Life As A Line Haul Driver

It worked fine for me. Get home around 5-6 am everyday, sometimes sooner or later. If I had my daughter it worked great. Pick her up from grandma than get her ready for school. If I picked her up from school I would sleep while she was in school, than leave her with grandma when I went to work. Didn't always have her during the week but when I did it worked great. If I didn't have her during the week I wouldn't go to bed til around 1-3pm depending on what time I was heading out. When I got home saturday morning I usually never went to bed til saturday night. I got to the point that I was lucky to get 4 hours of sleep of night, not just because I had stuff to do but just couldn't sleep.

 

I run line haul with ABF. I usually leave between 0600 and noon. Do about 350-560 miles. I do a laydown, meaning I go to a hotel.
Then I return home the next day.
Actually I'm leaving hotel now. Ill be home about 0800 friday morning.Then ill leave again Saturday and do it all over again.
I do 3 laydowns one week, 2 the next week. I have Mondays off everyweek. So every other week I take Sat, Sun, and Mon day off.

 

Does the generally higher pay make it worth it? I mean, it can be argued that being ltl is a more stressful and, at times, a much more physically demanding job.

 

depends on the company, at Conway HE'LL NO. 75% of the guys there hate there job but the money is to good to leave. I left after 8 months because I was sick of being there puppet to play with. you go from 55 hours one week to 30 hours the next. And forget about getting a friday off for vacation unless you got 15+ years seniority. Heck they wont even give you off for funeral of an extended family member if its during the busy season.

 

Its worth to me. Been here 8 years, and I'm loving it.

 

lots of truth here

 

So basically all line haul driving is done at night??

 

I run linehaul team.
Start Monday @ 0600. Drive my 11, rest, drive 11...you get it. Dedicated so we run the same lane every week. Just shy of 6,000 miles in 4 days, then 3 days off at home. If the truck ever stops for more than 30 minutes something went wrong somewhere.
Sore hips and a fat wallet is all linehaul is giving me lol

 

Not all. Some run days. Dayton freight has day time line haul here.
But i much prefer the night driving. My girl also works nights and we both get off around 5am, so it all works out great for me. Obviously not the case for everyone though.

 

You must run out of a big terminal then, right? Our little end-of-line one only has night runs.