies like that have completely separate divisions or at least separate management groups handling the dedicated accounts, so even though switching between them is possible, it is almost like getting a new job with a different company. You might not have to reapply, but you'd essentially transfer to the new gig and not be able to easily bounce around between them. I think it might be a good route to go if your ultimate goal is to end up working local as soon as possible.

 

I work for a small company hauling mostly pharmaceuticals and blood products. I am usually running regionally. Atlanta, Memphis, Nashville, Louisville, Indy...

But sometimes they get a solo run to California, Nevada or Laredo. About 1or 2 a month. We have about 3-4 teams that make coast to coast runs constantly

I also will do Local runs when I’m home for a day or two.

We do a lot of international loads where we bring to Atlanta to be packaged into envirocontainers to ship temp controlled product, and then deliver to airports all up and down the east coast...Miami, Atlanta NJ, NY Boston etc....

They have teams that run Plasma routes. They sometimes ask other drivers to do a run when someone gets sick or needs to stay home for something. They know better than to ask me... lol

Need 2-3 years experience. Home most weekends and a night during the week...unless you snag some longer routes

So there are companies like your looking for...

 

well what you are looking for is basically what I am doing , but you can't start out that way or it will eat you up . you need a year over the road experience first then you can figure out what you want to do . some guys are really happy to have a dedicated run where they are doing the same thing every day . some guys like doing linehaul driving terminal to terminal mostly on the interstates. some guys like peddling freight. myself I like them all because I get bored doing the same thing every day .. unfortunately I don't know of a company that let's you switch back and forth on regular basis unless you work for someone like me or do what I do and own your own truck. .. I do local , instate shorthaul, equip ment and machinery moves , peddle frieght, do line hauls , doing store delivery, over the road ., regional ..ect pretty much everything . I am leased to landstar and set my own scedule and pick my own loads. depending on what's available, when I need to be home , and what pays the best and what I feel like doing . you really couldn't start out like that and it's hard enough after a year and it is not for everyone as there is a fairly high failure rate for self dispatch systems, my suggestion would be to pick a company and go over the road for a year , if you are good you might make half as much as I do and drive twice the miles but it's getting experience then get on with someone like me that would let you do different things and you could find out if that's for you then buy a truck. that's the best way ..... you could rent a truck ( lease ) from a mega carrier but they tell you where to go , where to get the truck fixed , overcharge for that truck, how fast the truck will go and you are tied to that company, they call that being an owner operator I am not sure about that

 

I don't think there is just one company doing all of what you are asking in the manner you are asking for.

Most companies assign you to a segment and you have to 'transfer' to the other ones.

Maybe the smaller ones do this but I doubt they have the work to keep everyone going if they wanted to do this.

 

landstar for one but that's owner ops don't know of any company drivers that can change on a daily basis, or work for someone who is leased to landstar there is probably more but would be a smaller company and as far as work goes a smaller company can keep you moving more than a large company

 

Saw a CR England day cab today in California pulling a Shop-Rite trailer. He was headed Eastbound toward Las Vegas.
Also so a JB Hunt day cab today in California pulling a container.
Lots of companies have local/regional/OTR within the same company. JB Hunt has been hiring a lot of new cdl graduates the past few months. That's a reason we recommend drivers apply anywhere they're interested and ignore any "experience required."
Videos of JB Hunt JBTI trucks
Truck Driver Job Opportunities | Drive J.B. Hunt
https://drivers.jbhunt.com/jobs
Find Truck Driving Jobs at J.B. Hunt
https://drivers.jbhunt.com

 

They want you in one position at a time. You can work for driver temp services and switch around but those aren't top-tier jobs.