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Six months OTR experience required.
One year of OTR experience required.
Have you ever looked at an over-the-road (OTR) truck driver application and wondered why you need to have OTR experience?
How do you even get OTR driving experience if you can’t get a job driving over-the-road?
You aren’t the only driver who’s asked this question. In fact, as the vice president of driver recruiting at Anderson Trucking Service (ATS), I’m frequently asked this question.
Carriers require OTR verifiable experience for several reasons — the first and most important of them being safety.
I understand how frustrating it can be when you find out you may not qualify for a job you wanted. Add to that even more frustration because you have no idea how to obtain that experience so you can eventually get the job you want.
Without knowing why OTR experience is so important and how you can get it, you may simply decide the trucking industry isn’t for you anymore and you might leave the transportation industry altogether.
I’m here to explain to you why OTR experience is important, why it’ll help your career and improve your job satisfaction and how you can get OTR experience.
When you’re finished reading, you’ll have a clear next step — whether that means you’re going to get the training you need or you’re ready to turn in your trucking school application.
Why OTR Driving Experience is Critical for Safety
Ultimately, safety is the number one reason why carriers require OTR experience before they will hire you. When you don’t have experience as an OTR driver, but get hired as one, you’re not prepared to safely complete the job. Because the lifestyle can be intense, if you’re not used to it, inexperience can pose a safety risk.
Being an OTR driver is a totally different experience than being a local driver. When you’re used to going home every single night or at least every weekend, and then you suddenly begin living in the truck and sleeping there every single night for weeks at a time, it’s quite the adjustment.
Maybe you struggle to sleep in the truck. You wake up and you’re not fully rested, which makes you more prone to driver error and accidents. You also risk falling asleep at the wheel.
Not only that, but you’re not driving the same routes every single day. You’re driving across the country. As an OTR driver, you can’t necessarily follow a set routine. You don’t get to go to the same spot every morning for coffee or follow the same roads to go to the exact same delivery spot day in and day out. You get to see new cities every day.
If you’re used to only driving in the south and now you’re driving OTR, you may not be familiar with the weather conditions in the midwest or the northeast. You may not have seen snowstorms and ice storms before, so you certainly won’t know how to drive in them. Without this OTR experience, you can risk getting into an accident.
In order to be successful as an OTR driver, you need to trip plan. You need to do your research to understand where you can stop to fuel up, take a break, get food, grab a shower, wash your clothes and park for the night. You need to know which roads you can and can’t drive on. You need to watch the weather carefully. It’s a lot to take in. You can get fatigued when you don’t know where to go.
If you aren’t planning ahead of time, you can get lost. You can end up miles and miles out of route because you don’t know where to park for the night or all the spots are taken up. You can end up with an Hours of Service violation because you drove out of route to find a spot to park for the night. You can turn down the wrong road and end up stuck in a field instead of at the customer’s loading dock. You can be late for deliveries because you were lost.
All of this is a recipe for a fatigued, stressed, frustrated driver. And a fatigued driver is a driver that makes mistakes and gets into accidents.
When drivers get lost and fatigued, they may be more likely to take risks they wouldn’t normally take. That’s when bridge hits and u-turn accidents become a lot more common.
Hiring drivers that already have OTR experience is a way for carriers to make sure that drivers are prepared for the intense OTR lifestyle and can keep drivers, the motoring public and the load safe.
If a company were to hire a driver with no OTR experience to work as an OTR driver and that driver happened to get into an accident, there could be negative consequences for the company.
The Challenges of Adapting to the OTR Lifestyle
The OTR lifestyle isn’t for every driver, and OTR carriers know this. They want to make sure they’re hiring drivers that are committed to the lifestyle and can handle the lifestyle. They want their drivers to succeed.
Because you aren’t driving the same route every day, you have to spend extra time trip planning each day. If you don’t, not only can you become flustered and end up in an accident as mentioned above, but you can end up violating your Hours of Service or being late on a delivery.
Not only do you and your carrier have a financial obligation to deliver loads to customers on time, but consistently delivering late can help you build a bad reputation. Building a bad reputation can affect the loads you receive, your pay and your happiness as a driver.
The OTR lifestyle can also be very difficult emotionally. You’re away from your family for long periods and you may miss out on the comforts of home. You live in the truck and that can be emotionally challenging for a lot of drivers.
If you aren’t prepared to spend weeks at a time out on the road, an OTR job isn’t right for you. Not only that, but when you aren’t in the right headspace, you are more prone to making costly mistakes.
But you might not know that you don’t like driving OTR until you do it for the first time. What if you hate it after you’ve uprooted your life and signed on with an OTR trucking carrier? This is why carriers require OTR experience before they’ll hire you.
…which leads me to my next point.
So How Do I Get OTR Experience?
If you’re scratching your head, wondering where you can get OTR experience if no OTR trucking company will hire you, you’re not alone. Many drivers have stood in your shoes and they’ve gotten the training they needed to pursue the OTR lifestyle.
Your next step depends on the position you’re in right now.
If you haven’t gotten your CDL yet, you’re in the perfect position to get the OTR experience you need. Your first step: Start doing your research. Find a reputable trucking company that trains drivers. They will either pay for your trucking school upfront or reimburse you for your training. You can also pay for your own schooling at local schools.
Once you go through your initial training — anywhere from four to 12 weeks depending on the school — you’ll drive OTR with a trainer for a designated period. Then you’ll go through a trial period where you drive OTR on your own.
Companies each have different requirements for how long you need to drive with a trainer. Some measure in days and some measure in hours. Usually, it is a month to two months.
You’ll start with a lighter workload. It will gradually become more intense as you adapt to the OTR lifestyle.
There are two types of training companies:
- A company that has the trainer and student run as a team. While the student drives, the trainer may sleep and vice versa.
- A company that has the student do all the driving; the trainer never drives, only observes.
Aim to find a company where you do all the driving and the trainer only observes. You’ll receive more attention and support.
When you work with a trainer, you’ll be immersed in the OTR experience, but with the support you need to succeed. If you are fatigued, there will be someone there with you to help.
If you already have your CDL and only have local or regional driving experience, you’ll need to relive your driving school or training experience and go back to work with a trainer to get the OTR experience you need to succeed in the OTR industry.
Get the OTR Experience You Need
Now that you understand why OTR trucking carriers require OTR experience before they will hire you on, you know exactly what to do next.
If you don’t have your CDL yet, you’ll want to find a trucking school that will cover some or all of your schooling. They’ll train you to drive OTR.
If you only have local or regional experience, you will need to pursue OTR training with a training company.
For your convenience, we’ve put together a list of the best carriers that are hiring new drivers right now. They’ll help you get the OTR experience you need to apply at any carrier you’d like.