Is OTR time off cumulative?

A lot of places won't allow a truck to sit (outside of a terminal) for more then several days. i.e. if you want extended time off, the truck will need to get to a terminal, and you may or may not have to get your stuff out depending on when you promise to be back to work.

 

So you're saying plan the time off while the load has an extra day?

 

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If the load is going by the house, sure.

 

Here is a dirty little secret in the business. Most companies would prefer you never actually took time off for a real vacation. Most offer a two week paid vacation after a year. Lord help you if you actually want to take two weeks off,,,to bee with family or something silly like that. They want to pay you for the two weeks based on your 52 week average. the reality is its all about revenue. If you are on a sweet dedicated run, don't expect that slot to be available while you are gone. Most companies already assume you are about to leave or never come back, if you are gone that long...just my experience and opinion. Good luck.

 

Loads dictate your hrs.If you can show your dispatcher that you are a good driver he may work with you and let you take a couple days off a place you desire as kind of like an appreciation bonus for all the hard work you do for him.As for hometime you can take that off anywhere you like just let dispatch know a couple weeks in advance.

 

It all depends on the company and their culture. As for the megas, don't expect to have more than two or three days in a row off and keep the same truck. This is because of how their performance is measured, something called asset utilization. What this means, even though saving up and taking 7 days in a row seems to you like the same thing as taking one day a week off for seven consecutive weeks, on their performance reports it is not, because that tractor will show no production for the week. Investors look closely at what is called seated tractor count, meaning how many assets sit unused at any given time. In reality it does not cost them any more to let you bank up paid time off, but the trucking companies have not caught up with the rest of the world yet, at least not on the driver level, office staff is something completely different.

 

That was about the only thing that I liked about JB HUNT...and slip seating. If I wanted to stretch out home for 10 days....there wasn't darn thing they could do about it. No truck to worry about. I got a couple warnings, but was never terminated. They were pretty tolerant if you have a safe record.

I took off 14 days when 9/11 went down. I had friends and fellow shipmates at the Pentagon & NYC.

 

I take a week off every 4 weeks, and I never clean out my truck. Once in a while they may use it for local deliveries, rarely they may use it to give to another driver a for a short run. We don't hire students, we are a smaller outfit. Even when I dont take a week off I am almost always back at my home terminal on weekends.

I always found almost all bigger company's time off policies to be idiotic and hypocritical, they have bean counters that only see numbers and dont care about your personal situation, wants, or needs.

If you want to get a OTR company with good time off, you will probably have to work for a less than disirable company for at least a year to gain some experince. And keep a good work record and stay accident and ticket free.

I Am going to get a local job next year, whatever it takes. 12 + years of ovee the road...I've had enough

 

From what I've seen, most megas qould prefer to chain the driver to the steering column, and only unlock the chain when they have received verifiable proof the driver is dead.

 

which leads to the old story, about a hole in the floor......