Why Does Everyone Want Over The Road Experience?
Topic 27484 | Page 1
Anything with a higher skill rate also has a much higher accident rate. To think an OTR driver only goes one direction is funny! OTR gradually breaks a driver in with all sorts of scenarios and challenges. It's just the best way to learn all the needed skills before trying to make a go of it as a local driver.
Insurance companies keep scrupulous records and know which types experience will be beneficial to the new commercial drivers. Most of them will not even underwrite a newly licensed driver in a local position.
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 a Random question, why does everybody want over the road experience. When driving locally and backing up 10/15 times a day seems to me to be more important and has a higher skill rate than being in the truck going 3000 miles One Direction. Thanks
I'm going to take a guess you don't drive a CMV?
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.
CMV:
Commercial Motor Vehicle
A CMV is a vehicle that is used as part of a business, is involved in interstate commerce, and may fit any of these descriptions:
- Weighs 10,001 pounds or more
- Has a gross vehicle weight rating or gross combination weight rating of 10,001 pounds or more
- Is designed or used to transport 16 or more passengers (including the driver) not for compensation
- Is designed or used to transport 9 or more passengers (including the driver) for compensation
- Is transporting hazardous materials in a quantity requiring placards
The jobs you've looked at, are they local or OTR jobs? The companies I've worked at locally haven't had that listed as a requirement. Before landing my current job I looked at a few of the mega carriers to see if they had anything local in my area but they did require OTR experience. The only home daily job that I would think wants OTR experience is LTL linehaul so they know you have the stamina to drive the miles necessary.
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.
I currently work for a large city who made us get our class a CDL license, so I basically drive a big Peterbilt dump truck with a trailer and a loader which basically requires a class A for the weight, so I’ve been doing this for two years. In all honesty being with a municipality we do not need to run any logbooks or ELD’s. They do give us random drug tests through the state, so I’m just kind of curious if I go for a truck driving position where do I stand as far as experience goes because when I’m not working for the city I also work for a local farmer who is running on farm tags so therefore I don’t need to run any type of logbook system because it is registered Farm, hell his 15-year-old son drives the Mac down the road pulling a hopper bottom for deliveries, I’ve been doing that for about a year as well back-and-forth to the FeedMills and grain silos. If anybody can shed any light on this it would be great. Thanks
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.
Logbook:
A written or electronic record of a driver's duty status which must be maintained at all times. The driver records the amount of time spent driving, on-duty not driving, in the sleeper berth, or off duty. The enforcement of the Hours Of Service Rules (HOS) are based upon the entries put in a driver's logbook.
Dm:
Dispatcher, Fleet Manager, Driver Manager
The primary person a driver communicates with at his/her company. A dispatcher can play many roles, depending on the company's structure. Dispatchers may assign freight, file requests for home time, relay messages between the driver and management, inform customer service of any delays, change appointment times, and report information to the load planners.
As far as experience goes for getting hired at a company that is Interstate? You have nothing, except that CDL license.
Dump trucks and most localized, short-haul jobs are not what the companies are looking for. Only exception that may count would be if there were many, many years of experience. There's a lot more to driving out here than just pointing it in a straight line and hitting the throttle. Actual driving is one of the easiest things we do each day.
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.
Interstate:
Commercial trade, business, movement of goods or money, or transportation from one state to another, regulated by the Federal Department Of Transportation (DOT).
Yeah I get it and understand it, it’s a lot harder driving a dump truck and trailer through one-way inner city streets than one would expect but I was kind of curious where it stood as far as a driving position in a company somewhere someday. Someone once told me because my CDL is 2 1/2 years old it be a little easier getting a driving job but you guys are the experts so let me know what you think or would I have to go through a whole CDL training school again Thanks for all the input Guys 👍
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.
You can find a job, but more than likely you'll have to go with a trainer. Most likely nobody will count your experience as relevant. You will probably get hired as an inexperienced driver.
I know it sounds crazy, but that's usually how it plays out.
There's always foodservice!
Hi Mike,
I trained a female with years of experience driving a tri axle dump truck. Unfortunately, you're going to have to go through the training as a new driver like everyone has said.
The good news is that she already had truck driving in her blood and was way ahead of the learning curve that I didn't have to teach her much and she's one of the few students I've had that's still driving today, so don't give up if you want to go otr.
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.
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Just a Random question, why does everybody want over the road experience. When driving locally and backing up 10/15 times a day seems to me to be more important and has a higher skill rate than being in the truck going 3000 miles One Direction. Thanks
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.