I Want To Return To Trucking After A Very Short Break.
Topic 15966 | Page 1
How's your driving record? Incidents, preventables, violations? If it looks good, then you should have enough experience to get one with a ton of companies.
Try Roehl. They have a ton of different hometime options if you live in their hiring area.
Also, with that kind of experience you may able to get on with a large OTR company (Werner coming to mind) that has plenty of dedicated accounts.
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.
Just my opinion. Regional doesn't necessarily mean you'll be home more. I'm regional now and get home weekly but rarely anything more than 34. I'd suggest toughing it out honestly. From what you described, your current job will beat anything regional or otr you can get. Don't take that hometime for granted. I have a baby myself and look forward to the day I can be with him more often.
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.
Regional IS OTR and generally gets you home on the weekend for a reset. With my company you're likely to run anywhere east of the rockies and still be regional.
We do have what we call hub drivers if you live in Chicago, Columbus OH, or Indianapolis usually running a dedicated load to a particular customer or local drivers at those terminals in addition to Cedar Rapids. IA, Ellenwood GA and St Paul MN. Both hub and local city drivers are generally home daily.
Me personally, if you don't want to go OTR then you probably should just keep your current job or try to get an LTL or linehaul job.
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.
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.
Linehaul:
Linehaul drivers will normally run loads from terminal to terminal for LTL (Less than Truckload) companies.
LTL (Less Than Truckload) carriers will have Linehaul drivers and P&D drivers. The P&D drivers will deliver loads locally from the terminal and pick up loads returning them to the terminal. Linehaul drivers will then run truckloads from terminal to terminal.HOS:
Hours Of Service
HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.
I don't know where you live, but Mcelroy will have you home every Friday. The owners are 7th day Adventist and nobody works on Saturday. You can't even request to stay out. They are flat bed out of Cuba, Alabama. They haul lots of loads for Lowes. You would need to look at their hiring area to see if it's a fit for you.
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Hello, my name is Will & I'm 23. I've been following the advice on this website for a couple years now and got some great info that helped me get my trucking career started last year. Thank all of you for the helpful posts and a special thanks to Brett for creating this website! I'll try to make this a short as possible. Last year I went to school with Knight Transportation (great company) and drove with them for 6 months. My wife and I found out she was having a baby so I decided to go local. I went with Mclane (also a great company) for 8 months. The job wasn't for me although I had planned to stay atleast a year because I know how important work history is however my wives' grandpa had offered me a job at his work where I would still drive but only 1-2 days every other week. It's a 6am-230p mon-fri job, weekends off, holidays off & paid, and started at $24/hr. A dream job for someone having their CDL just over a year. Well I'm finding myself hating it! I want to drive more. I miss OTR but like Brett mentioned there's plenty of options nowadays to get drivers home more with families and that is ideal. What it comes down to is I want to leave again after only a few months to be able to drive more. With a local or regional company. But im struggling with: 1. Whether to tough it out here for a year? 2. If I do will it hurt my years of experience since I drive so little? Will it count toward my years of experience rather. 3. This is a big one. I'm not willing to go OTR with my little girl being at home. But regional is still a definite option. How do I justify wanting to leave home for a job I want but don't necessarily have to have? We aren't struggling now and I hate to be gone from home but trucking is in my blood, I love it.
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
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.
OWI:
Operating While Intoxicated