So, you're wanting to run local...

I have now be local for almost a year now and love it. Everyday is a 10-14 hour day but there has yet to be a day where I have spent a night in a motel room. Sometimes I don't feel like I am compensated very well for my time but then sometimes it's gravy. The most important thing is to find a niche part of the industry. Otherwise it will make the local grind that much more gruesome.

I should also say too, that I was fortunate to get my job with just a little over 4 months of experience OTR. Don't always expect to get so lucky. It's all about where you live and the opportunities available to you. In my area there's not much in the line of local jobs

 

I just started a local driving job and I actually quite enjoy the fact that there is more physical activity involved in it. I'm home every day but having to put in six day work weeks is a distinct possibility. At least there's overtime when the sixth day has to happen.

Another new guy who started where I'm at a few weeks prior to me was acting like he was ready to throw in the towel last week. Don't know if he actually did or if he decided to stick with it. Think he may have gotten all starry eyed for the home every night thing, but didn't realize he was going to spend so much time outside of the truck doing.. er... work.

Today I had to stay on top of making sure I was keeping hydrated. No shade to hide in and since I do all of my own loading/unloading I don't get to sit in the A/C at my pick up and drop locations.

 

When I was doing dollar store loads I kept a big fan and long e-cord in the truck, most places I could get plugged in and run the fan in my trailer.
It still got very hot working in there at times doing hand unloads with rollers but the fan helped a lot.

 

Our local drivers pretty much tap out their 70 hours every week Mon-Sat. 6am-6pm.

Constantly on the phone. Pick this up here, that trailer needs moved there, etc.

 

I started out local. On a beer truck. Start driving at 0400, hit all the grocery stores, then all the convenience store, reload, more convenience stores and finish out at the bars. Go to the office, do the paperwork, and get home at 11pm. Greedy salesmen sell beer brands and have displays built up in areas where they might sell 2 cases an entire year. So I would have to pick it up. If I had to pick up a case of beer and bring it back, I was charged $14.44 a case. I was paid $.15/case to deliver. Do the math. It doesnt take much to destroy an entire paycheck.

Foodservice paid worlds better. And you didnt ever have to pick anything up and take it back. I was paid hourly and by the case, flat rate...like a mechanic. The company says that this route and this many cases should take X amount of hours, and thats what they paid.
According to the company, we were not supposed to stock shelves for a customer. But the driver that ran that route before you did, and the customers expect you to do likewise. Not me. I have a busy day and a long route. I need cash money to stock shelves. Customer raises hell and refuses to sign the BOL, I roll the groceries back on the truck and leave. Customer calls the salesman and the salesman calls the company, company calls my boss, and the boss wants to know why I didn't leave the groceries, "theyre a restaurant...they need their food!" I dont get paid without a signed BOL, right? So you want ME to take the loss in revenue. Not happening. What usually happened was I would take the groceries back, and the salesman would stock the shelves. Oh was he pissed at me. "Well amigo, I hope you are here next week, and I need you to be on time to stock the shelves."

Retired from OTR and went back local. Did some local heavyhaul for a construction company. Big load. BIIIIG loads. The way the local heavyhaulers do would get you in severe trouble with the DOT. Owner died and his daughter auctioned off everything.

Went to pulling a 4 axle dump truck. Paid $11 an hour or twice the minimum wage at the time. It has to be the most dangerous form of trucking that I have done. Incredibly steep grades and raising the bucket at the same time. Asphalt is easier, but that asphalt is 500 degrees out the silo. You can feel the heat inside the cab.

 

Hey 666, good grip on the "stocking shelves". When I hauled eggs and cheese to grocery stores, these dairy managers tried to pull that bs on me too. Aren't you going to rotate the stock? they'd ask. Sorry pal, I have 12 more stops, I can't get too personal with your stock. Some were downright belligerent. Calling my boss, so and so used to do that for us, which they never did, but that was their tactic. And I hauled "schluck" for while too. I don't think it was 500 degrees( I thought more like 250-350), but hot, none the less. And yes, the back of the cab was warm. Then they outlawed you soaking your box with diesel fuel, so it would slide out better, and you had to use soap suds, which didn't work near as well, and the old-timers brought their own sprayer filled with diesel anyway.

 

I may be wrong about the heat. I do know that it felt hot enough to blister the paint on the back of the cab. Crank up the AC, you cool, on one side and well done on the other. I've also seen the wrong silo open, and they dump asphalt on top of the cab. Scary!!!!

 

Yeah, I've got lots of asphalt stories. I didn't have A/C, drove a tandem Louisville Ford with that boat anchor 3208 non-turbo engine, with a 5X3 set of sticks. That thing was so gutless, when you hit the loud pedal, just the sound of the engine changed, and no increase in speed. I was getting paid by the hour, so if they wanted me to plod along at 42 mph, fine by me. I've heard of fist fights between plant operators and O/O's when they dumped asphalt on the hood or cab. Forgive me mods, but the plant operators were uxxxn, and the O/O's weren't, so there was always a rift there.

 

That would be a fight to the death.

 

Use to do asphalt in a previous life was a screed hand on the paver for a year lots of shovelling and such. Come out of the plant about 160 to 180 c what ever that is in f. Burners on the paver where set at about 130 c. Was the lightest I've ever been in my time at work just couldn't keep any weight on. Don't miss that job.