Experiance - Local vs OTR

I would love to do line driving or "road" driving as we call it. But my boss (at home that is) says she just isn't ready for that lifestyle yet. Plus I have 2 little ones so it just can't work right now. But the money is very appealing, and of course they drive the brand new trucks and get treated like kings around these parts. Not to mention the senior drivers are making .55cpm pulling rocky sets. Ah well, maybe a little later in life I can do it and be Mr. Cash. Things are comfortable enough right now financially, so if I do make the transition it will be for the challenge and change. Would be nice to bid and go back and forth like you can but we don't have bids or boards or any of that. We only have 200 some drivers divided by 5 states at my company and it's still kind of run old-school (which I like).

 

No doubt man.. I did almost 1.5 years of ORR before I started working for Con-way and will never forget the fact I worked my way up to where I am now. I've never been married and have no kids so that allows me to do whatever I want but you're in a good spot man..

I started driving the day I turn red 21 and started at Con-way when I was 22 so I hit top scale at 27 which is unheard of in LTL Freight - I'll be 31 in a couple weeks with about 8 years and 10 months in with Freight which at my terminal allows me to bid whatever the hell I want.. So I'm gonna bid a meet and turn run cause I can..lol..

 

Yo Andy...You need to do some polishing on your tanks, wheels don't look so hot either. I keep my tanks polished, but sure do hate doing wheels or the headache rack. Try to wash it one a week (to get my wash bonus) and then dust it off every morning when doing my PTI.

 

I was OTR flatbed for 2 & 1/2 years and then went local with Bluelinx. On the "plus" side I will say that home every night and not having to leave out on Sundays is very cool. On the "minus" side I will say that the money and freedom is better OTR. Unfortunately, I can never go back to OTR because my wife has made it perfectly clear that she wants me at home to help with the kids and such. But, as a man, the "benefits" of being at home with your wife all week don't really add up when you have to get up at 3:00am to go to work, requiring you to go to bed to sleep at 7:30 or 8:00pm Weekends are more fun though

 

Even when the outside is a little damp and cold the interior is always 100%. Just like my car just like my house.

 

That's a great feeling to have so much seniority so young I'm sure. I'm middle of the pack and at my age (29) and feel very lucky. I know that if it gets slow this winter there are a half dozen people below me that get the layoff ax (not to be selfish or self centered or anything) before me. Keep on keepn' on brother, sounds like you got a good thing going. I almost went with conway, but got hooked into a smaller outfit out of Colorado. I'm sure I would have been happy at either 'cause I just love the biz.

 

At Southeastern you will be at top pay in 1 year. Im 21 and do p & d. Made 19.15 on the docks and the yard, and now im at 19.55 with 50 cent pay increases every 3 months until we top at 21.55 for now. Our l/h pays 52.5 cpm no matter how much experience youve got. I fill in every now and then when I get a chance. Our pay and benes are good but they want you to be a super trucker and its pretty stressful. It would take 10 years to get a strictly linehaul job at my terminal though :-/ You are lucky!

 

That's really good man. Don't take this the wrong way man, but you're so young I'm not sure if you can really fully appreciate how good that is and what a good spot you're in. I earned where I'm at but that said, I'm not sure I would appreciate how good my situation is if I didn't have the little bit of OTR experience first.

I'm actually glad it took me till my 4'th year here to get a line-haul slot because otherwise I think I would be one of those drivers that had to run long line-haul every year just to pay the bills I incurred. I was either call in or city for the first 4.5 years so I was used to 50K or so - now I still get by on that but can double my income to save or pay cash for things on a yearly basis.

You're in a great spot man so just keep your record clean and don't take it for granted - it may suck for a while sometime down the line but if you stick it out you'll be glad you did.

 

I havent caught a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel yet lol. I think your right, I dont know how good ive got it. I guess because this is all I know. I swear some days I want to throw the towel in and go otr and never touch any freight and never have to get this truck into tight places where it should not be. Conway seems to have a little better plan as far as loading up p&d runs on pups rather than 53's. SEFL wont let you go out with anything less than a 53 footer 99% of the time. Lol they claim its "the industry standard", but it wasnt back in 19xx when some of these places were designed.

 

Yeah I hear ya. I did the city p&d thing here for 3 straight bid years. My favorite line from dispatch was we get 53' in there all the time..lol.. no you didn't but I got it in there without hitting anything and learned from it. You'll be fine man..