Might have to go back on the road

I've never worked solo OTR. When I did it, I was teamed. Local work right now is pretty much non-existent around me unless I go into NYC. Following the advice of very trusted people in my family who drive trucks, its not worth it. But right now my job is paying terrible. Friday, I took home a paycheck for under $300 for the week.

So I'm thinking about looking into one of the regional, 5 days out type of jobs. While I know there's no shortage of those jobs around here, and if you're OTR for them you usually don't have to do NYC... I still want to make sure I get with the best company I can.

Besides the obvious like pay, miles, hometime, and benefits what are some questions I should be asking so that I don't screw myself and end up with a terrible company? What are the little things that you guys look for when it comes to trucking companies? I want to make sure I find out about all that stuff that most people are going to just completely overlook until it's too late.

 

Yeah, this is pretty much exactly why. I only drive a little 2 seater car, and if I have to go to NYC, I drive to close, and then take a bus or train in. To give you an idea of Manhattan, you have to be comfortable at splitting a crowd of people with your car, or you'll never get to start going at a green light. You have to actually scare pedestrians out of your way. And then, if you're coming off of one of the smaller side streets (not blacktop with yellow lines) GOOD LUCK having the room to turn. For trucks, we get a little easier with the fact that we pretty much can only drive on blacktop with yellow lines... But turning onto that road... Good luck having the 70 feet to not be in the box, because that's a big ticket that's enforced... Usually, by the time your light is green to turn, you don't even have room to get my car through the turn. And Manhattan is the easy part of the city. If you're going into The Bronx, or Queens, you have maps of what roads you're allowed on, they're not set up in an easy grid, sometimes you're going miles out of your way to be able to come down the one way street. Miles during a Wednesday afternoon is easily over an hour of driving. This is why most of NYC takes the busses and subway.

That traffic on I95, that's through the entire city.

Now, add in the fact that most of these companies are still paying you by the mile. You're payed for your stops like most local jobs, but losing a ton of mileage pay.

Now, if you were going into NYC at 2-3 AM, that's a whole different story. There's still traffic, but nowhere near as bad. Guess what shift only goes to the guys with seniority.