Do Local Drivers Of Trailer Trucks Make The Most Money?

There is little time for rest and relaxation when home because by the time you get home and eat you need to hit the sack so you'll have sufficient rest for the next days work.

This is my biggest struggle with local work. I enjoy the work and I was fortunate to find a local gig that’s not back breaking in the slightest but still pays well (not quite as much as I could be making doing regional but my paychecks are consistently almost the same as many of my regional friends), BUT the long hours combined with just going home every night wear on me a lot more than they did when I was regional. I actually work fewer hours than I did at my previous job which was regional and more labor intensive (flatbed) but for some reason even though I park at my house and have no commute I just don’t feel as rested.

What am I missing here?

So I have a job where I drive straight trucks some days and big trucks other days. I make the same amount of money (hourly) either way. The straight truck is very labor intensive where as the most I do during the day on the big truck is getting in and out of the truck. Both are hauling fuel but the straight trucks are for small commercial stops and home deliveries where my semi is only used to haul product around town. It really depends on the type of work you’re looking for and what you want to do. I’ve had jobs both local and OTR delivering beer, milk, general freight, building materials and now fuel that have been very labor intensive but I’ve also had to hand unload a 53’ dry van by hand a few times. If you just want to drive and not do much else, drive a dump truck.

So I have a job where I drive straight trucks some days and big trucks other days. I make the same amount of money (hourly) either way. The straight truck is very labor intensive where as the most I do during the day on the big truck is getting in and out of the truck. Both are hauling fuel but the straight trucks are for small commercial stops and home deliveries where my semi is only used to haul product around town. It really depends on the type of work you’re looking for and what you want to do. I’ve had jobs both local and OTR delivering beer, milk, general freight, building materials and now fuel that have been very labor intensive but I’ve also had to hand unload a 53’ dry van by hand a few times. If you just want to drive and not do much else, drive a dump truck.

What I have in mind is "no-touch" loads, but I'm now gathering that doesn't seem to exist much in straight truck work. Probably, driving shipping container trucks, including the trailer and tractor types, locally is "the easy chair of the trucking world". Do they even make straight trucks for shipping containers? Flatbed straight trucks for containers? What driver labor could be involved in putting on or pulling off a steel 20, 30 or 40' intermodal container? Don't they use big machines for that? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

You say you're an experienced driver and a rail road buff, but you don't know the answers to these simple questions?

In the spirit of trucking truth and helping the lurkers, no, shipping containers do not move on straight trucks.

Drivers do not put on or pull off containers, but they are responsible for securing them to a chassis.

You say you're an experienced driver and a rail road buff, but you don't know the answers to these simple questions?

In the spirit of trucking truth and helping the lurkers, no, shipping containers do not move on straight trucks.

Drivers do not put on or pull off containers, but they are responsible for securing them to a chassis.

Experienced in the army. Mostly straight trucks. Very minimal tractor trailer work. No shipping container experience. I don't know all the answers and that is why questions are asked here. It is now looking apparent that trailer trucks might be the way to go for couch potatoes. The less I touch the goods in back, the better.

Yep, Todd.

Also for lurkers, straight truck experience doesn't count. Nobody cares about it.

Also for lurkers, straight truck experience doesn't count. Nobody cares about it.

I actually just recently found out this is not always true. As a general rule yes, but I was surprised to find out that my current job does actually count straight truck experience to some extent. We require two years of experience at my job but a e had a guy apply that had minimal tractor trailer experience but mostly just straight truck experience and they counted it. He was too rusty during the road test so we didn’t hire him but it still surprised me to find out he passed our experience requirements

Fwiw one local straight truck job that isn’t particularly labor intensive (from what I’ve seen anyways) is hauling roll off containers. I imagine it doesn’t pay particularly well but I don’t know

Probably, driving shipping container trucks, including the trailer and tractor types, locally is "the easy chair of the trucking world"

There is no "easy chair" in the trucking world. I mean that. Any job I can think of has plenty of challenges. There is an enormous variety of trucking jobs out there, but you will face challenges and take risks with all of them. It's not about finding an easy job, but about finding the job that suits you best. If it suits you well enough, it may feel easy compared to other jobs, but that's because you enjoy the type of challenges and risks you're facing.