Many of the people I've spoken with have thrown their hands up in the air, distressed over having discovered that local trucking firms won't even give them the time of day. Local trucking companies- those operating in a small, defined local geographic area, such as a major city, as opposed to OTR companies who operate regionally or all across the US- generally require applicants to possess a minimum of one year of OTR tractor trailer experience before they will even consider you for employment.
The reason is simple. Local trucking companies tend to be the smaller mom and pop operations. Their resources are more limited, and the insurance that they are required to maintain requires that the drivers that they employ have a minimum of a year (sometimes a minimum of two years) of verifiable driving history.
Your driving history does not necessarily need to be with the same company. You can drive for one OTR for six months, and a different one for six months. By then you'll have acquired a year of OTR to satisfy the local company, and start filling out apps.
It's also worth pointing out that smaller companies also generally won't have the manpower or the time to do checking to see how much time you've had behind the wheel. I am not necessarily suggesting that you lie on your job apps, but it is an alternative. It happens all the time. I've even been guilty of making a few false entries on some of my apps in my lifetime, bending the truth here and there.
Here is how one of my buddies landed a local driving position with just six months of OTR experience, although the job listing on craigslist clearly required a full year:
He put on his app that he'd acquired a full year of OTR experience. He stretched his driving dates here and there. He was hired on at one OTR in May of 2009, but on his app for his local position, he stated that he began his OTR training in March of '09, adding two months to his "experience". Soon, his numbers reflected that he had, indeed, accumulated a years' worth of OTR experience.
Then he began sending out apps and resumes to local firms. He was called in to job interviews shortly thereafter. He knew he was competing with other drivers for the same position- other drivers that likely had more legitimate experience than he had had- so he had to make himself shine.
And here's what he did at interviews: When it came time for him to ask questions of the interviewer, he posed a couple neatly-poised questions- questions that no other driver would've had the notion to even bring up. Other drivers most likely asked "What benefits and paid days off do you offer?" and "How soon until I would be eligible for vacations and pay raises?" This isn't exactly the type of self-centered questions employers really want to hear. They really want job applicants to ask more relevant questions. So my friend came up with these heavy hitters: "How is this company's standing with the DOT?"
Killer, huh? Who would have thought to ask that? He also asked things like "Do drivers unload their own trailers?", "How much of our freight is haz-mat?", and "Are our trucks owned outright or leased?" It happened to be that the equipment was leased, which opened up the next question: "Is maintenance done here on-site or through a second party?"
All extremely well-conceived questions. Do you see my friend's ploy here? He was setting himself up to show that he was different than all the other applicants who undoubtedly would be walking through the same front door in fifteen minutes for the next interview with HR. If nothing else, if my buddy didn't get this job, at least he might have made a strong enough impression on HR to possibly get called for the next job opening..... which is exactly what happened. He didn't get the job he applied for, but he'd made such an impression with the questions he'd posed that he got called back two weeks later for another position that paid another $1.50 on the hour.
Presentation is everything in practically every endeavor upon which you throw yourself.
So, after six months as an OTR driver, he walked in to a local driving position with a local trucking company, although he clearly didn't have the required experience. He knew that the local companies would likely not even bother calling to check up on his stated driving credentials on his app. Besides, he likely wouldn't have thought to ask the questions that he did if he didn't have the experience that he said he had on his app, would he? Turns out he was calling the local trucking company's bluff, assuming they wouldn't call to check up on his prior employers, and would go along with his stated experience on paper, backed up by the questions he posed at the end of his interview.
After a year with this local company at $15 an hour, he was ready to move on to a $20+ /hour position with a regional trucking company hauling US mail. He made regional runs from the Cincinnati area, was home far more frequently than an OTR driver, and was making a very decent living wage of $20 - $25 an hour hauling mail from one spot to the next. He was making just as much, if not more doing regional runs as we was as an OTR driver, and getting home far more frequently.
The reason is simple. Local trucking companies tend to be the smaller mom and pop operations. Their resources are more limited, and the insurance that they are required to maintain requires that the drivers that they employ have a minimum of a year (sometimes a minimum of two years) of verifiable driving history.
Your driving history does not necessarily need to be with the same company. You can drive for one OTR for six months, and a different one for six months. By then you'll have acquired a year of OTR to satisfy the local company, and start filling out apps.
It's also worth pointing out that smaller companies also generally won't have the manpower or the time to do checking to see how much time you've had behind the wheel. I am not necessarily suggesting that you lie on your job apps, but it is an alternative. It happens all the time. I've even been guilty of making a few false entries on some of my apps in my lifetime, bending the truth here and there.
Here is how one of my buddies landed a local driving position with just six months of OTR experience, although the job listing on craigslist clearly required a full year:
He put on his app that he'd acquired a full year of OTR experience. He stretched his driving dates here and there. He was hired on at one OTR in May of 2009, but on his app for his local position, he stated that he began his OTR training in March of '09, adding two months to his "experience". Soon, his numbers reflected that he had, indeed, accumulated a years' worth of OTR experience.
Then he began sending out apps and resumes to local firms. He was called in to job interviews shortly thereafter. He knew he was competing with other drivers for the same position- other drivers that likely had more legitimate experience than he had had- so he had to make himself shine.
And here's what he did at interviews: When it came time for him to ask questions of the interviewer, he posed a couple neatly-poised questions- questions that no other driver would've had the notion to even bring up. Other drivers most likely asked "What benefits and paid days off do you offer?" and "How soon until I would be eligible for vacations and pay raises?" This isn't exactly the type of self-centered questions employers really want to hear. They really want job applicants to ask more relevant questions. So my friend came up with these heavy hitters: "How is this company's standing with the DOT?"
Killer, huh? Who would have thought to ask that? He also asked things like "Do drivers unload their own trailers?", "How much of our freight is haz-mat?", and "Are our trucks owned outright or leased?" It happened to be that the equipment was leased, which opened up the next question: "Is maintenance done here on-site or through a second party?"
All extremely well-conceived questions. Do you see my friend's ploy here? He was setting himself up to show that he was different than all the other applicants who undoubtedly would be walking through the same front door in fifteen minutes for the next interview with HR. If nothing else, if my buddy didn't get this job, at least he might have made a strong enough impression on HR to possibly get called for the next job opening..... which is exactly what happened. He didn't get the job he applied for, but he'd made such an impression with the questions he'd posed that he got called back two weeks later for another position that paid another $1.50 on the hour.
Presentation is everything in practically every endeavor upon which you throw yourself.
So, after six months as an OTR driver, he walked in to a local driving position with a local trucking company, although he clearly didn't have the required experience. He knew that the local companies would likely not even bother calling to check up on his stated driving credentials on his app. Besides, he likely wouldn't have thought to ask the questions that he did if he didn't have the experience that he said he had on his app, would he? Turns out he was calling the local trucking company's bluff, assuming they wouldn't call to check up on his prior employers, and would go along with his stated experience on paper, backed up by the questions he posed at the end of his interview.
After a year with this local company at $15 an hour, he was ready to move on to a $20+ /hour position with a regional trucking company hauling US mail. He made regional runs from the Cincinnati area, was home far more frequently than an OTR driver, and was making a very decent living wage of $20 - $25 an hour hauling mail from one spot to the next. He was making just as much, if not more doing regional runs as we was as an OTR driver, and getting home far more frequently.
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