CDL Truck Driving Jobs in New York

Driving in New York City

The city runs separate Local and Through truck route networks, and commercial vehicles are banned outright from the parkway system. The Belt, the Grand Central, and the FDR are not options, and the fines and tow costs for finding that out the hard way are steep. Hunts Point in the Bronx is one of the largest food distribution complexes in the world and a serious reefer destination.

Upstate is a different job

I-90, the Thruway, runs 385 miles across the state, the longest stretch of a single interstate inside one state anywhere in the country. I-87 climbs from the city to the Canadian border. The Peace Bridge at Buffalo carries cross border trade, and dairy country puts reefer freight on the road. The pace, the traffic, and the equipment are all different from downstate.

The port

The Port of New York and New Jersey is the largest container port on the East Coast, and while most of its terminals sit on the Jersey side, its freight fills lanes throughout the New York metro. Drayage into and out of the city is its own specialty and pays for the difficulty.

Finding driving work in New York

Decide up front whether you want the city or not, because they are separate careers. City driving pays for difficulty: restrictions, traffic, and tight docks. Hunts Point reefer work runs on a schedule that starts very early.

Upstate is conventional trucking with long Thruway runs, dairy reefer, and Canadian cross border work out of Buffalo. If you have never driven in the city, do not take a city job assuming it is like anywhere else. It is not.

Feeding the city is a full time industry, and local truck driving jobs in food service and grocery hire across New York constantly. Much of that city work runs on straight trucks, which makes New York one of the strongest markets anywhere for Class B CDL jobs, many of them union.