Asking To Much?
Topic 18295 | Page 2
I.understand and I'm not looking to take short cuts by any means. I have found a company locally based that would send me to a local tech school training than train with one of their drivers. Home weekends. After being with that company for 18 months I could get a local position. I was just wondering if there were local companies that did quality training. Or if a mega company had a division of local for new drivers. Which I will look into the multi-modal thank you.
Local is usually an "incentive" for drivers in the larger companies.
It's interesting that local companies want OTR experience - but OTR companies do not consider local driving to be "experience".
It's not a matter of "asking too much" (well then again - maybe it is).
Or maybe (just maybe) with the "family thing and impeding addition" that NOW IS NOT THE RIGHT TIME to get into trucking for you. You have all the research done - you haven't invested $$ in CDL school, or gone to an orientation/school for a company - so you aren't "out" anything but the time you have into research. Maybe you just POSTPONE the truck driving thing - until the family situation stabilizes and you can MAKE A DECISION BASED ON WHAT IS - NOT WHAT IF.
Let's take a trip in the "wayback machine".... (old farts will remember this)
I am 22 years old and have previously worked over the road as a mechanic on a train. I was gone for months at a time.My dad also drove truck for many years until cancer took his arm and his ability to drive. So i am familiar with the travel and the missing your family. How ever i am looking to get into truck driving. I have always wanted to drive truck and currently a mechanic on them. I was wondering if there are any companies that provide training that are not always over the road. Me and my soon to be wife actually met while traveling. I am looking for a company that could have a rider policy and trying not to sound pathetic but does not take long to be able to have a passenger or local companies to train until i have experiance . any ideas?
This is you, 2 years 5 months ago. Some of the circumstances are changed - but you're still asking the same questions. Also - if you updated your PROFILE - so we could see where you are located at a glance - we might be able to come up with some better suggestions for regional/local work.
The reality for local work is that most of the stuff is going to be dock-2-drive with no experience. Members we've had here that have gotten local right off the bat - have "lucked into it" for the most part - right place/right time. A lot of local work is LTL , fingerprint freight. That is, multi-stop delivery work - where the driver unloads - or at least drags the pallets to the door-edge to be forked off the back.
Stick around - have your kid, get that situation to the point where you and your family can make the decision whether you should be driving AT ALL.
My $.02
Rick
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
- Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
- Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.
Regional:
Regional Route
Usually refers to a driver hauling freight within one particular region of the country. You might be in the "Southeast Regional Division" or "Midwest Regional". Regional route drivers often get home on the weekends which is one of the main appeals for this type of route.
LTL:
Less Than Truckload
Refers to carriers that make a lot of smaller pickups and deliveries for multiple customers as opposed to hauling one big load of freight for one customer. This type of hauling is normally done by companies with terminals scattered throughout the country where freight is sorted before being moved on to its destination.
LTL carriers include:
- FedEx Freight
- Con-way
- YRC Freight
- UPS
- Old Dominion
- Estes
- Yellow-Roadway
- ABF Freight
- R+L Carrier
OTR:
Over The Road
OTR driving normally means you'll be hauling freight to various customers throughout your company's hauling region. It often entails being gone from home for two to three weeks at a time.
Over The Road:
Over The Road
OTR driving normally means you'll be hauling freight to various customers throughout your company's hauling region. It often entails being gone from home for two to three weeks at a time.
Haha I'm not even sure how to find the stuff I posted so long ago. I was actually thinking about this . The first time I had planned to drive I had a job lined up being trained by a vary experienced driver that had since fell through and I fell back onto what I knew. I have actually switched locations which is how this whole process got re kindled so to speak. I now live in what I believe is a vary heavy area for moving freight within not many miles of Schneider terminal in Wisconsin .I tell my wife I wish I would have done this sooner it seems as it keeps getting put off. Wish they actually sold those little red redo buttons.
Terminal:
A facility where trucking companies operate out of, or their "home base" if you will. A lot of major companies have multiple terminals around the country which usually consist of the main office building, a drop lot for trailers, and sometimes a repair shop and wash facilities.
HOS:
Hours Of Service
HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.New Reply:
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Matt, location is usually the determining factor in one's success at starting out in a local driving job. I don't know where you live, but if there are any large carriers nearby that have local terminals that is where I would look first. Often times they will have local daycab jobs available. I know that Knight has a definite business strategy of doing this, and so do many of the others like Schneider, J.B. Hunt, Swift, and U.S. Express just to name a few.
Keep in mind these jobs often go to senior/experienced drivers, but depending on demand for drivers you might be able to move into a local position with only about three months experience at some of theses places. I was scrurinized carefully by Knight for my dedicated driver position, yet I have seen them bring in total newbs at times since then because they needed drivers badly at the time. It usually doesn't work well when they hire folks like that, due to pressure from their customer, but they will do it at times.
Terminal:
A facility where trucking companies operate out of, or their "home base" if you will. A lot of major companies have multiple terminals around the country which usually consist of the main office building, a drop lot for trailers, and sometimes a repair shop and wash facilities.