Local Job For Newbie

You never dealt with urban traffic, tight maneuvering and backing situations as an otr driver ever? Plenty of drivers think they are in over there head as an otr driver as well. It's all subjective. I started out on the Dollar tree and did just fine. I personally know of a driver who had to start p&d and another who got suckered into at Central Transport both are doing just fine and they are plenty more examples.

My argument wasn't it isn't a tough start. I saying it's possible. Anything is possible. Not every single ltl driver you see out there was a prior 2 year over the road veteran, not these days. And like I also said yrc, fedex etc has training programs now that rival otr companies. Do you really think a company like FedEx is going to allow a driver they think can't handle something like p&d on the road?

Like I said local opportunities saved my career and allowed to continue to do what I love.

Brian gnawing at the bone...

You never dealt with urban traffic, tight maneuvering and backing situations as an otr driver ever? >

NOT every single day and not with 6 time-sensitive consolidated reefer deliveries.

That’s great it worked for you, but you are the exception. Argue a contrary viewpoint all you want, the consensus of this forum and moderators on local driving is; NOT recommended for newbies, especially LTL P&D.

Local running significantly increases the already difficult learning curve and increases the risk of career ending mistakes.

You said your piece.. I’m done arguing with you.

G-Town taking it personal...

An inherently safe driver will continue to be safe no matter what situation you put him or her in. Or in my opinion anyway. Agree to disagree I guess.

G-Town taking it personal...

Give me a break Brian, you’re FOS. I answered your rhetorical question. I think it’s you taking it personal. You are “selling it” at this point.

Not going to allow you to promote something ill advised for entry level drivers. And neither will any of the other Mods.

Thanks Old School. That was a great analogy. I have rushed a fire or two in my day, only to find myself having to start over. An initial investment of time can save time and spare one from frustration. If I had no other option like Brian’s situation, I would go his route. I believe I can make the Regional route work for a while and then find something that will give me daily home time. Thanks again to all that have responded with their insights. You have all been very helpful.

Brian, we teach best practices. The most productive and safe path into this career is where we will always come down.

I acknowledged that your approach works occasionally, but that doesn't make it an approach we would recommend. Your thoughts on safe drivers are amusing though. It's not so much a question of how safe a driver you've been in a four wheeler when you are starting out in a local driving situation of class 8 rigs. It's a question of maneuvering skills and the type of patience you can muster to keep yourself from getting in too big a hurry. Most of the time those things need to be developed. That's why we recommend the approach we do - it has proven to be the most effective at producing the most success.

We know that "anything is possible," but would never use that as a suggested strategy for entering a career field like this. Trucking has a long list of folks who tried and failed, and most of those people were very "safe" drivers.

My argument wasn't it isn't a tough start. I saying it's possible. Anything is possible.

When you're trying to mentor new drivers into an extremely difficult and dangerous job, your responsibility is to teach best practices. You want people to take the path that is most likely to lead them to a safe and successful start to their career.

Telling people that "anything is possible" is not teaching at all. Not only are you failing to look out for the safety and welfare of new drivers, but you're not demonstrating that you've developed very good judgment at all.

This is my first year as an alpine climber. I've hired a top level professional fitness coach and numerous mountain guides to teach me the ropes so I can get my fitness to a super high level, learn the proper climbing and safety techniques, and have a safe, solid start to my climbing career. Believe me, no one has told me, "anything is possible" and no one has recommended that I should just dive straight into the most difficult and dangerous objectives straight out of the gate as a brand new climber.

Instead, I've started from the very lowest level possible and slowly and safely over time I've taken on more difficult challenges, but only as I've demonstrated the ability to handle previous objectives with strength and competence and safety.

If any of my mentors had told me, "Go do whatever you want. Anything is possible." I would have stopped working with that person in a huge hurry because they're obviously not looking out for my safety or well being.

G-Town is right. You're trying to sell your own path, but in reality it was the wrong way to get started in this career. Just because you got lucky doesn't mean it was a good idea.

There's a phenomena the mountain guides talk about that leads to a lot of people eventually getting themselves killed, and it happens in trucking also. When you do something and get away with it you tend to overestimate your own abilities and your own decision making. For instance, you might walk through a dangerous avalanche zone safely 5 times in a row, so after a while you start to believe that you know more about avalanches than you do and that they're less likely to happen than they really are. The reality is that you got lucky a few times, but you interpreted it as you being rather knowledgeable and skillful.

Before long you become overconfident, you push your luck one too many times, and all that's left of you is a newspaper story and some memories.

That's why drivers who have 3 - 24 months of experience are some of the most dangerous drivers on the road. They haven't had anything go seriously wrong yet, and they haven't seen that many things go seriously wrong, so they overestimate their abilities and underestimate the amount of danger present in any given situation.

We teach best practices here because we care very much about people getting their career off to a great start. We want them to go on to have a long, safe, successful career. If you want to teach new drivers that anything is possible you can do that, but not here you can't. We're not going to let people go out there and make bad decisions based on what they've heard here.

Alright G-town well typically when someone resorts to profanity or acronyms like "FOS" they are in fact taking it personal I'm not selling it anymore or less than how otr is sold on this forum. You are the gold standard of driver amd moderate alike so out of respect I will stop arguing over that.

And old school I don't think its amusing at all. Or why else would companies want to know that your prior driving record is? I saw a few of fellow students while going through cdl school who just had no idea why they were being told to move over when a vehicle is broken down on the side of the road or why they were being told they were braking too late. That shouldn't need to be taught you have a brain to use. Those would be two practices you would probably want to follow in a 4 wheeler as well.

Again I understand it may not be recommended but I was responding to the OP specifically. I wanted to let him know that if his absolute only option was local there are opportunities, especially in and around Chicago. I'd rather let them know that their are opportunities that although tough no question are available. If somebody said otr or local to start??? I'm single no worries of being away from home what do you recommend? Than I would recommend the paid cdl training program with I have boosted on here before.

Brian i started local with 12 weeks of training from my company. There were still alot of close calls i had despite having a 28' pup trailer. Honestly i feel i was LUCKY i didnt hit anything. The advantage of food delivery is im not required to hit a difficult dock if my skill level isnt up to par it just requires more walking because im using a 2 wheeler and ramp. Unfortunately P& D you dont have much of a choice. You must hit that loading dock regardless of how tight it is. My backing has improved very much since i first started but still see room for improvement. Although ive made it 14 months incident free i consider myself lucky. Im not ashamed to GOAL if I'm holding up traffic but its easy for new drivers to get frustrated and rush themselves. Thats when accidents happen. I spend a majority of my day 3 days a week in downtown des moines and even for a big city thats very small in comparison to most metro areas theres still tons of risk for accidents. We have a driver with us that started the same way i did and 2 or 3 weeks out of training he backed into a car. He was trying to back into a loading dock and allowed impatient drivers to hurry him and he neglected to GOAL. Thankfully the damage was minor damage to bumper only but it was still an accident against him. Even though i made it through my rookie year being local i still dont advise others do it. Im not some super trucker, or think im better than anyone because i went against the advice and was successful i just want others to succeed. Ive seen it play out too many times on the forum where a new driver is excited they've been offered a local job out of school and come back a couple months to ask for advice finding a new job because they'd been let go for too many accidents. The only local jobs id feel comfortable telling a new driver to attempt is linehaul or beer delivery. Most beer trucks that deliver to bars and restaurants have the roll up doors on side of their trailer and they rarely back up (from what ive seen), but even then you're dealing with heavy urban traffic all day and need to know how much space is required to maneuver your vehicle. You also need to unload kegs of beer all day which makes you fatigued and alot easier to make mistakes.

I mean no disrespect at all but for you to encourage a brand new driver to start with P & D is terrible advice. For a new driver, to do linehaul is possibly the safest for a new driver to attempt as its as close to OTR as you'll get while still being home daily. Im not discounting what your job is or saying it doesnt require skill but the amount of time spent backing up or driving interstate/highways is very different than the multiple stops and ALL city driving a p & d driver would face. Ive only ever done food delivery so i have no first hand knowledge, just what ive been told while talking to other drivers throughout the day.

Again, no disrespect intended just want those reading this to fully understand why many here feel so strongly that starting OTR is the best way to get your career underway.

I agree with you Rob I should of been more specific on that and clarified that originally I was referring to Linehaul. I would agree p&d would be a rough start. Most Linehaul jobs are running at night taking pups to other terminals and back so I agree.

Again for the record I'm not recommending local to start. Paid training program would be my recommendation all day. But if not don't give up and look and see what's out there. Chicago is no doubt a different animal than from the cornfields of Nebraska. Meaning I'm pretty sure every ltl company out there has at least one barn in the area. And all have slightly different opportunities and needs. Central Transport linehaul for example doesn't pull pups to my knowledge strictly 53 footer's. Where as Xpo you are going to be pulling pups after some dock work etc.