Question for short haul drivers

A short haul is 7 hrs.
A long haul is 16.

I work by the hour, not the mile. I think any reasonable person should.

The question is quite loaded, tho. It's need / region / gig dependant.

I drag 8500, 8200, 6500 gallon tanks around Maine to supply our silos with water for future bottling. It's a racket that's starts to drag-### in the winter time - so I'm put on dry van on alternating weeks (which I loathe), and even about once weekly this last month because it has been cooler than usual.... and Nestle Waters North America is under lawsuit from some CT folks who are mad about names and labels.

Many contingent things colluding to make the job what it is or isn't. And even those things morph over time.

Overall, I'm fairly content. Beats the snot out of living in a truck. The other guy can have that biz.

 

I'm generally in the truck 10-12 hours then I go home.
Linehaul.

I know you're new so this hasn't really hit yet but there is no one size fits all with trucking.

Every. Single. Answer. you get to this question is gonna be wildly different from the last.
You can find whatever schedule you want out here. The cake runs are gonna pay #### most times

 

I do dry van truckload p and d in and around southern Wi. And northern Ill. When most people think of local home daily trucking, they assume it's all ltl, just bopping around town and dropping one pallet here, one pallet there... that is not always the case. I basically do the same thing our otr guys do, I just get paid by the hour and sleep in my bed every night. As stated above, every job/company is different. For me, a 12 hour day is normal. But really it can be anywhere from 7-14. I have even gone over my 14 more than once (on duty, not driving).

The thing I really like about my job is being paid by the hour. on those slow days, I can sort of "milk the clock" a little here and there, and squeeze in an extra hour by doing paperwork, cleaning the truck, and doing other piddly things. I get paid from the minute I log into my elog, to the minute I log out, minus the half hour break.

I have rare occasions where I don't make it home due to slow-poke customers or breakdowns. In those cases I will stay in a hotel (I always keep an overnight bag in my truck just in case), and I collect the per diem pay. But that's rare.

I love my job. I did do a year of otr when I was single, and it was a great experience, but I don't ever need to do it again. There are so many opportunities out there, there is no reason we can't all be happy. You might just have to dip your feet into some different waters now and then before you find your place. I have definitely found mine.

 

You would be out 12 to 15 hours and home minus commute time to home yard to dispatch out next day to be wherever you are supposed to be at next morning etc. That does not give you a full 8 hours at home sometimes.

Ive done shorts enough to get into OTR or Regional sleeper so that when the day is done, home on weekends or in several months. As a single, home is just a place to get out and forget about the truck a while before the next dispatch however long you have. (Or short)

The best home time daily are the daily hourly wage jobs like the Cement mixers. You put in some more hours some weeks than others depending on local temperatures etc.

 

Depends on what youre hauling. my family has done various types and the amount of days/hours were greatly varied.

 

9 hours to complete my 450 mile line haul night switch, includes switching trailer, pre trip, post trip and a 1/2 hour nap. Travel time to work 7 minutes. I haul time sensitive LTL. Been on this run 21 years, ya know why 4 shifts one week, 5 the next NO WEEKENDS EVER!

 

I had clean forgotten way back into my farm milk hauling days with a mack walking beam and smooth tanker 40 foot.

Up at 5 am, at first farm at 530. Load milk. (After the usual state required paperwork weight measure, sanitize etc.)

Next farm load more milk. Repeat until all farms collected. Go to dairy (It's almost 10am.)

Sit in downtown dairy until accepted (The nose knows...) empty and sanitized done by 2pm going home for the day.

Give or take a hour.

Of all the work I have done in my life that period of time with farm work was some of the greatest short time out there for the money at that time (Almost 1600 net per month) 5 days a week.

Two farms were a problem and took a little bit longer. One is a hellacious rock field 600 yards to the tiny milk shed. Rock fields rock crawling big truck style. Long live mack. You are not supposed to crawl a big truck on that rock. Much less rotate the #### thing to back it in uphill on more rock.

The other farm. That shed was about 60 feet above the muddy drive by the fence. You sight side back towards it slip in the mud she goes, drives lose it and plump. Stuck.

here comes a team of 4 shires (Very big horses) to chain on you and geeahaw!!!! jerk you straight so you can continue to force that tanker close to the shed. By then the tandems on it is teetering on like one dual and the other three are hanging in the air. Balanced by your 5th wheel. Sloshing liquid and all.