Torn, And Don't Know What To Do.

I am getting married in October, but I really want to make a career change into the trucking industry. How hard is it to do regional for a year until i can get a local route?

I posted this on a similar thread:

Definitely wait until after your wedding, especially if it's next month. You run a reasonably high risk of missing your wedding if you leave now. I'm getting married next year and my fiance and I are putting our two weeks in before the wedding (we're going to buy a home after our wedding and stop driving OTR). We originally wanted to set the date for this October or November, but there would be no guarantee we'd make it to our own wedding, especially with early winter storms factored into the endless list of things that can go wrong.

Even driving regional wouldn't guarantee you'd be there on time. Since you're in Florida it's somewhat unlikely that weather would hold you up (although hurricanes are a factor), but many other things could delay you hundreds of miles away from your bride. Given the planning and money that goes into most weddings, I wouldn't want to risk it. However if you do, save up some money, explain the circumstances early on to your DM , and plan to secure your truck and grab a flight back home to make the wedding if necessary.

Agreed and don't think regional.means you won't be running 25 states or more. You are still 9ut the same amount of time. Although as far as the relationship it depends on your trust and commitment. It amazes me that people say trucking ruins relationships when you are home much more often than deployed servicemen

I was with an infantryman 7 years. Takes understanding.

Zachary, there seems to be so much confusion over what different terms mean in this business, and that word "regional" seems to be one of those that confuses people. By regional are you referring to a job that will get you home every weekend? I ask because that seems to be what a lot of people seem to think about regional jobs, but it isn't necessarily true.

Now, if you are wanting something that will get you home every weekend there are quite a few flat-bed companies that have worked out ways to manage their drivers in that manner. TMC, Maverick, and McElroy come to mind quite readily, and there are probably some more. Flat-bed freight lends itself to this practice more easily since many of the places you will deliver to are open regular business hours Monday thru Friday. If that is what you are looking for then going with a flat-bed company may be the easiest way for you to accomplish that.

I just now noticed that you are in Jacksonville, Florida. That makes it a little tougher for you. Have you ever looked into "Cypress?" They are a flat-bed company out of Florida, but I do not know if they could make a provision for you to get home on weekends or not. There is a lot of local work in Florida, but usually you will need at least a year of experience, and that is for good reason.

Yes, I am looking into Cypress. They say i would be home every weekend. Wondering if anyone on here has worked for them, and knows how they're home time is?

Yes, I am looking into Cypress. They say i would be home every weekend. Wondering if anyone on here has worked for them, and knows how they're home time is?

Zachary, I don't think we have any current Cypress drivers in here. I am a flat-bed driver and have interacted with several Cypress drivers all over the country. They each have seemed quite content with their situation. I personally do not know a whole lot about the company, other than I see them mostly at sheetrock plants. I have seen them at other places too, but they do haul a lot of sheetrock.

As a general rule most truck driving jobs that get you home on the weekends allow you enough time at home to get in a 34 hour break so that you can reset your seventy hour clock. Most of the time you will come home with a loaded trailer that you picked up on Friday afternoon and are scheduled to deliver first thing Monday morning. You may possibly need to leave Sunday night, or very early Monday morning to make that work. The key to success at those jobs is to really work like crazy trying to get as many loads as possible done during your work week. You always want to make sure that you are getting MT (emptied out) as early as possible on Monday morning and also on Friday mornings. Monday morning allows yo to get right onto the next best loads for the week, and Friday morning allows you to get on to the next best load that will take you to the house. As a flat-bed driver it really is important that you try to get your loads unloaded either a day early or as early in the morning of the day of delivery as you can.

Don't know why I'm giving you all these tips for success, but I might as well throw it all out there while we're talking about it - I like to see everybody do well at this, and there are so many people who struggle with it, this stuff just starts coming out every time I try to explain one part of the job.

Thank you very much

Just went through orientation with cypress, now doing a "refresher" this week - considering I have no straight 10 exp.. The company seems pretty well run, very safe! Not As big as the "big boy company's" but not small enough to be considered a ma-n-pop company. They do say home time every weekend.. Offering competitive pay, there equipment is fair. Don't have much other then that though.. Hope this helps! Good luck and gratz on marriage!

Thank you for that insight. I just want to make sure they are legit before I make a move.

I just want to add that Schneider DOES have regional jobs that get you home every weekend. AND last year (when I had only been on the job 4 months) they got me time off for my Son's wedding. It just took a little planning and flexibility on my part. I.e. I reserved my normal home time for the weekend of the wedding and then made sure that if they routed me to the nearest Operating Center, I'd get transportation to the wedding, which was about an hour away. I was out of the truck for four days. No problem.

As for the regional thing; while I know it varies from company to company, if you just want to see what's out there for stuff other than flatbed, you can go to company websites, put in your zip code or city/state and they'll tell you the positions available.

Good luck and I hope this helps.