Regional vs OTR Trucking Jobs: Pay, Lifestyle, and Home Time
When you first think of trucking, you think of it as a single type of job, but trucking has many different types of jobs that can look very different, depending on what you choose. Every trucker has a preference. The diversity allows every trucker to find what suits them best.
Sometimes what you choose will depend on your stage in life. For example, when young OTR trucking jobs are great because you don’t have a family, and they offer you the most money. Once you get a spouse and kids, many truckers choose regional because they get more home time.
At Trucker Social, we’re going to cover regional trucking jobs, and we’re going to cover OTR trucking jobs. We will cover the pay, the lifestyle, and the home time so that you can clearly see which one would make the most sense for you.
Regional Trucking Jobs: Pay, Lifestyle, and Home Time
When you drive a regional trucking job, you drive a specific geographic region of the United States. Regional jobs cover a multi-state area and usually keep you within a 500- to 1,000-mile radius.
Examples of geographic regions that a regional truck driver might drive include:
Midwest
Northeast
Southeast
Southwest
Pacific Northwest
Most of the time when you drive regional, you will go out for the week and be back by the weekend: most of the time. While most regional follow this practice, it depends on the trucking company. You get variations depending on who you sign with. We describe a common pattern, rather than a guarantee.
Regional trucking jobs work for drivers who want real weekly home time, but you still want mileage pay because it pays better. Local is a third one, and we’re not going to cover that one much, but we’ll give a brief overview of OTR vs regional vs local. Local gets you home every night. It typically pays hourly, but the pay isn’t as good as regional or OTR.
You go regional when you want the money and a home life. Regional is the happy middle ground between local and OTR where you still get more money than local, but you’re not out as much as OTR.
Regional jobs will typically have you hauling manufacturing supplies, consumer goods, and agricultural products. For regional, the average pay is $75,877 per year. That averages out to roughly $1,459 per week. How much you earn depends on experience, what you haul, and the specific geographic territory.
If you’re a new trucker, regional jobs are moderately difficult to get. OTR trucking driving jobs with no experience are much easier to get. You typically wind up going OTR until you get the experience, with most carriers preferring at least 6 months to 2 years of driving experience because of insurance rates. Regional also tends to be more popular because of more home time, so you need to compete with more truckers to get those jobs.
OTR Trucking Jobs: Pay, Lifestyle, and Home Time
OTR trucking jobs are going to send you from East Coast to West Coast. You get the most mileage because you cover long distances. You could be away for two to four weeks at a time before going back home. Then, you might only get 2 to 4 days of home time.
There are also drivers who could be out for several months because they want to save more money. This is where preference comes in. Not everyone wants that, but there are drivers who will choose virtually no home time.
Work-life balance is not great when you do OTR. This type of job will, however, give you the highest level of pay for spending so much time on the road. There’s also an incredible sense of adventure when you drive OTR. You will see the mountains of Montana, the harbors of Boston, the beaches of Miami, the deserts of Arizona, and everything in between.
Many OTR truckers can boast that they have been to all of the lower 48 states. Some of them have also been to Canada and Mexico.
For some drivers, OTR can be mentally and emotionally challenging because you will be alone in the truck for weeks at a time. An estimated 44% of long-haul truckers show signs of depression. Your social interaction and companionship will be minimal. There is no established home routine with OTR.
Your freight with OTR will be diverse, ranging from chemicals and machinery to consumer products and industrial materials. Typically, you will be hauling freight from large distribution centers, plants, and ports.
If you don’t have a family, OTR is a great way to start. This one can be hard on the wife and kids because you’re home less frequently. You basically live in your truck and rack up the mileage
However, if you’re a new driver and want the biggest paycheck, go OTR because the pay will be much better. New OTR drivers earn anywhere from $45,000 to $50,000 per year, or anywhere from $700 to $1,200 per week.
Mid-level is $55,000 to $75,000 per year, and experienced truckers see pay anywhere from $80,000 to $110,000+ per year. If you want the most pay, you want to go for hazmat, tanker, or oversized endorsements.
Compare Live Listings at Trucker Social
At Trucker Social, our job board can help you get started in your trucking career. If you want OTR trucking jobs, we have postings for that. If you want regional trucking jobs closer to home, sign up for a FREE user profile to see what jobs we have available. Check back often because we frequently get new listings you can apply for.
