Being away from family

You wing it. And what ever works for, Works. Next question ?.


You wing it. And..... hope it works

 

Driving company trucks is always hard on family life.The employer has to keep that $150,000 truck running as much as possible.so home time for the driver is not their top priority .that is why you may want to learn as much as you can to become independent.But not everyone can deal with owner op life.so if you are the type of person that just wants a simple pay check No Worries then company driver is for you & there is not much home time doing that.If you like to take the risk of being on your own you will give up the benefits of worry free maintenance,fuel expense etc.then you will have the time to spend with your family.I have known people that only drive 50000 miles/year &make a good living as an independent driver.The key here is to work hard and save enough money to get your self a nice reliable truck that you pay cash for NO PAYMENTS and then keep it in good shape.One thing to keep in mind Not every owner op is the same for example if you buy a truck and lease it to say swift or shniker or any of these sorry excuse for an owner op program carriers you will end up making less money than driving a company truck and you have all the expenses of a worn out truck.These carriers owner op is a joke.They pay you .88-.92 cpm plus .30 cpm fuel surcharge for a whopping total $1.18-$1.22 cpm so if your truck is getting avg 6 mpg @ $4/Gal fuel then your fuel cost alone is $4/6=.67 CPM $1.22-$.67=.55cpm Now take .20cpm truck payment you are down to .35 cpm & we have not added insurance ,oil change,flat tires,road tax,breakdowns,towing,licensing,Permits,toll's,damaged freight,Do you get the picture?. You Can't be an independent if you can't get double or triple the fuel coast.even that is not enough because the cost of living is too high these days who would have thought that a dozen eggs can cost you up to $4 or a gallon of oil went from$4 to $16 so there you have it you need to know where you stand when you decide to be independent.If you can handle all that then home time is yours to Grab if not then you have applied for the wrong job.The company driver if it is not a Union/State or Federal job It Aint for home time.

 

Good luck to you. I wish you the best.

But never forget that you can bring just as much money home by getting a job at IKEA, and be home every day for your kids.

 

My oldest daughter married a marine, got pregnant and moved with him to Okinawa. They have been there for three years and are suppose to come back to the states in January. Her first child is a little over 2 years old and she just had her second daughter last week. Thank God for Skype. It's free and works well. My wife was reading a book to our oldest granddaughter last night via computer. If you have a smart phone there are several video apps that you can use also. Goodluck.

 

My kids are 17 and 19 and it still isnt any easier.

I got out of trucking for 15 yrs because I didnt want to miss out on my kids growing up.
You have to make that choice. With persistence and the right attitude you can over come just about any obstacle life can throw at you.

But no,.. the time away from my family still sucks and it does not get any easier. My wife and I still tear up just before I head back out on the road.

Hurst

 

hey man try these companies that have good hometime like 7 on 4 off and stuff or 7 on 7 off or 14 on 7 off. i think there 21 on 14 off i may be wrong on the last one. Roehl, Schnieder I heard might have it. and knight transportation/refrigerated/port/rail . conway has local stuff too. i dont know if you have to have experience to go local with them or not

 

Agree with everything here. My kids are 20 and 18. Youngest is a senior and still at home and I still struggle to leave back out on the road every time. It takes me a day or two to recover, but trust me, the first day or two going back out I question myself whether I can keep going, then I'm usually better. It never gets easier. I count the days until I can get something that at least gets me home weekly.

 

Before I'll make a statement on your question, 1st let me say, Thank you for your serves to this great nation we live in, you are one of the true hero's, you deserve better than what this country will offer you, now onto your question, Yes it is hard to be away from home, Kids, wife, pets, and family, for me, It doesn't get easier, just learned to cope with the time apart, Me and the Misses try and communicate as often as we can, we both have iphone's so we can see each other while I'm away, Its called facetime, This might be something you might be interested in, your family can see you, you can see them,, as well as hear them, Good luck on your new carrier