Is Regional A Waste Of Time, Is OTR The More Practical Path?

As a former OTR driver and current local driver I can confirm most of what Kearsy says. I'm home every day, but I don't see much of my wife and kids on workdays. Since I work nights I end up sleeping away half on my first day off. But I'm also home every day to help my wife with things she can't handle on her own, whereas OTR whenever she really needed my help I was usually 2000 miles away.

OTR it was often a shock how much my kids had changed in the month or two I was away, and I felt like I was missing so much. Now as a local driver I may not see them that much, but I usually see them briefly every day. The flip side to that is as an OTR driver I was able to take many longer stints of time off and turn them into family trips. I can't do that nearly as often as a local driver.

I've never worked a 6th workday as a local driver. By the end of my 5th day I usually only have 5 hours remaining on my 70, not worth coming in another day for that. But I did very well even without working any extra. I grossed 106k this my first full year hauling fuel, and thats considerably more than I was making OTR, but I worked my tail off to earn it.

I think the "quality" time versus "quantity" time is something to truly consider. Many of my friends say they felt like they had more time with family as OTR than home weekends/daily.

Already at work before kids go to school, just getting home as they are headed to bed. Working a 6th day to make up more money, then wanting to sleep on the 7th. Or home on Fri night and exhausted after driving 600 miles. Go to bed, then stay up all day Saturday and and Saturday night so you can sleep late Sunday to leave at 3pm Sunday. Not much quality time. As OTR your entire home time is concentrated on family.

One thing to consider with Roehl, the home time offers sound great, but you need to take the $ into account. The more home time, the less pay. One of Roehl's drivers came in here complaining he only made $35,000 his first year. BUT... He did 7 days on 7 days off. So if he actually worked a whole year, rather than 6 months of the year, he would have made $70,000. But somehow Roehl was evil for his "low pay". 😂

Anyone remember that guy?

Keep in mind that hauling fuel is not for a brand new driver.

Good pay.... Happy for you.

One of the things I think this site is skewed on, is how local is looked at. I did two years OTR , have been local for another three years, and while I work with guys who do fourteen hour days with a two hour commute on both ends (which seems to be the prevailing belief around here that all local work is), it's literally by choice. You want to make six figures and live in the sticks, that's what it's going to take. There are other choices though. When we got pregnant last year, I dropped into a 0400-1400 five days a week shift, live seven minutes from the terminal , and still made over 85k for the year. My terminal offers 4, ten hour days weekly shifts and we're not even the only carrier on our block that offers that. I talked to a driver last week working for an equipment rental company who literally works bankers hours and made 75k. You can't tell me local drivers working these shifts aren't getting great family time at home. All I'm saying, is once you get some experience, the local game is not all doom and gloom.

One of the things I think this site is skewed on, is how local is looked at. I did two years OTR , have been local for another three years, and while I work with guys who do fourteen hour days with a two hour commute on both ends (which seems to be the prevailing belief around here that all local work is), it's literally by choice. You want to make six figures and live in the sticks, that's what it's going to take. There are other choices though. When we got pregnant last year, I dropped into a 0400-1400 five days a week shift, live seven minutes from the terminal , and still made over 85k for the year. My terminal offers 4, ten hour days weekly shifts and we're not even the only carrier on our block that offers that. I talked to a driver last week working for an equipment rental company who literally works bankers hours and made 75k. You can't tell me local drivers working these shifts aren't getting great family time at home. All I'm saying, is once you get some experience, the local game is not all doom and gloom.

Sweet gig!

To be fair, we're not skewed against local work. Most of the good-paying local jobs are exactly as we describe.

I did local work hauling auto parts out of Canada into Buffalo. It was 70-hour weeks, 5 days a week.

I had a few dump truck jobs over the years, and the hours weren't bad most of the time, but they didn't pay that well, either.

We've had dozens of members that did local work, and stories like yours are pretty rare. It sounds like you have a pretty awesome gig, but those aren't real common.

My take on home time and pay balance especially with regards to mega carriers and OTR is probably best explained by the video below of the crazy hot matrix for women.

Driving OTR for mega carriers is like being in the fun zone or date zone. My understanding of local jobs that have good home time and pay may not be a unicorn but it's definitely in the wife zone and as he says in the video, it's not scaled to size. Those local jobs with good pay and good home time are not so easy to find and get.

As an ABF local city driver, I work Mon-Fri, roughly 50 hours a week, off every weekend. I live 20-25 minutes from my terminal. My shift starts at noon and wraps up around 9:30-10:30pm. As guys retire and I gain seniority, I could choose an earlier start time but I like this shift as of now and plan on running with it for awhile. We are Teamsters and paid hourly, all OT after 8 hours is time and a half. 100% company paid pension and 100% company paid medical, dental and eye for myself, wife and kids up to 26 years old. 8 paid holidays, 5 sick and 4 personal days. 1 week paid vacation after 1st year then up to 6 weeks at I think the 10 or 12 year mark. A yearly percentage bonus based on the terminal’s operating ratio from previous year. Company supplied and cleaned uniforms through Cintas so not much out of pocket expense for work clothes.

Most guys average 75-90k a year. Some of the senior guys do their 8 and skate but most of us run 9-11 hours everyday. If you were to factor in the pension and insurance we are over 100k a year

Only downside for me on this shift is I do miss a decent amount of my kids sports on weeknights and can’t volunteer as a coach which I enjoyed doing but I’m always there on weekends to watch or run them to travel tournaments

I took a local shuttle driving position running doubles after my year of OVR. Pay and benefits are great, home daily and weekends off. They are starting guys at 31hr but there’s another pay scale for mileage/drops so you get whatever is more… 10k sign on paid at months 3,6 and 9. Even if people don’t want to be a delivery driver there’s still local gigs for shuttle/linehaul positions. I would never go back over the road but I know guys who love it.. it’s just not for me.

One of the things I think this site is skewed on, is how local is looked at. I did two years OTR , have been local for another three years, and while I work with guys who do fourteen hour days with a two hour commute on both ends (which seems to be the prevailing belief around here that all local work is), it's literally by choice. You want to make six figures and live in the sticks, that's what it's going to take. There are other choices though. When we got pregnant last year, I dropped into a 0400-1400 five days a week shift, live seven minutes from the terminal , and still made over 85k for the year. My terminal offers 4, ten hour days weekly shifts and we're not even the only carrier on our block that offers that. I talked to a driver last week working for an equipment rental company who literally works bankers hours and made 75k. You can't tell me local drivers working these shifts aren't getting great family time at home. All I'm saying, is once you get some experience, the local game is not all doom and gloom.

Appreciate the multiple perspectives here! Thanks guys and gals!!

Good video Chief!

My take on home time and pay balance especially with regards to mega carriers and OTR is probably best explained by the video below of the crazy hot matrix for women.

Driving OTR for mega carriers is like being in the fun zone or date zone. My understanding of local jobs that have good home time and pay may not be a unicorn but it's definitely in the wife zone and as he says in the video, it's not scaled to size. Those local jobs with good pay and good home time are not so easy to find and get.

😂. OMG... I prefer the friend zone so I can more easily kick them to the curb when I get annoyed or frustrated with them.

Explains a lot.