How long would you sit empty?

I'm an ex-o/o and current company driver. I never said he wouldn't sit at the next company. I said to choose the next company wisely. I've done my share of give away lots of free time out here, believe me, but I won't be doing it anymore. There's actually some companies out here that don't expect you to sit around for days on end without any pay at all or just meager practically nothing pay they're giving him. I'd be pulling in my full working wage for a day if I was sitting there in his situation at my company. He ought to be getting paid hourly or his daily wage for that BS if they don’t have anything to do.

 

Why not work for salary? Then sitting pays the same...

 

It depends how much I get paid to sit compared to how much I got paid to drive. If I could make nearly the same money sitting as driving, and I could bobtail for eating & entertaining plus idle/APU as much as I wanted, I could sit a long time. If my finances were such that earning less than 110% of maximum miles per day would bankrupt me in a week I would not sit.

 

You live in Crashville. That's the definition of sitting unpaid.

And why, if I want to stay on the same interstate, do I have to change lanes 6 times driving through that screwed up city?

 

We had consistent flatbed loads in 08 09.
I went otr because the local wages and hours went to crap.

 

I’m fine sitting a day or two out on the road if it’s in a decent place where I can get off the truck and do something. Plus I get paid $180 each day for it and if I want, the hotel paid for as well. Just last week I took a load from North Carolina to San Diego and had to sit for two days. Hotel was paid for and I got $180 a day for doing nothing. I have family there, so I rented a car and took a couple family members out to a nice dinner. I felt like it was a free paid vacation. Lol. now, if I end up some truckstop in the middle of Wyoming, and have to sit there for two days, that’s a different story.

 

Well back then you didn’t have all the states on your cab card so it wasn’t as easy to just go different places unless you changed all the licensing. And we had nothing but trains and quads anyway so it would’ve been useless trying to run all over. We were pretty well taken care of during the slow time and those of us that stuck around were very well taken care of when it picked back up. There were guys who had been there 20+ years and had weathered a lot that told me just to stick around and not to get nervous. And they were right. I’m pretty loyal when someone treats me decent. Guess that’s why that was the only driving job I’ve had other than doing some road construction for a couple summers and working at Pepsi for 2 years. It’s pretty much been that company or owning my own truck.

 

What type of freight do you pull? Unfortunately waiting is part of the reason people leave this industry. Try to look at your quarterly miles to gauge how you are doing. Me personally I sell crack cocaine during a layover and that'll make up for any down time .

 

I daytrade the stock market.

Automated style.