Question:
Uturn brought up something in another thread that I have never fully understood.So I put this out there to those of you who may have been on both sides of the fence.
Trying to find a local job for a newbie driver fresh out of school is next to impossible.Most local jobs require at least one year OTR before even being considered.
So the newbie gos and gets on with an OTR carrier,gets a year under his belt and then finds a good local gig and life is grand---home everyday,sleeps next to his wife/gf,eats home cooked food instead of the buffet at "the Hook".
Two years go by and he decides the open road is calling his name and he wants to go back OTR but now he is treated as if hes never set foot in a class 8 tractor.
Why is that?Whats the answer to this question?How could it possibly be?
Answer:
It must be different where you are, cuz when i started driving, not a single OTR company would hire me. The only places that would are all local, so thats what i do . Alot of local company will take on 19 year olds like me. But none of the OTR companies will take anyone under 21. I started local when i was 18 hauling hazmat. Compressed flammable gases. So there are good local jobs out there.

Answer:
It has a lot to do with insurance companies. Insurers dictate to carriers who can drive their truck. Even the self insured trucking companies tend to follow the same general rules the insurance industry is recommending.
I took 17 months off. I was a bum for 17 months, didn't work, just bummed around. I went back to work OTR and my carrier, ( I worked there for a total of 5 years previously ) told me, I just got under the wire with their insurer on the 17 months of time not driving.
I didn't have any problems with getting into the swing of things again. .
Another thing, Laws concerning OTR change, Carriers do not want to spend the time updating a driver on the changes that have taken place over a several year absence. When there are 20 to 60 drivers a week filling out applications to a carrier, the carrier looks at the most resent experienced drivers. They consider a driver that has been away from OTR a couple of years or more, out of the loop.

Answer:
I think Dak1 hit the nail on the head. out of the past seven years taht I have been driving, five of it has been local the rest regional. I recently took a job with a NATIONAL carrier on a dedicated account. We are considered OTR but it is more like regional and lots of hometime through the week . I was able to get away with not going to Orentaion(sp) and they based my pay on ALL my experience. This may be a execption because I about a year ago I tooked to the pumpkin and they went to start me as a new driver, they didnot include local as experience.

Answer:
I drove for Schneider as my first driving job. I could not find a single local company to hire me. I drove for about 14 months, and then got a local job driving for Canadian Tire. I drove 15 months local for them and got out of the business.
I got completely out of the business for almost 8 years, I even let my drivers license drop from an AZ to a DZ. I took a short 8 hr drivers refresher course, re took my test and passed with no problems.
I thought about going over the road again for a short while, just for some adventure, but changed my mind. I had absolutely no problems finding a job at an over the road company. I did a road test and past at Laidlaw and was offered the job to run Canada and USA. I would have been assigned a 140,000 dollar Pete 379, but I needed up getting a sweet local job.
Three other over the road companies offered me work, and I hadn’t set foot in the US, or driven in 8 years
My local job is with Canada’s biggest grocery company, with a large union working 4 10 hr shifts. I had to do a 3.5 hr road test (one of the hardest and most technical road tests I have ever done) I passed and got the job.
So it just goes to show you, that even if you’re out of the business for some time, you can always find work in this industry.

Answer:
You must be at loblaws, i have seen there trucks around quite a bit. There mostly daycab macks and internationals and volvo's right?
I got a job similar to that, i drive nights delivering to auto parts stores, we gotta work 5 days a week 8-10 hours a night ,and were not union, which kinda sucks, cuz union pays better. They didn't even do a roadtest when i got hired!
Those laidlaw trucks sure look sweet don't they? They got all 379 petes for company drivers. I wanna get a job pulling end dumps for them. With those 4 axle dumps you only run ontario, michigan and sometimes into ohio a few miles, with a permit.
Thats one good thing about multi axle, you never have to go to far from home.

Answer:

Some people like to present the image that driving a truck is such a complex thing that if one doesn't do it for awhile, they need retraining.Fact is, any moron can drive a truck, even if they haven't done so in awhile.