LTL or OTR?
 

For all you experienced drivers out there, which would you prefer to get into after you have experience, OTR or LTL freight? What are some advantages/disadvantages to each that you have experienced or heard?

I have done both,LTL,and OTR. Right now,I am LTL. I drive for SYSCO. What is good about running LTL,is that you are home every night,the pay,and benefits are just as good as working for an OTR company. Running LTL,you have multiple stops. From a few,to many different stops on your truck everyday. Some LTL companies start really early in the mornings,or sometimes all night. A lot of times,LTL drivers open,close the trailer doors many times a day from backing up to docks.

What I liked about running OTR,is that I got to see many different parts of the country. Saw some pretty sunrises,sunsets. It is neat being able to see how other parts of the country looks like compared to where you are from. Running OTR,unlike LTL,you dont have multiple stops in one day. You may have more than one stop,but,you get to relax behind the wheel before you get to where you need to be. Running OTR,you dont get to be home every night to be with your family. Some companies get you home weekly,but for most,you may be out a couple weeks,to a month at a time. You hurry up to get to your origin,destination as fast as you can,legally,and come to find out,you may have to sit for a good while before you can load,or unload. Hurry up,and wait.

There are many more fellers here that can tell you what they have experienced. There is a more to this than what I have written,but,that is some of what I have experienced.

Re: LTL or OTR?
 

Although there are many people on here that have way more experience then me, at least I can answer. A worked for 2 OTR companies and 3 local including the one I am with now. Anyway, I did not waste any time going local, I never even had a year experience before doing so. I am a master of interviews and that helps. Not that I hated OTR, its just that hurricane Katrina decided to ruin my life and I had to get off the road. I also liked seeing the country doing OTR and only having a few deliveries for 2 weeks at a time, that was so easy. Plus you don't have to deal with nearly as much city streets and traffic, also you don't have to deal with nearly as many small businesses that are hard to pull a truck into. In addition, practically ALL of your freight is no touch, plus you can make your own hours. In addition, you will have much nicer trucks.

Not all local carriers are LTL. With LTL, you have alot more stops and some freight handling. For example, you will have 5-10 stops a day with some of them. The thing is, its pretty easy though for the most part. You will have like 1 pallet to go to 1 place, 2 for another, one box for another, stuff like that. Basically LTL is like UPS or FedEx delivery but with a tractor trailer, best way to describe it I think. Probably easier as far as the freight handling goes but harder as far as driving since you have a tractor trailer combo to deal with in the city. The local carriers that are not LTL, you will have 3 or 4 pulls a day, work about 8 hours and do a little dropping and hooking. Piece of cake but although these pay ok, they won't pay as much as LTL. I think the LTL carriers are some of the better paying local jobs. Although you do drive in the city being a local driver, at least you know the city unlike OTR where you have no clue. One great thing, you will have a normal life by driving local, just a regular job.

So to sum it up, if you don't mind being home every couple of weeks, go OTR and don't bother with local. Since ultimately, I feel that is truely the only significant disadvantage of going OTR. Just keep in mind, that my friend is a HUGE and I mean HUGE disadvantage. Hope this gives you some info :)

I do some LTL's. Some people don't like to make all the stops for pickup's and drop's. The money is usually better with LTL freight. I have a couple of LTL's on my truck right now. It is all about your personality and what you enjoy. I have spoken to a couple of drivers who work for one large carrier who make over $80M/yr doing LTL's. They are seasoned drivers, but with the extra stop pay, they make a really good living.

Re: LTL or OTR?
 

Not necessarily. You can run line-haul pulling strictly terminal-to-terminal drop-n-hook freight (no more waiting in line at the food warehouse or paper mill!). A guy I know pulling for Yellow makes over $70,000/year and he hasn't bumped a dock in over 7 years! Plus if he has to layover somewhere, he stays in a hotel room.

Myself? I like P&D better because I work days and I'm home everynight and every weekend. It's tough at first, but once you get an assgined area and get to know your customers, it's a very easy job.

I drive for Wilson Trucking wich is LTL...started out local as per co. policy and was lucky that no senior driver wanted the line-haul position. So I got it! Very happy with them, eventhough they like to not inform you of helpful details. I drive 5-6 nights a week, home sat. morning. great equipment and great pay. Little BS- best job I ever had.

I drove OTR, liked it too, just found myself waiting on loads too much, spending weekends in some crappy truckstop or resetting 34 hrs. I get consistent milage around 2500, very little waiting...maybe an hr or 2 but rarely. :) 47 cpm to start.

Re: LTL or OTR?
 

Dont expect to go to Yellow and start out making 70k/yr. It takes many years to get enough seniority to work consistently enough to make 70k. I was there for just under 2yrs and the best I ever did was just under 40k between the layoffs and the slow times of the year-not bad though for only working about 6-8 months of the year. Yellow is definitely one of the best paying jobs out there, but you have to have a lot of patience. I only left there because I got a local job making making more than I was making with Yellow and I have a 5 day SCHEDULED work week. I was on call 24/7 with yellow-tough way to live.

I prefer LTL myself.

My first full year with the company, I ran 50/50 linehaul/P&D.. Im back running city now, as it works better for my family situation.

Personally I could never go back to OTR. I do my 20-30 stops a day, handle freight, and deal with city traffic...but go home to my wife, soon to be born son, and new house everyday. My conmpany tops out at just under 22/hr.. Its honestly the easiest job Ive ever had for this kind of money.

Amen, bro. Been there, done that. Never again.

Copy that drivers!!!