Rookie Experience?

This is simply can not be true OTR is not the only way to get different environments and weather..

 

I said that if not for future company prospects, then to perfect your craft that this is the best way. If you live in a rural flat area and work dump trucks or Coke trucks, after a year you won't have the experience level of a person who has been OTR. That is a fact. Furthermore, if I was an employer, I would choose an OTR driver over a local driver any day. If the local drivers' only experience was in one spot.

 

Exactly,it you live out west then yes local companies may require mountain exp.But here there are no mountains But we do have the snow and ice which you learn how to handle with exp.Some local companies here require exp but more and more are getting away from that because they need the drivers and willing to train.

 

What if you are OTR, and drive only in southern USA, no snow, no mountains, no small roads, just highways.
I think that the truck driving is matter of common sense - what to do, when to do it, how to put the trailer for backing, things like that.

 

$30,000/52 weeks/ 70 hours = $8.24 an hour for working for Swift if you did not count all the time working off the clock. That is lower than minimum wage in several state. Count the off the clock time that these Megas require, it is lower then all minimum wage standards.

The point was not to strive for minimum wage or try to live on it. The point was to avoid driving for companies that do not consider driving an end dump experience. Their consideration is not worth it in the first place.

 

You're speaking of regional. Just south. OTR means nationwide. Again, an employer will pick a person with a year OTR over a person who has only a year in southern regional. And I think to get a regional or local gig, for the most part you have to have at least a year OTR. A lot require two years. I've been looking to transition from OTR to something regional or local. And I couldn't do it unless I have a full year OTR and in a lot of cases, two years. I hit my two year mark a couple months ago. So the doors have opened up for me.

 

$8.24/hour x 40 hours equals $329.60 a week. $1318/month. $15,820/year. That's half of what you make at Swift your first year. Driving an end dump up and down the interstate in the summer is a far cry from driving OTR. I wouldn't consider someone to drive for my local or regional company unless they had at least a year OTR. Why? Experience in variable weather conditions and environments.

 

This is so stupid - OTR does not mean experience, simply because you were driving in more than 6-10 states... and many of you just accepted as is...but there are lots of other opportunities to make good money driving truck...
Like me, for example. I drive doubles for FedEx Ground now. Not steady line, but mostly going to Sacramento via I40 from Chicago. How counts this? I have less than year of experience in total. Can I drive? Can I drive safely, and not slow like granma? Can I handle the truck and the trailers? Yes, I can. But I do not have OTR experience.

 

Explain how it's stupid? A person who has one or two years experience driving in mountains in the winter time is more experienced then a person who has been driving in Texas for the same amount of time. And any employer will feel the same way. There's a big difference between driving in 6-10 states and all 50. Very big difference. Try driving in Baltimore with a 53' trailer. Or Boston. Or Jersey. Try driving through the Grand Tetons in the middle of January. How could you think that a person who drives in the south has the same experience as someone like this?

 

I agree that experience counts. But is not mandatory to be OTR. You can have all the challenges of OTR even when driving in the city.