Getting First Year Of Experience Question?

I see a lot of job listings that say they require 1 year of experience. Many say OTR. My question, I have 2 local food companies that seem decent to start with but is local food delivery experience as good as OTR? The 2 companies are Core Mark and US Foods. Thanks for you input.

Those types of jobs normally require close quarter backing skills, congested City Driving, maveuvering parking lots full of 4 wheelers, ( Think Applebees, Chilis, etc. in large Shopping Malls). Also, multiple stops, usually in the middle of the night, all unloaded with a hand truck down a ramp and into the restauraunt walk in refrigerator/ freezer. It can be a tough gig, especially for a rookie.

is local food delivery experience as good as OTR?

Jay, that is a good question, but it is not the "right" question. In this industry the standard that most companies accept as experience is Over The Road. Whether one is as good as the other doesn't even count in this equation. I've seen people who have ten or fifteen years experience as local drivers who cannot get a major carrier to take a look at them, simply because their experience was not over the road.

Tractor Man is correct about how tough those gigs are for rookies. I would not recommend you start your career that way. It is generally best to start out and do an OTR job for a minimum of one year, and then if you want to be local, start putting out some feelers for it. One of my very favorite members in here is Mountain Girl. She needed a local job because she was a single Mom with kids at home. She got a couple of different local jobs as a rookie driver, and got released from each of them. If I remember correctly, at the first one they said she just wasn't cutting it, and the second one she had a minor accident. At that point she had a terrible time trying to get a job. The requirements of these local delivery jobs are much more demanding, and you will get let go more easily if you make a mistake, and then you've got that on your job history to haunt you. As an OTR driver, they will generally work with you more as a rookie, and help you to learn the ropes so that you can get yourself established as a safe and productive driver.

I see a lot of job listings that say they require 1 year of experience. Many say OTR. My question, I have 2 local food companies that seem decent to start with but is local food delivery experience as good as OTR? The 2 companies are Core Mark and US Foods. Thanks for you input.

I used to work at a couple convenience stores, and US Foods and CoreMark would deliver to us a few times a week. I never thought anything of it at the time, but now that I know what it's like to drive a big rig, I'd never recommend that job for a rookie. They'd have to back their trucks into the area between the pumps and the front door with four-wheelers all over the place like insects. It's not too hard if you know what you're doing, but you won't know what you're doing for at least a little while even if you're good. The unloading wasn't bad IMO since everything was palletized.