Which car hauler would choose from these 3?

I would think that twenty five years as a company car hauler more than qualifies me to make a comment. If you can not figure out how to stay in a motel and drop ship, as Terry made reference to above, you may not be as smart as you think you are. I don't care if you sleep in a unit on you truck, to each his own. I'll take the motel with a good hot clean shower, a restaurant and if I want a bar for a couple beers. I've done sleepers and motels for almost 50 years now, there is no contest between them.

 

From my 12 yrs experience as a car hauler; Problem with sleepers is you have less options behind the cab and are generally taller and heavier than a day cab. Meaning shorter height vehicles above the cab.
I don't think I made any more money with a sleeper than with a day cab. Look at the day cabs. They can haul more cars than a sleeper truck too. I had a sleeper with a 4 car head rack but it created weight problems especially with an 11 car load. You have to sleep somewhere every night so it may as well be in a hotel especially if the company pays for it anyway.

 

We run both at USAL and the money is the same with both. I prefer a hotel myself. Half of the dealers don't allow STI anyway so your going to be waiting in your truck or in a Hotel a mile away. That 1 mile isn't going to effect my pay. If I have time to sleep on there lot then I have time to deliver and get to a hotel. Plan your day and it makes no difference, just a lot more comfort in a hotel.

 

I'll take my hot shower, satellite TV, king size bed and free breakfast.

 

So what you all are saying is you don't have a flat screen in your bunk? I wouldn't want the hassle of a hotel every day. Big waste of time.

 

I'm not sure how getting a motel is a big waste of time, but to each his own. I'll tell you what's a waste of time, that's waiting in line at a truck stop for an hour plus to take a shower.

 

I do the motel route myself, have thought about a sleeper but since I run the same lanes every week I already know when and where I will be staying for the night if I have to stay out. A sleeper makes the most sense if you were doing irregular route or OTR car hauling, but the more regional system used to deliver new cars supports motels quite nicely. Usually the company has long term agreements with specific motels that they know their equipment can park at, is near a major hub or city where they have many deliveries, and has reasonable access to food and other services. New car hauling really is not much different than line haul LTL work, and those guys never sleep in the truck unless they are on a team operation. Maybe some western states would require a sleeper since there may not be reasonable access to motels, or weather may preclude you from reaching your planned destination but for the most part I will always choose capacity on the truck over a sleeper any day. Capacity equals money in our pay per unit world. I stay at the same three motels each time, stay there so often the desk staff knows me by name when I walk in, they even have my room ready before I get there once they see my truck pull in, and I don't mind paying an average of $60 per night to have a clean room, hot breakfast, private shower, not to mention I don't spend fuel idling my truck or wear on the engine. If I went the sleeper route I would have to spend more on fuel to cover the idle time, also to cover the cost of the shower since I don't ever fuel at the "real" truckstops (I get my fuel at a few smaller stops that are 20 to 30 cents lower than the discount Pilot or TA offers).

Just my two cents, to each their own. I would have a sleeper if I was running broker loads or OTR, especially if I didn't go to the same areas all the time.

 

^^What he said. And also even running otr I have never had a problem finding a hotel.
1. Pull up on gps "hotels along my route"
2. Call the first super 8 on the list and ask if they have truck parking. Usually the first phone call does it but in some tougher areas had to call 2 or 3
3. Park, check in and I'm taking a hot shower MUCH faster than I would at a truckstop