Night driving vs day time

Some drivers like it and some did not. My company did pay an additional $1.00 an hour for shift differential because they believe it was harder at night. It might very well be but as a driver you can make changes to adapt to the night. I liked it because hauling gasoline in the city meant that towards the end of the shift there were hardly any cars on the road. The bosses were all gone so you could get your dispatch sheet and go. During the day you had a lot more changes to your shift.

You can go ahead and look into start times and such but I do not believe that they will tell you until you're ready to start work. I would think the only time you're going to be require to start work on a certain time would be dedicated runs and shift driving. There are so many different types of driving out there you'd have to find out from the company themselves. I have never seen on a job description start times for drivers. My advice is do not restrict yourself so much that you start eliminating jobs. If the position is good go for it and work for the shift you want as you gain experience.

 

I can tell you this about night driving, I like it and prefer it over day driving.

I can also say this as well, as I have experienced it.

That if you should ever go to work for some LTL companies, you may have 2 choices, P&D which is daytime, or Line Haul, which is night time. Now, I had applied to a company by the name of A. Duie Pyle, as a line haul driver. One of the many questions asked is, "have you ever driven at night, and for how long"?

I can assure from what I had experienced at my interview that day was, I did indeed drive nights for the past 15 years when I applied. SO the interviewer nodded his head, and I asked. what if I did not do any current night time driving?

He told me (back then), I wouldn't hire you, we require night time driving for a minimum of 2 years straight, for our line haul division.

Now that was many years ago I should point out, maybe they changed that policy, maybe not. SO maybe a current A. Duie Pyle, LINE HAUL driver can elaborate further..??

 

Also an ex print industry worker (prepress) .. For the most part, I've been able to schedule my drive shifts at night, even when I was running system OTR at a big company (Schneider bulk).

With my current job, most of my my loads are AM del, 600-1200 miles away. So I'll leave my house at night, drive, unload, break and come home (or reload and come home).

I absolutely hate driving during the day. It's not bad if traffic is light, but youre always going to run into congestion somewhere during the day. Scales are pretty much all closed at night, and if they're open, they're rarely doing inspections. DOT are at home in bed, staties are just looking for stupid people and pretty much leave you alone. Very rarely see trucks pulled over at night.

Only disadvantage is winter,, judging road conditions at night , and the roads can be a little worse. But with less traffic, it all evens out IMO.

 

years ago when i did night line haul i prefered to run at nite but now that im in my early 50s i dont see so well in the dark ..plus where i run in idaho and montana theres critters all over hell after dark ....if i can swing it im parked before dark .

 

A lot of good points on day vs. night driving but one thing I haven't seen mentioned is dealing with a lot of grade variance at night. I like night driving but if I'm going through a mountainous area I always try to do it when it's light out. I don't like climbing or negotiating steep downgrades when I can't see what the road is doing ahead very well. Not sure if any other drivers are like this.

 

i dont like 68 in md and wv when its dry and sunny lol.

 

I personally love running at night, I'm also admittedly a weirdo and I drive a truck. So take that as you will.

Between traffic being less and the fact that I deliver to closed shopping malls, I much prefer night driving. Always have, even before I did this as a job.

It is harder to navigate and driving in winter can be a pain, though fog can be just as bad. My biggest complaint being the Mario Andretti types you see at night. You'll see them in your mirror during a mirror scan and by the time you've checked again a few seconds later they've roared past you.

Best perks, traffic aside, is availability of parking. Go to any TS and try to find parking at night, now go to the same places during the day. Yeah, it's a big difference.

One might say it's as different as...well, night and day.