Will running local out of school ruin my career?

I have been with 3 different local companies and none of them required OTR experience. All of them had drivers (including myself) that never went OTR. I am right happy with my day cab, flatbed or step deck, big rear window that I can look through when backing, and a big barn with heated wash bay to park in every night. Yep, don't need no OTR stuff for me.

 

I never ran OTR,never wanted to,I've had a great career so far.Us guys in the day cabs are in the same weather and traffic conditions as the big sleeper guys. I average 350 miles a day .we just get to sleep in our own warm bed with the wife at night.

 

The OTR companies are the only ones that require it, simply that if they did not it would seriously cut down on the number of OTR drivers. If you have a local OP jump on it. Your going to make more money faster than going OTR. I think you get more of the ex;perience that counts as local anyway. Your going to back in and out of a lot more places than a OTR driver.

If you've been driving for a couple of years local or not and you have a clean DMV and DAC you won't have any problems getting work.

 

i am currently an owner operator who runs 48 states and in the 25 years i have been driving i ran local for about 6, i honestly believe that the local job gave me far greater experience in backing than any otr job, before u commit yoursef to otr u should go local, trust me u will have far more demands driving local than u would otr. All companies check your record, keep it clean and once u get a couple of years in they will overlook the otr experience, local will also give u a chance to learn how to get in and out of places u have been to and help improve your driving record. in the years i drove local i made every bit as much driving local as i have otr and i own my truck, a sleeper truck is just a box, trust me, go local and go home to a much bigger box, u may find u get to have a life and drive a truck for just as much money

 

Local used to be where you earned your spurs before moving up to OTR. Nowadays it's where the hi-milage, seen it all a hunnert times OTR guys wanna go.
Take the job if you can get it. I know lots of guys that have run local/regional all their career and think the OTR guys are nuts.

 

MY personal experience is such as this: I went local right out of school, still am local. You wont get an OTR job with a mega carrier because they don't consider what we do experience aparently. It does'nt seem to bother me that much.

 

I can honestly say from experience that LTL is what it is and it's not for everyone but it's for me. It took a few years but can now break 100K if I decide I want a long run - figure to do between 87-90K this year running 2100 miles per week with a decent amount of dock time at top scale. Pretty much speaks for itself and UPSF is a substantially better job..

 

My whole career has been local driving for three yrs and it does not hurt me at all exp is still exp the only thing is , is it in cdl a or cdl b is the only question I've ever heard . Some companies did want u to have otr exp but that was over two yrs ago . I make the same if not more money running local then running otr . Not saying anything bad about the otr driver its just something that I couldn't because of my family and I like being home everyday , one job told me that they won't hire otr guys because their lazy !! I was like wow can't believe he said that but It will not hire hurt ur career as a cdl a driver .

 

Preach jake lol LTL