Company hours that you just say no to as a local driver?

My first company was reefer, so my answer to your last question is no.

One time I had a 4 drop load where the second drop was an 8pm appointment, the third drop was at 5:30 the next morning, and there was 500 miles between them.

 

Trucking is 24 hours. There are dispatch times for every hour in the day.

Depending on what you are doing holidays are also dispatched. I've worked plenty of holidays.

So unless a company does something like have you work two night shifts and then take 10 hours off and work a day shift and then take a short time off and then work a. night shift and then switch that way I don't see what the problem is.

 

I prefer working straight 12s, ie,. 6p-6a, five days straight. But if I could find a straight up, 40-45 hour night shift, I'd yank that right away too. More money is always good, but a decent balance between alright pay and not working yourself like a donkey is always preferable.

That said, the hours I grew to hate involved pumping milk from the farms into tankers was the night-into-day grind of varying shifts. One night I'd start at 1300 or 1500, and was supposed to end at 0100 or 0200. While the next night I'd start at 1700 or 1800. Either way the start and end times were different each night due to the nature of these animals and also the fact that you'd start out with 3-4 dairies to pickup. But then end up with possibly 3-4 added on due to a dairy not "making" on time, or some one just boning out early

Now this was my experience with local farm loading with Ruan and IRT. But I have heard of a few companies in my area where it's just 3-4 dairies for each driver per shift and that's it. One way to prevent burnout anyway.

 

As a local/regional driver, my schedule changes daily, I might start one day at 1 am and the next day at 7 am, followed by 2 am the next day, all depends on what loads are out there. Personally, I'd like to have a set schedule, with a start time around 2 am and be done by Noon or 1 pm., those early am hours are great, very little traffic, get more done.

Years back we used to deliver containers from the BNSF to Keebler, they wanted 4 trailers delivered before 5 am. The day before, last move of the day, I'd bring the first load to the yd, fire up the truck about at 1 am, drop about 1:30 am, then haul butt across town, grab the 2nd at the ramp and haul back, normally I'd be dropping the last trailer as the receiver was arriving at 4:45 am. Traffic was so light, I was doing 70 mph across town.

 

That is my schedule 95+ percent of the time. My DM knows my schedule and keeps me on it. I get the job done and he knows it. I treat him with respect, he treats me the same. Team work........works........when you work it.

 

I simply am not a great night driver so i do very little and luckily my company is very accommodating on how and when i like to run.......im just not a person who can sleep 7 am to 5 pm and then get up and run 500 miles overnight......I've tried and in 9 years I know what works and doesn't work for me as a driver, I've learned to say no....

 

I am with you on that..........I could not and would not work that schedule. I'm in bed by 1600.... Up between 2300-0000.