WannaBe with Questions (Lots of ??s)

Thank You for your service. I think that anybody with the right attitude, can do just about anything they want !!! You have that attitude, drive and forsight to do just fine. Trucking, like most industries is in the crapper right now.
Others will come along and answer nyour specific questions, I'm sure. Good Luck..

 

As an OTR driver, you can pretty much live wherever you want. My company lets me take my truck home with me. I stay out 4 weeks and get 4 days home time. There are some slow days (like today), but mostly the companies try to keep their trucks moving. Nobody makes any money when the truck is idling. BTW, there are 26 states now that don't allow idling. If you're parked for more than 5 minutes, the truck is supposed to be turned off. With the economy being the way it is, there are new ways coming up constantly to save the company money and screw the driver. I'm lucky that I'm a dedicated driver and have a good fleet manager. For 3 years I drove straight OTR and went through several fleet managers, not ONE of which EVER got me home on time. My dedicted fleet manager makes it a priority to get his drivers home on time. He feels the same way I do - that I get their freight where it needs to be every day on time, and once a month they should be able to get me where I need to be on time. That makes all the difference in the world. Good luck to you. Driving a truck can be stressful sometimes, but I can't imagine doing anything else.

 

The older we get... the harder it is to see at night... I used to like to run at night. Now I like to start early and shut down early so I can get a good parking place. I pull a flat so a lot of times I have to run late. I hate the added stress of needing to shut down and no place to park. Too many trucks out here now.

 

Plus we have little option of when we drive, being guided by regulations, logbooks, dispatch etc. I would prefer to do all my driving at night, if possible.

 

I have the same problem with seeing at night. I wear contact lenses, so the oncoming lights often look like starbursts, not to mention the idiots who won't bother to turn their brights off when they see you coming. And isn't it ilegal to drive with your foglights on when it's not foggy? Might as well have the brights on.

It's also very hard to find a parking place in the middle of the night when you're burnt out and needing to sleep. I like driving at night, though if it's across country. Going across the desert at night and watching the sun coming up is awesome.

 

HazMat is harder to get now because of the background check required. A number of drivers just decided it wasn't worth it. Tanker is pointless for an OTR driver unless you plan on working for a tanker company. There aren't many who take newbies. I personally have all endorsements (HazMat, Tanker, and Doubles and Triples). I did that just to keep my options open because I wasn't sure at first what kind of driving I would like best. The only one I use now is HazMat, and that's rare, but I keep them all anyway.

You are likely to spend more time sitting around if you stay out longer than a week and that is because of the no-more-than-70-hours-in 8-days rule. If you go home every week for a 34 hr restart, you can then run more miles during the time you are working. If you stay out, however, you must either work shorter days or take a day off every week. Other factors include amount of freight your company is hired to haul, area of the country you are in, your personal history with the company (are you reliable?), etc...

I've never been screwed on my pay. Mistakes have been made occassionally, but are fixed as soon as I bring them to the attention of payroll.

Never met the owner, or any of the bigwigs.

I suppose a large state with lots of industry, maybe a port, might be better than a mostly rural state like Wyoming or North Dakota, but you can be hired no matter what state you live in.

I don't drive at night unless I have to. There's lots of reasons for this. It's hard for me to stay awake when it's dark outside and it's also hard for me to sleep when it's daylight. I find it more difficult to find a customer in the dark- it's harder to read street signs and addresses, and I just can't get the big picture like I can in the daytime. Also, more customers are only open during the daytime and deliveries must be made when the customers want them, not when it's convenient for you.Some of the big warehouses and DCs are open 24/7, but most smaller places just run one shift then close up.