otr vs. local

Mostly insurance for some stupid reason and some on the company. They need someone who can drive in a city environment without tearing up street signs, cars, trucks and pedestrians! It's way different than sitting most of the day moving from one lane to another on an interstate or a long stretch of deserted highway or back road! (well if there was such a thing as a deserted highway anymore!)

 

Experience taught me to beware of local jobs offered to newbies. Generally these are jobs that are so awful no one else wants them. If a company offers you a local job fresh out of school, ask lots of questions and talk to their other drivers before accepting.

I tried local with only a few months experience. I worked for two different companies and they were both so bad I didn't stay long. Now I have a work history that shows my first year job hopping.

 

I've driven local/regional as long as I've been driving. My first job out of driving school was for a local 7Up distributor, my entire route was downtown Denver and a few stops just to the edge of downtown. Alleys, cars, peds, buses, bicycles, bums, it was a great way to start.

After that I went to work for the local McD's warehouse delivering to the stores in Colo. and Wyo. That is a pucker factor when your putting a road tractor (out of town 2 days runs were made with a 379) and a 48' trailer alongside most of these stores without the help of spotters or anyone to stop traffic for you. It takes patience, practice and silent cussing.

For the last 12 yrs I've run local/regional for a container hauler. They require only 3 yrs exp. to get in the door, but they actually prefer that you have a good knowledge of the area and can read a map. Personally, from what I see of most OTR drivers, they should start doing local first then go on the road. Most OTR drivers suck at driving in the city and backing, I believe it's because they spend 90% of their lives going forward whereas a local driver will spend 60/40 going forward or backing into a dock and thus have more abilities.

 

I would think supply and demand has something to do with it. Decent local jobs will have many applicants for limited openings in a competitive industry. I was lucky to land a good local gig at a young age. I had a little under 2 years OTR and was only 22 when Con-way hired me. From my experience, I don't think there is a set amount of time or age to land a good local job. Con-way is self insured but has hired 21 year olds that never drove a truck before and are now million mile drivers here. This place sucks at times but in the end I'm glad I found it.

 

Not always true, I started out working local for a very good, very large, well paying company with benefits and paid vacation when I started driving and I never even went to a driving school, sometimes you just get lucky if you go out and knock on some doors.

If you can get a gig like that don't be stupid and give it up like I did, you will kick yourself in the ###, I did it for less than a year and then did a stupid thing, bought a truck.

 

I agree 100%, it is the best experience. The company I started with wouldn't even let the new drivers out of the yard until they mastered backing up. These trucking schools don't prepare you for this stuff, they barely even teach these guys how to back up, and I am sure they don't spend much time learning how to manouver a truck through city traffic. Their couple weeks of training doesn't prepare you for anything from what I have seen. Any idiot can drive a truck up and down the road, it takes skill to manouver through busy, tight city streets.

I started out shunting trailers as a kid and it was the best experience I ever had, that is how I basically learned everything about driving trucks. by the time I was old enough to go out on the road, I could blind side back better than most guys could sight side back. I think every new driver should spend a few weeks shunting trailers around a busy yard and learn a few things about backing up and manouvering.

 

Its all about finding a local company that will hire u. mostly smaller companys and distributers. I have no OTR experiance and iv been driving local for 2 years.