When someone is looking for a local truck driving job, this means they want to be home every night on not taking on the long-haul or over the road (OTR) truck driving jobs that can mean days and even weeks away from home at a time.

Local truck driving jobs can come with good benefits and good pay and of course, you get to go home to your own bed at the end of the day!

How do I get a local truck-driving job?

Local truck driving jobs can be found through trucking companies, manufacturers or shipping companies among others. In the majority of these cases the company would supply you with a truck and routes and you simply bring your truck-driving qualifications and experience. There are opportunities for owner-drivers on local routes too, you can make more money this way as the company don’t have to provide you with the transport.

The main difference between long-haul and local truck-driving jobs, apart from being able to return home every night, is that local jobs tend to have more fixed hours. You are not just traveling from point a to point b in the best time you can, you would usually have to complete set routes and set hours. This may not suit all drivers.

For example, if you are a local delivery driver for a furniture manufacturer, you may be required to work from 8am to 6pm on whatever routes are down for that day or if you work for a shipping company, you may be required to shift a certain number of loads to a warehouse within the working day. In some of these jobs you will also be responsible for unloading and loading the cargo. In the example of the furniture manufacturer, you are likely to be required to shift the goods once you arrive at your destination. If you are used to long-haul/ OTR truck-driving where there is not so much physical activity – this can be quite taxing.

If this is potentially a problem for you, then you should look for what are called ‘drop-and-hook stops’. This is where you back your truck into the warehouse or other destinations and other workers offload the cargo, you then continue to the next stop and do the same. In certain industries this is more common that driver unloading.

Pay for local truck driving jobs

The pay can be quite different between over the road truck driving jobs and regional truck driving jobs as the OTR ones often pay by the mile whereas the local ones may pay by the hour. This can vary by job and company though so search for the one that is right for you.

You can search below for truck driving jobs