bobtailing for hometime

As a L/P owner myself, I'll give you the short answer.. You can bob tail as far as you have time to.. Whether it be on the drive line, or the off duty drive line. Keep in mind tho, with these QCs you only get 3hrs a day total to drive on the O/D line.. I myself just drove from the McClenney Walmart/Swift terminal to my home in West Palm Beach.. I split my time between the drive line, and the O/D line. If you are a owner, and have the time, you can go as far as you want. You pay for the fuel and the truck...

 

what is an L/P owner?? Been trucking over 44 years never heard of it and what is a QC?

 

L/P... Lease purchase owner... Q/C... Qualcomm..

 

I live 30-42 miles from the Jurupa Valley terminal (depending on which way I choose to drive) and bobtail home all the time. I'll add that the first time I came back for home time they required that I park the truck at the terminal, after that I was free and clear to bobtail home. It seems that there's a level of trust involved, and a new driver may not have that trust.

Another factor to consider is how secure is parking at your home? That is a major concern, especially in high theft areas like the LA region. It was helpful when I explained that when I go home there's a tall fence all around the property and a HUGE pit bull that requires a large steak just to let me in the gate.... (true story) ... after they saw pictures of the pit bull I've never had any issues bobtailing home. If you end up parking your truck on the street and it gets stolen (with all your stuff), then YOU will be looking for more than recovery of your personal effects, if you know what I mean.

As others have noted, as a company driver the time spent driving home is on your 8/11/14/70 hour clock. You have to have enough time to get home. After your 34 hour reset your dispatch will normally require you to go back to the terminal to pick up a load or get an empty, therefore you will start out with time off your clock by the time you get to the terminal. Depending on your first dispatch, you may need to drive to the terminal the night before in order to get an early start. With the new 34 hour reset rule requiring the 1-5 am thing, by the time you leave your house at 5 am it may be too late, then you need to consider taking an extra day at home so you can get to the terminal in the evening. Personally, I dislike dealing with rush hour in LA and almost always opt to take that extra home day for my reset and then get to the terminal the night before I plan to hit the road.

 

i get sick walking out of my house and looking at the darn truck during my off time and i have been known to d/h 300 miles to get here.

 

One of my biggest complaints about Swift was getting me home. 3 times I had to bobtail home from Texas to California, once from Arizona to California and lost count of how many times I bobtailed from Los Angeles to Stockton CA

 

No longer with Swift?

I'm curious how/why you would bobtail from Texas to California. Were you an O/O or company driver? Can't imagine a company driver bobtailing that far.

 

No longer wiff Swiff yes lol

owner op yes

 

Dang! I can't imagine spending that kind of fuel money bobtailing. Must have been a critical event to get home without a load like that.

I'll say in my 15 months with Swift as a company driver there's a clear improvement in the last few months with load planning and dispatch. Last year it was rare to have a load stacked. Now it's rare not to have a load stacked, sometimes two or more. Average miles improved and I'm able to better plan my schedule for rest.

 

I guess I'm fortunate living in Houston. Lots of freight going there. If I'm coming in from afar the planners usually have me bring something to Dallas or Lancaster and stack a tcall from Lancaster on down to Houston. There's no shortage of those as it seems no one likes going to Houston. I almost always get home on the day requested.