Hi there, 4 1/2 tractor trailer exp, 100% clean record and all endorsements. What crucial things does a local driver need to know for OTR? And what would be some companies that would keep me out for a long time (so I can sell or rent my house) and pay decent/well for being a new OTR driver? Thank You
Based on your info, most any company would hire you. Since you have been local, are you familiar with living in a sleeper cab for extended periods of time? I would look for a company that doesn’t do much on either coast. You can find good jobs that are Midwest regional/OTR if you look around. Do you have more specific questions/ concerns? What do you want to do? Dry van, reefer or flatbed?
EricG,
Be sure and do your homework before committing to an OTR company and lifestyle. As Bruce has said you need to be aware of life on the road for long extended periods of time without returning to your home base. Extra costs such as meals, parking, laundry and showers that your company of choice doesn’t cover. The OTR road lifestyle is not for everyone and maybe you could find a regional gig that would provide some travel and home more often and be less expensive and stressful.
My biggest questions would be which divisions have the most running and the least waiting? I’m used to the hustle of local so long distance drop and hooks would be ideal.
How do you drive in the mountains in all seasons?
How difficult is it to find parking and what are the costs??
thank you
Try to avoid mountain driving gigs, at least at first. They can be great in good weather, but chaining up is a real chore. I only drove for 3 companies and none of them even wanted drivers to chain up and I never had to carry chains on the truck. JS Helwig & Son was one of those companies. Denver was as far west as they went. I don’t know if they hire drivers with no OTR experience, but you could call recruiting and find out.
BTW, Helwig is 100% reefer. Can involve occasional waiting for live loads, but a fair amount of drop and hook. Decent company.
Ive ran local, regional, otr, dedicated and a mix thereof.
Some things to really take into account is your clocks management, especially if you were hourly. In otr and regional, on duty not driving is a killer of your 70. Any time that you can be off duty or sleeper, you will need for the preservation of your 70.
The lifestyle as was said takes adjusting to. After 3 weeks on the road, many hit a brick wall. Your concentration and patience begins to lapse, you become irritable and frustrated. Some get depressed. At that point, you need a few days off the truck to decompress.
In the context of otr, most of my experience is that its ran more like regional, seldom seeing big runs, but lots of 500 to 800 mile runs linked together. We generally hold the standard to be 3k miles a week, but the reality due to logistics, dispatching, weather, retardation at shippers and recievers is that 2800 to 2900 usually is net. That means some weeks at 3500 some at 2500.
With your experience, I’d recommend you have a look at Don Hummer Trucking. Its fast paced, high volume out and back out of the Midwest. I ran all over for them. Great equipment, great pay, accurate and fast dispatching. No nanny state equipment. If you run clean and consistently, they will keep you moving.
Like any other facet of trucking, in otr, your performance dictates your pay.
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I run reefer for a meat packing plant. We have no wait times unless my 70 is dead. Get with a company with its own freight to ensure u dont sit. My average load is abour 1200 miles or so. 50 to 60% drop n hook.
Keep in mind some companies won’t count your local experience and will make u go through training for several weeks or more. Prime does this. 15 years local still got my friend 20,000 team training miles.
I told my company to keep me east of denver to avoid mountains in winter. Shut down when unsafe.
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