OTR VS.Local

A handsome chimp like me, I have to keep a low profile. Getting to old to evade the ladies!

 

Is it undesirable to start out local? Im 18 and going to a program to get my cdl next month so I'll still have to find a job that stays in state until I turn 21. After that though I would like to go otr personally. My dad managed to do this with no schooling but then again he isnt making very much compared to other drivers but he would rather be home with his wife so its understandable.

 

I wouldn't say that, I mean experience is experience, by the time you are old enough to drive over the road you will have had several years of experience driving. I think that has to count for something. You will be a much better driver than these guys coming straight out of their company paid training who don't even know how to back up.

I was in the same sort of situation as you are when I started. I started out driving locally, when I was old enough I went to OTR. I never had a problem finding OTR or local jobs.

 

otr driving can be very alluring. the life is free and alot of guys like it. Plus money is better. Good payiong local jobs are hard to find and if you do they are usually nights and weekends. I just went back on the road recently and I see my family more now than the 6 years I drove local. it doesn't help to be local if you work weekends and your family is asleep when you get home and gone by the time you wake.

Local work gets to be too much like a job!! :smt004

 

If you stay with the company less than a year it makes them ask questions. If that happened couple times - more questions, if more than couple times you may not get a job. So no BAM for sure there, that’s what I hear .

 

If you stay with the company less than a year it makes them ask questions. If that happened couple times - more questions, if more than couple times you may not get a job. So no BAM for sure there, that’s what I hear J.

 

I am having trouble going from Other the Road to Local.

Seems they figure if you have been driving other the road you don't do anything but sit and drive all day. I have spent 20 years other the road and have good record yet can't find local job.

But then again I only want to work days, stay out of the mountains and be home every night for a fair wage. Would like to run within 100 miles of Yakima.

 

I would never go back OTR , all those hours and hours and hours UNPAID, lost time you will never get back,things in your life that you will miss.

I drive locally now with less than a year OTR experiance and make more a week working 10-12 hours a day than i would 4,000 miles a week @ 32 cpm OTR.I get to come home everynight to my wife and kids and able to attend the more important things in my life.Local driving beats OTR hands down for anyone who has family ties and a life,no matter the pay rate.

Even if i was only offered $10 a hr to drive a truck locally i still wouldn't go back OTR,the OTR companys don't have enough money to compensate for the mental anguish that comes along with those miles.I would much rather be paid a lower wage for driving locally since it really isn't back breaking work than to be 2,000 miles from home and something go wrong at home and your left out there with freight and a dispatcher who could give a ratts butt about any problems you may have.

As said by Turbo-Trucker there are easier and better ways of getting into the trucking industry than to be caught up in the web of lies and deception brought forth by the companys out there to date.Dedication,determination,patience are three golden rules for getting a driving job that meets your standards.

Good luck to you all .

TopFlights~

 

YOU mean you SCARE the ladies!

 

No, more like they scare me. I am married to a red head.