Thinking About Truck Driving

Topic 11295 | Page 1

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Andrew P.'s Comment
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Hello, 24 year old male here. I am thinking about getting into truck driving. I currently hold a Class B license and currently drive a straight tanker truck, and have about 7 months experience of that. I have been thinking of getting into more of a stable career than what I have now. I do have some questions though.

The area I live in has a HUGE trucking industry, both OTR and LTL transports. I want to attend truck driving school (class starts jan 1) and then get into a driving position. From what I heard though, if you are a driver right out of school, you are most likely going to be going OTR. I heard that OTR drivers are out 2-3 weeks at a time and only home about 5 days, is this true? Is there truth that you can be out a week and home for 2 days? I would definitely not be okay with being home only every 2-3 weeks, but if its possible to be home weekly, I am more than okay with that.

My end goal is to end up working for an LTL company where I either do regional(home ever 2-3 days) or local and be home daily plus saturday and sunday off. Most of those companies require at least a year experience. However, do you think companies would consider my current Class B experience? One of my co workers quit and was hired to a local LTL company with only Class B experience. Also my friend completed truck driving school, worked for a company driving a straight truck for a year and a half and then was hired to an LTL company as a Class A driver.

I just want to get everything clarified before I jump straight into this.

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.

HOS:

Hours Of Service

HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.
Kieran L.'s Comment
member avatar

OTR drivers stay out at least 2-3 weeks at a time if not more like 4-6 many times, and typically earn 1 day off for each 7 days on the road, so stay out 3 weeks home 3 days, stay out 5 weeks home 5 days, etc. Most OTR companies also have a maximum length of home time you can take at once which is usually about 5 days. So even if you're out 8 weeks, when you get home you'll still be home for 5 days max, unless you get special permission to stay out longer or are using vacation days.

Now that was OTR, but if you wish to be home every week then what you want is a regional trucking job. Typically regional trucking jobs can get you home at least one day a week. If you want to be home every day, you want a local trucking job. Local jobs rarely pay as well as OTR or regional jobs, and of course you won't get to travel the country that way, but the trade off is obviously getting to go home every night if that is important to you. Also keep in mind that many local positions require you to load and unload your truck, while most OTR and regional drivers do very little loading/unloading themselves.

And as far as getting a job, if you graduate from a decent trucking school, you should have many trucking jobs open to you, in OTR, regional, or local. OTR usually has the most positions open to new drivers and it is where most people start, but there is always a shortage of truck drivers in the industry right now, so many companies are willing to hire new drivers in regional or local positions too as long as they have been through a decent trucking school. DO NOT skip trucking school and just get your Class A CDL on your own, or you will have a very difficult time finding anyone that can hire you. All the major trucking companies require you to have graduated from an approved trucking school. And while it won't look bad on your resume, driving a class B straight truck won't really count towards your trucking experience with most class A companies, since its a very different kind of truck driving.

You will find a lot of useful info and resources here at this site, which I highly suggest you take advantage of, such as the Truck Driver's Career Guide, Brett Aquila's book "Becoming A Truck Driver: The Raw Truth About Truck Driving", and the free High Road Online CDL Training Program which will help you prepare for the written Class A CDL test as well as give you some helpful insights about things you'll need to know when you're out on the road.

Good luck and keep on trucking! :)

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.

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.

Andrew P.'s Comment
member avatar

Thank you very much for the detailed reply. I have been looking at jobs and in this area there are a lot of both regional and local jobs. Most of the regional jobs look like they will have you home over 2-3 days, which is something I could deal with for now. There are a lot of companies around this area that strictly do local driving and the pay starts in the $20/hr range which honestly is more than sufficient for me. Most of them from what I can tell have no touch freight as well. Looks like I would be working 10-12 hr days 5 days a week with optional 6th day, but that is fine with me as long as I could get home very day and have a day or two off.

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.

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