Parking a Motorhome at your Local Driving Company

You could pay for decades worth of fuel before you would break even on a motor home. And the very last thing I would want to do at the end of the day is go to a truckstop and park a motor home.

 

Go otr if your gonna do this.

 

Why would you not want to go home if you're running local? If anything rent an apartment closer to your terminal. It would probably be cheaper and quieter than an RV parked in a yard. RV maintenance adds up, tanks and plumbing wear out fast, electrical systems are often a freaking nightmare chasing breaks, etc.

 

There are plenty of OTR companies that will get you home every weekend. Think of all the money you will save by living in a company-provided sleeper truck vs a private motor home.

 

Not a bad idea depending on what kind of company you get hired on to. Not all companies allow large vehicle parking. I own a large coach and even my company doesn't have any parking for it, its in storage until I retire in 5 more yrs.

Yes driving local is long hours, plus a commute and yes noise from so many sources can be extremely annoying. During one local job I had, my neighbors would party till 1 or 2 am on a night when I had to get up at 5am, it was hell.

Owning and living in an RV has plus and minus's. The holding tanks for the toilets and sinks, don't hold a lot, you'll have to have a place to drain them or else not use them. If your rv has a generator its loud and you'll have to keep putting gas or diesel into your rv. Plus getting propane to cook with or heat your rv when its cold.

Plus if its motorized, you'll need plates on it, a vehicle insp if your state requires it, and insurance on it. Money money money.

Plus why would you think living in a place with trucks coming into it day and night with so much big truck traffic and yard trucks, why would that be quiet? Seems to me it would be the opposite.

Living in a rv to drive local isn't such a great idea, it can be more of a hassle than an advantage.

 

My father parked his motorhome at his company terminal. He was doing a lot of local work during that time. He only came home on Fridays and drove it there. That RV really saved him a lot of grief.

 

Not the exactly same as driving, but there used to be railroad crewpeople who would do this when filling in temp slots. They might come from several states away and just camp right there, we were on-call 24/7 anyway, saved a lot of driving and no motel parties wrecking sleep.

You'll need to figure out water, power/gas, waste water. And it needs to be left in a safe place so it's intact when you get back and need it. If I was doing it I'd buy a decent used one, make sure that everything works, replacement LP fridges and so forth can be expensive, and prepare to learn how to fix fiddly RV stuff, different fixtures than houses have and everything stuffed together in tiny spaces.

 

Every night that you spend in it away from home qualifies for per diem and not the 80% rate truckers get, but the full 100% per diem deduction.

I was gonna do this back in 2008 when gas prices in California were pushing $5 bucks a gallon and my job was 80 miles from home. Problem was I didn't have a place to park a 32 foot travel trailer in front of my house.