Company truck in the shop, but not staying in a hotel

Perhaps....or perhaps I don't mind sleeping in a truck, it's what I do every night over the road anyway. Just get the proper entertainment equipment and you likely wouldn't mind either. The OP can always become an owner operator, then he can sleep in a hotel every single night if he feels it's worth the $$$.

 

Always have F.U. money readily available, or a credit card. Seems to me they put you outside like a stray dog. Lots of good advice from the group here.

 

I'd think most here are fine sleeping in THEIR truck. But an empty truck? How did the previous inhabitant entertain themselves on that matress your head is laying on?

 

You don’t get it do ya ?. Hell you probably think living in your parents basement is normal too ! A company that won’t pony up 60 or 80 for a room & a shower and tell you to sleep in some clapped out truck that is probably not sanitary like a homeless person .. You think that is perfectly normal ?? Again you must have zero self respect for your self .But I see gaming and entertainment seem to be more of a priority than self-respect to you
BTW you don’t have any reason to think your gona tell us about sleeping in a truck I basically lived in a truck for almost 7 years long before the amenities that are offered today You were either trucking or sleeping or doing paper work if you had time for entertainment you went to the drivers room in the TS and share a TV with the other drivers or you shoveled quarters in the arcade games

 

He’s a gamer with no self respect the only entertainment he can comprehend in his make-believe mind is flogger or angers birds his company won’t allow him to bring his AI doll with him so he has no prehension of sticky sheets

 

The thing I don’t understand is the indecisiveness, the hesitancy. The travel agent knew, as soon as he hesitated that he would fold his hand. All the stuff about the company losing contracts yadda yadda yadda is irrelevant to the company driver. Has nothing to do with you the driver.

“But Six, they’re doing cost cutting and…”

And so you expect the driver, out of all the employees at the TRUCKING company, not the goofy safety man, not the dispatcher who’s never at their desk or answers the phone, but the driver to take the hit, right?

I asked in the other thread about breakdown pay and OP responded $75/day. The rock bottom minimum should be $120/day+motel+ whatever that food allowance they give on taxes. As soon as they mentioned something about sleeping in an empty truck, he should have had them get a bus ticket to the house. Yes, I will ride the greydog before I sleep in the loaner.

“But Six, what if OP has lots of personal stuff in the truck and can’t get everything together for a bus ride?”

And he’s sitting there talking about all of the contracts they’ve lost recently, but he himself didn’t prepare to abandon ship? Say it isn’t so! He has to have seen the rats running (your bigwigs in the office, safety manager, VP of sales, operations manager)to get off the ship. Travel light.


Six back quiet.

 

There are circumstances where this might be necessary. Think opening weekend in Green Bay - you're not finding a hotel room within an hours drive or a rental car to get you there for love or money.

Then there are the night drivers who want to check in to the hotel at 0600. Hotels will accommodate if they can, but check in time is usually 1400, and if it's not planned ahead of time you're going to be sol.

Let's not forget about weather. I watched one of our driver services guys try to explain that there was no physical way to get the 15 miles from the OC to the hotel because none of the surface streets had been plowed.

So, yeah, there are times and places to suck it up. This isn't one of them. Planned maintenance should mean a plan for the driver to sleep without transferring gear (mainly bedding).

 

Youre much better off staying in a truck than any CLC hotel tbh

 

A more acceptable middle ground -- they get you to a yard with an equivalent or nicer truck, you transfer over your stuff, and you keep rolling. Of course, that depends on the fleet and your current truck for whether that's a pro or a con. Some companies are more of a mixed bag than others with trucks, specs, and conditions.

If that's not an option, no hotel would probably be a huge push away from a company for me. The real deterrent is the fact it's at a large company. Maybe they could downsize their raggedy old assets that they expect a driver to sleep in to fund a hotel. They evidently have more capacity than freight.

I'd say best plan of attack is to tough it out, line up another job, leave the keys and fuel card in the cup holder at a terminal, and take a paid for ride to a better company. You spending your own money to quit now doesn't mean anything to them. You're not under dispatch on a load, their truck is at a terminal, and you'll be spending 5 times more than it would cost to get home compared to getting your own hotel for a night or two and chalking it up as a bad company.