OTR Definition

That's too bad.Aren't there other petroleum outfits in your area?

 

I've wondered the same thing. Currently run Wisconsin > Chicago > NY/NJ then back and a bit over 1 year exp doing so (no violations of any kind). That is "Dedcated regional" to most carriers which means my resume is then useless. -.-'

 

Check Craigslist and you'll probably find something quick.

 

Company definition of OTR
Poor sap who will work for low wage, live in truck for months at a time, must always be on time for appointment, but shipper or reciever is running a little behind so hang tight we will get to you in the next 10 hours. You will be treated like a number not a human. Home time what's that you live in truck. Oh and your time is worth nothing. Pretty much sums up what they are looking for.

 

Sounds like they were coming up with excuses. I get more experience driving locally than I ever got "over the road". All you do OTR is drive. 11-13 hours a day, almost nothing else the whole week.

Locally, I can pick up and deliver 3 loads of lumber on B-trains in a day. I can go pick up equipment in the morning and steel in the afternoon. After delivering some lumber in the morning, I can switch trucks and go pick up some bulk calcium in the afternoon. I do all sorts of different things as a local driver and wouldn't want it any other way.

If someone denied me a position due to a "lack of experience" I'd do something extremely unprofessional and tell them to "stuff it".

Driving a truck is driving a truck is driving a truck.

Now, I could understand someone denying you a position running into the mountains in BC while only having experience running in the Prairies... but come on.

 

One of the things the insurance companies consider for OTR risks is being able to safely handle what @Coover said.

Being able to drive for 11 hours straight, through different states with varying rules, unfamiliar roads and weather, flat and mountains, handling sleeping every night in a truck, in rest stops and off ramps, rotating sleep schedules, and then able to drive another 11 hours safely,with out going crazy.

Local/regional, with frequent hometown, or the same route every day, etc, is a different ballgame in many ways.

I know one place I applied for, I was able to meet all of the insurance requirements, based on various jobs and types of truck I have done over the last 20 years, except it had nearly all been in California (because I lived in the middle of the state, I only made a couple of trips out of state, mostly being Greater Bay Area, and Bay Area to So Cal), and so without the Interstate experience, I was considered to have no OTR experience.