Why did you quit OTR

Lonely. Felt like life was passing me by. Not making NEARLY enough money to be away.

 

I haven't.

 

My recruiter said it was coming any day now.

 

I've done local, I've done OTR. In many ways these days, it isn't all that different. In my experience of doing local, I was working at 7up/Snapple. Living in Murfreesboro, TN, i had to get up at 3:30 am every morning to commute 48 miles to Goodlettsville 5 or 6 days per week. Work day begins around 5 am and ends anywhere from 5pm to 7pm daily. Then I had to fight Nashville traffic if it was an early day. Delivering beverages is a physically demanding job if a driver isn't in the bulk division. I would be so exhausted come days off and weekends that I couldn't even enjoy life. At least when I get time off running OTR, I can relax a little on my 34. Technology has advanced enough to where I can watch shows that I like, watch sports, and not be out of the loop. I personally think local driving is a bigger strain on a driver than OTR is. Many guys like enjoying their houses and material belongings, I don't really care about any of that. The money side is more about my children anyway.

 

see below responses, then mine to them

i as well hated it, as you did, because of the costs we incurred since back then, there wasn't any power converters, fridges,etc, and the truck stops were actually CLEAN, friendly, and the food was really quite good......but with a wife, and 4 kids at home, and the wife already having a full time job of her own AND the job of mom, i wanted out of long haul (known as OTR these days)

i actually did not meet any (or much) grouchy people per se, just morons, lunatics and jackwads.

back in "our days", many of us HAD to go long haul right out of training, cuz unless you knew someone, or had an "in" at a cushy union job, you had to get your experience some how, some way. also back then, there were more LTL companies than Carter has liver pills, but again, ALL of them were union...up here, so you were NOT just gonna walk in today, and start driving this afternoon...

i only did long haul for under a year, but i cannot recall exactly how many months.

it gave me all the experience many company's wanted back then, to go local, or regional or dedicated.

things took off for me, once i got off the long haul crappola.

 

i think he means me...????


but hey...i earned every wrinkle on my face, every gray hair, every scraped knuckle, every ripped pair of pants, or jackets over the years..

when someone earns his "battle scars", he earned his rights to be an "old craggy type".....

what i would LIKE to see is......someone young these days, going the time distance i and many others have gone....

frankly, i do NOT see that happening.

 

I came off the road full time about 5 years ago simply because I was tired of watching my daughter grow up without me.

I will still do a local day thing once in a while and that is enough to remind me why I hate the motoring public so much.

 

I generally judge a driver by their ability to take their foot off the accelerator. That goes for local, OTR, and everything in between.