Night Driving Locally

Depends on your lifestyle, when i was youger i did 3 and a half years on overnights, one i will say is its hard to get back to day hours after that long. To this day if i stay up past 1 or 2 in the morning i start to slip back into up all night mode. Pain in ### really as i start at 5 am these days....

 

We all drive at night somewhat. But actually being on the "night shift" is a bit different. From you post, I take it that you have never done "shift" work, and that you are a new driver.

It is a bit of a life style change. Your bodies circadian rhythms are set to have you asleep at night, and awake during the day. So it is kind of tough on the old bod, for the first few days/nights. But you can make it a whole lot easier on yourself with just a couple of tips. First off, don't try to live two different shifts every week. And by that, I mean if you work nights, then on your days -"nights" off, go ahead with your life. Keep to your schedule of sleeping during the day. No reason to let it ruin your weekends, particularly if you are a weekend partyer. Of course keep in mind that partying and trucking can have a bit of a problem. But you know that already.

Will it be miserable? Well, that depends. . .When you first start it, yes, it is likely to be quite miserable. As I said in the last paragraph, your body will have to get "used" to being up at night and sleeping during the day. But as you get into it a bit, I think you will actually enjoy it. You will find that you don't have to fight the traffic nearly as bad at night! That is a real plus for a lot of drivers.

Let me address sleeping during the daytime. This can be rough to get used to, and if you have a young family, it can be rougher. (More rough?) Anyway. . .
Keep your sleeping area as dark as possible. Get yourself some good "black out" curtains for your bedroom. Try using "white noise" to muffle the normal day time sounds. Often just a box fan somewhere in your room will work for that.

When I was working night shift, I had two young kids at home. It kind of made it tough for sleeping, because you can only keep kids "quiet" for so long. The noisy little buggers just HAVE to be kids! I used to get most of my sleeping done while they were at school. It was the only real "quiet time" in the house.

I think the biggest draw back for working the night shift is that you have to always keep in mind that you will be going to work in a little bit. So, no adult beverages before or with your evening meal. Also it limits the time you can spend with people in the evening.

The trucking industry is unlike most other industries however, and you likely won't have any time to be "socializing" before you go to work anyway. If you are working the normal 10 to 14 hours, about all you want to do on your off time is the three "S'es" and sleep. Not really any different than if you were working a day shift.

I think you should give it a try. It is a job, and you just might find you like it!

 

Uh really? You need to ask your prospective company that. We won't have any way of knowing.

 

Could be anything. Every company sets its own. I did 6pm to 3 am and 9pm to 7am depending on need. Sun to thurs night so i had all friday sat and sunday day off, felt like three days every week. No wife or kids at the time, i loved it. No chance now. On Long drives i still prefer night driving but not for everyday.

 

Driving days or nights it all evens out.Either way you wont get much of a social life.Chances are they'll want you right back at your trk and ready to roll after your 10 hr brk.My boyfriend drives nights and only see him an hr a day but for me that's plenty.Then he works every other sunday.

 

I work nights and I'm home every day. I work 4pm-4am. I love working nights because there's less traffic and the temps are cooler.

My days off are alright, my 1st day off I sleep in till 5 pm or so sometimes. It kinda kills that day but if you're off on Saturday and Sunday I'd say it ain't bad since you can stay up and do stuff and still go to work the next day. I like nights personally

 

I think it would be good experience for you. Give you a chance to handle a truck in "real world conditions," but without the daytime traffic. Of course, operating at night also means you don't have the visibility you do in the daytime. We tell everybody to always GOAL (Get Out And Look) before backing. But it is even more important that you do that at night.
Good luck to you!