Housing Options for First Year Trucker ?

Discussion in 'Questions From New Drivers' started by DARKNIGHTRUCKER, May 3, 2020.

  1. x1Heavy

    x1Heavy Road Train Member

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    You don't where possible.

    Its interesting.... when we dated some years ago its by phone cards at the J for privacy for several months. Normally I could care less about marriage etc. But eh there it is. Courting time. You can drive or you can court. Poor Dowdy used to sit and wonder why in the world am I at the J 5 hours a day? HA he knows... night dispatch told him of the romance. Apparently night dispatch had the similar experience.

    We get married and a week later Im heading out for who knows how long to the Carolinas.

    Wife: Is this the story of my future? you gone all the time Eh?

    Wot?!

    Well ###### if I did not stay with her over trucking, Particularly a month later for good when I realized the true extent of my medical issues that accumulated for a couple of decades. I was really sick then. I am way better now but aging too #### fast. It is what it is. Shes still with me 15 years after cancer. We are getting ready to possibly fight diabetes with her. Which will be a bump in the road considering. If they order her off the road then I will have to be her driver.

    Moral of the story, life changes. A journey as it were, everything has a beginning and a ending.
     
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  3. TravR1

    TravR1 Road Train Member

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    If your rent or mortgage is 1200 a month, and you decide to take 3 days off that month, that's 400 a day you are paying. That's insane.

    If you are driving OTR and decide to buy some property, rent it out to someone else.

    A motel will typically run you about 50.00 a day. Even the more upscale hotels will cost you less than that.
     
  4. Cattleman84

    Cattleman84 Road Train Member

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    The Sticks, Idaho
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    Single person that drives truck for a living... HOME IS WHERE EVER YOU SET THE BRAKES.
     
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  5. Dick Danger

    Dick Danger Medium Load Member

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    I'm curious, for those of you that make your truck your home what's your plan if you wake up one morning unemployed? Or worse, get injured and can't work for a few weeks/months?
     
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  6. DARKNIGHTRUCKER

    DARKNIGHTRUCKER Light Load Member

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    that's actually a really good question. I've been wondering also what happens if a trucker gets sick I doubt the companies will let you keep your truck but wouldn't it violate their home-time policy letting you have several days due to a bad sickness or injury?

    Personally I know I have no options other than getting back to my relatives house somehow and riding out the sickness/injury till I'm better. The good thing is there's pretty much always SOMEONE hiring for CDL A driving jobs so if one company let me go I'd apply to others.
     
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  7. Lennythedriver

    Lennythedriver Road Train Member

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    If I was you, I would just drive extra the first year like I did and prove yourself and when you do take home time just stay in a hotel for three days. Usually you can find a hotel for 50 to 60 bucks a day to get out of the truck unwind for a bit and it will set you back less than a couple hundred bucks a month. Save your money. Then in a year or so worry about finding your own place. No sense paying a full rent payment and all that if you’re only going to be there three days a month. Use your first year to save!
     
  8. x1Heavy

    x1Heavy Road Train Member

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    What I have done in the past when I got sick, it usually takes a form of a 103 plus fever, my personal deadline point is 103.5 brain boils at 104.5 with revelant seizures herinating and other really interesting deaths at that point. Imagine the brain boiling over like water getting out of a too hot pot on the stove, only through the spinal access at the base of your skull until enough comes out to stop your heart and lungs. While the rest of who you are dissolve into a disorganized mess.

    With that in mind, I let family know who are in a position to let dispatch know and I let dispatcher know with a sat message I am sick and forget the schedule. If possible they find another driver to come get my load give me his empty.

    Now its a problem of staying in the sleeper isolated until the fever breaks, which should be about the third day give or take a day.

    Sometimes if its really bad you generate one instinct drive home wherever that might be. The problem is you are too sick to drive and end up a few hundred miles away before you really stop and find a ER or a Hotel room. They sometimes cart you to ER anyway. And break it there.

    Sometimes you stay put and on the 4th day or so your fever broke, and your first problem is shower. Then hydrate a few hours out of a tea pitcher half the day at the counter quietly. Eventually towards day two you start eating again which is really good. IF not you find a ER and tell them the timeline and they will go run tests.

    Forget the truck. They will wait. No one is going to fire you. Not for that. Why? You let unemployment know and boom you are buried in money while the company that fired you get punished. No one wants that.

    Ultimately what you do not want to go is get so sick and then die. It might be about 4 days after until someone sniffs the death coming from your rotting green and black corpse decomposing off your bones ruining the tractor in the process. They usually junk it proper in a special biohazard salvage yard at that point.

    Sick is easy, communication and planning short term helps get you fixed right quick. Sometimes the ER has the things you need once they test out and diagnose the problem. Which might be bigger than you think.

    Most first year truckers get sick several times until their bodies adapt or gain immunity somehow. Then they are generally good to go.
     
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  9. Cattleman84

    Cattleman84 Road Train Member

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    I dont make my truck my home, but about a year and a half ago I burned myself VERY VERY badly. Ended up in the ER and had to go to a burn specialist twice a week for just over a month.

    My company just parked my truck against the fence at the yard and locked it up. When I returned to work my truck and stuff was waiting for me as if I had just left it the day before. My company even paid my share of my health insurance premium that month.

    Disclaimer: But I also drive for a small family owned and operated company, the owners of which have known my family for decades.
     
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  10. Eddiec

    Eddiec Road Train Member

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    You need to move your stuff out of your relatives home to a storage facility immediately. They have asked you nicely,especially if you're not paying them rent. This should be a priority. You should be able to find a location in a week, for about $100 a month.

    Chinatown has given you some good options for establishing a residence. UPS store can be your second option.
     
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  11. Rocks

    Rocks Road Train Member

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    In my case, before I started driving a truck I had enough savings to survive a year with no income if it were necessary. And didn't get rid of my apartment until I decided wouldn't need it any more. It's wise to save money for emergencies. It's about money management. Those who don't have a family, no dependents, no debt and things like that, save your money for emergencies. One never knows what may happen.
    For over 11 years trucking, I went to my country of origin, Brasil, about 5 times and always stayed out of the truck for 3 months at a time. Went back to the same company with no problems. Also had to deal with medical issues and was out again for another 3 months. But I had enough for everything I needed. Never had workers comp and never needed but might be a good idea to have one just in case.
    Gotta be prepared.
     
    Last edited: May 4, 2020
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