Stevens Trucking

And the advice we always use here for brand new drivers is to go OTR for a bare minimum of one year with the same company, before trying another platform such as a local driving job.

Any driver will learn significantly more in a couple months OTR than is possible in a local driving job. The knowledge gained is invaluable for any platform, once a new driver learns the basics of becoming a safe and efficient driver.

And the advice we always use here for brand new drivers is to go OTR for a bare minimum of one year with the same company, before trying another platform such as a local driving job.

Any driver will learn significantly more in a couple months OTR than is possible in a local driving job. The knowledge gained is invaluable for any platform, once a new driver learns the basics of becoming a safe and efficient driver.

And there’s nothing wrong with that. Of course, I’ll be local my entire career and I’ll never go OTR. Not worth it in my opinion. Unless you like seeing the open country.

I personally would go to prime OP if I did go OTR. They’re great in my opinion

If not Stevens, where? I should be a new CDL holder in November, with a Double/Triple, and a Tanker endorsement, waiting on Homeland security for the HAZMAT. Im going all out. Just needing advice as to where I might start with my new career. I am turning 50 soon, sogames is not what I am looking for. Thoughts?

Dont go lease

Howdy, Double H ~!!

Here's a link that might help ... VERY quick application, and more at the bottom of this link's page, for individual companies. Wish you the best, sir!

Jobs via Trucking Truth ~ None of these are lease, either!

Anne :)

Pj made a good point about restructuring sometimes leaving someone fresh out of school in a tough position. What is it about Stevens (other than your school endorsing them) that makes you want to work there? We recommend you apply to every company you can think of then make a pro/cons list for each one using the same metrics. Then make a decision that fits you the best based on the importance of the criteria you select. We all view things with a different level of importance. Do you value hometime over starting pay? Pet policy? Vacation time accrual? Freight type/lanes? Only you can answer that and your answers likely vary from others.

Leeva we always recommend drivers to start OTR because it eases them into the tough situations MOST local/home daily jobs encounter a majority of their day. I didn't follow the advice preached here and made it through my first year unscathed entirely by luck. Many others haven't been unfortunate. I actually find it surprising you're recommending that gig when one of your first posts to this forum was a "rundown" that came more across as trashing the company and that it's not worth it. To blindly suggest that this driver go to the nearest DC and be able to make it home is realistically not going to happen. Turtle, one of our moderators, drives for Walmarts private fleet. He lives over an hour away from his primary DC so going home while still getting adequate rest to be ready to roll the following day is unrealistic. The nearest walmart DC to where I live is 3 hours, Target is 1:15. Every company pays differently on those dedicated accounts so to tell a new driver he'll make atleast $1200 a week isnt completely accurate. You may be making close to $75k this year but how much more room do you have until you hit the maximum you could hit? We have OTR guys, and some local drivers making quite a bit more than that and still have room to get that number much higher. You may be ok with being home but really how much time do you have for a social life working 70 hours a week and having a day and a half off? What does your typical day look like? If I'm working 14 hours a day by the time I get home, shower, eat it's time for me to go to bed. I have 3 young kids and a wife at home so I don't sleep as much as I should so I nap while waiting at backhauls to our DC. You would have the same type of quality time at home running OTR or regional that gets you home every weekend. I'm not familiar with what DC you run out of but certain parts of the country have far more traffic and tight docks than others. Gtown and turtle running the Northeast are going to most likely run into heavier traffic and tighter docks than Jamie is running out of North Platte Nebraska. That's not to say Jamie doesnt hit heavy traffic or tight docks, it's just less likely with him running NE, KS, and the Dakotas compared to Gtown and Turtle doing NJ, NY and PA. I deliver to grocery stores and a majority of ours have simple docks. Others require alot of finesse to get in there safely. Get there later in the day and you're maneuvering through the customer parking lot with many cars and people out and about.

We all place more importance on different things. You may find Walmart dedicated is great but I may hate it. Many drivers that are OTR do it due to the unpredictability of where the next load will take you. It's also much easier to take a vacation without needing to pay airfare. Working on a home daily account you're limited to about a 300 mile radius to get home that day. Some drivers prefer linehaul , driving the same route every night. I love the job I have now (and hopefully for another 35 years till retirement age) due to benefits, great vacation time and route selection. I'm not blindly given a dispatch, most days I have atleast 8 options despite still being relatively low in seniority. Most routes have me home daily but I can take an overnighter if it's there and I choose to. To me this job is perfect, others would absolutely hate not getting farther out than around 300 mile radius. By starting out OTR a driver is able to gain a solid foundation to their new career, and get to experience many different things to see what they may enjoy. Not everybody wants to deal with several stops every day. Not everybody wants to drive 11 hours a day. That's one of my favorite things about trucking. There are so many available ways to use your CDL that there really is something out there for everyone. Also, not all options are available everywhere. Somebody living in Boston is going to have far more opportunities than someone living in a podunk town in middle of no where Alabama. The reality is that in some parts of the country trucking is the only way to make a good living without a 100+ mile commute.