Why do most mega otr carriers want you gone so long?

They want to maximise profit from the equipment. It's not going to make money sitting so they try to run it as much as possible. They want to get through the service life quickly to keep the resale value higher. That's big money on a few hundred/thousand trucks.

They are there to make money, plenty more where you came from if you don't like it.

 

Would you be hinting at say....... NEVADA?

 

Florida and Tennessee fit the bill also.

 

Or perhaps mega carriers realize that the best way to attract drivers that want to be on the road a long time is to allow them to stay out as long as they want. You are allowing your preferences to color your logic, just like I did, but I did it intentionally.

I like staying out on the road for a long time. If I didn't, I would look for a regional or local job. I hired on to Shaffer as a 21 day out OTR driver. I just came back home after @50 days out.

 

I don't actively avoid dealing with other people. I'll even start up random conversations with people in terminal lounges, or at the counter at a restaurant, or whatever. And I certainly am active in forums. But there is a limit to how much direct interaction I want with other people. I generally prefer to be alone with my own thoughts. To me, a lonely life is a happy life. Please do not project your social needs onto me.

 

Alone does not always equal lonely.

 

Oh not Chinatown. He'd never ever suggest Nevada.

 

Most mega companies lease trucks on a per mile basis.

Many companies are using a capital lease with milage only terms.

I am not picking, just so you know. When they are keeping a driver from home or sitting a driver out, it is generally not costing the big boys a thing. The kind of crap the OP is talking about is just a personal, personal management, or logistic thing. It is not a cost expenditure thing.

 

Those there are two excellent posts on this subject and the real source why OTR drivers seldom get home.

Let me only add, that routing you home may be costly to them because they obligated to pick freight that is both going 'your way', getting you close to your house or terminal, and is congruent with your home time request times. The freight like that does that just does no pop up on demand and when it does the price may not be as productive as freight that keeps you out longer.

That said, I have been in a terminal or truck stop countless times where two drivers from the same company are complaining about home time and the loads they received. The first driver will say, "I have been out for months and I need to go west to get back home for the home time I put in for months ago. I just got a load going east and I had to turn it down for the second time." The second driver chimes in, "I have been trying to get back home for a family emergency for weeks, my daughter is in the hospital. I keep asking for loads going east but the planner all the freight is going west." No ####! I heard these conversations time after time, and not only do the two einsteins not realize they are being played. It never occurs to them to take the loads and the information and the planner by the neck and make him swap the loads.