Dedicated -vs- Regional

What exactly is a dedicated route? How does it differ from a regional route?

Great questions.

Dedicated Route

A dedicated route generally means you're assigned to one particular customer only. For instance, a lot of major trucking companies have huge accounts with places like Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Dollar General. Often times these accounts require a large number of drivers with special skills, a higher level of reliability, a higher level of professionalism, or a combination of the three. Therefore it makes sense to setup a special division just to service that one customer and put qualified drivers in that division - drivers you know will take care of that customer so they don't lose the account. It can often times give drivers special perks like more home time, higher pay, a familiarity with the customer they're serving, and things of that nature. It usually takes a little over the road experience to qualify for a dedicated account because companies want to be certain you're going to be the type of driver they need servicing that customer.

Regional Route

Regional routes are divisions within a company that stay within a certain region of the country. Often times they're simply Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest, and Northwest - but there's no certain way of dividing things up. It just depends on the company and how they're setup.

Regional routes are super nice for a lot of drivers because it allows you to get more familiar with the area you're running in and most importantly keeps you within a day's drive of your home. So a lot of regional divisions can get you home on weekends, but not always. And sometimes you need a little experience to qualify for these divisions also because a lot of drivers like regional runs, but again not always.

The main advantage for both dedicated and regional divisions is generally a familiarity with your routes and more home time. Those are the main reasons people try to get into those type of divisions.