How hard is it to find a LOCAL trucking job with daily hometime after some experience

Your correct 18 for in state and 21for out of state and hazmat

 

Believe it or not, but the best leads I've seen for local driving jobs is on Craigslist under Jobs-Transport.

Also, if you CAN find a local company to hire you right out of school, take it. Having OTR experience is not always neccesary, as thousands can testify to. Changing companies can be a hassle and at the very least, you'll be without insurance & other bennies for about 3 months after the switch. HTH Good luck!

 

AmericanTrucker95,

Were you born in the year of 1995? I did see on your profile that your birthday is June 6th..

God bless every American and their families! God bless the U.S.A.!

 

Sounds like a good plan. Being single and just starting out, you can see the country for a couple of years and then get a local gig. Good luck.

 

You need exactly ZERO experience to land a local, home every night job once you're old enough but a job with a first-rate LTL will take about a year's experience. In the meantime, you could check with LTL companies near you for part-time work, dock or office, to learn more about this profession. Also repair shops, you could learn tires, lube, etc. Mechanics go home every night. Something to think about, too.

If you lived--or wanted to move--to AZ for a few years, Central Arizona College has a Heavy Equipment Operator/Heavy Equipment Mechanic program at Grande Vista that includes CDL and a nationally-recognized 2-yr certificate. Young guys right out of HS go into program and come out with $50K jobs, some part-time work during, too.

(I've owned a Cat D6 and Cat 955 track loader. There is something about moving dirt. These machines do an awesome amount of work in a few hours. Still have the track loader but broke a pin and the track is off on the left side. Good luck.)

 

I started out local LTL when I was 22 and had my class A license for a week... no experience. I worked for CWF and went through their driver training program, then I left and went to work for YRC freight(long story but was a better choice on my part) YRC Freight now also started their own driving school, mostly at major hubs, theres a hub in Richfield(believe thats where the clevehand hub is.) YRC, CWF, ABF, and old Dominion all have driving schools and take rookies. I know nothing of Old D driving school, ABF your locked onto a 2 year contract, plus you can only do P/D if your 21, when you turn 25 then you can go Line-Haul if you wanted too. YRC even though I was there for 2 years I dont know much of their school. CWF will take you without a license or endorsements but will put you into a contract for how ever much time. If you go in with everything they void that out and cut the class down to 4 weeks instead of 12.

YRC and CWF are the too easiest to get into, Personally even with YRCs problems going on I think they are better and easier to work for than CWF. You must do something REALLY bad to get fired from YRC, once your on the union list anyways. CWF can be a good job, depending on terminals.

I have heard Estes Express line will hire 18 year olds for a straight truck position... Im not 100% sure though but its something to look at, and they are good to work for as well, drivers seem happy.


By going local LTL theres P/D and Line-haul, I have done both and personally like Line-Haul over P/D

 

Pretty much what ACH1130 said sums it up. If you live in a small town, you may have to wait for a driver to die or retire before you can find an opening... much less get actual hands-on training. My training consisted of four hours of DVDs & VHS tapes. Followed by some open-book paper tests that nobody ever graded. Larger terminals that are actually staffed with more than 10 people will probably have some form of training section, even if that section is double-hatted by someone on the side.

Your chances of being hired WILL depend on your area and the size of the terminal.

I can say that getting booted is quite a challenge. I am NON-UNION, so our job security might not be as stable as those of us that have a bit more protection. Usually the best way to get canned is to do something stupid that affects safety. I was even warned on my first day that "If you screw something up, SAFETY is where they will get you. You can get away with pretty much anything else... just don't break anything".

We have a dock worker that doesn't placard HazMat trailers and sends about 5% of all freight in any direction but the terminal it is intended to go to. One driver rolled a set of triples one year near Salt Lake... nothing happened. Another guy kept falling asleep... after his second or third rollover, he finally got the boot.

On the same note, we had a UNION guy drop a trailer in his yard at the Seattle terminal (just up the road from me) and he got booted. His truck had some in-cab, fifth wheel unlock switch, and it got stuck when he dumped his trailer. 20 years with the company, and the new safety guy made an example out of him. He had a job the next day with someone else... but still, it is a bit of a crapshoot.

From personal experience, OD & FXF seem to be the hardest to get on-board with. They are still turning me down after a year of LCV driving with my current carrier. LOL

 

I landed my job under "Transport Jobs" on CL.