What do 4,000 miles a week look like

For you, maybe. For me, not so much.

Yesterday I did a 60 mile load. I got paid $30 in mileage pay, and $35 in short haul pay. Load took less than 2 hours total time, or $32.50 an hour.

My load after that was 400 miles, it took just about 7.5 hours start to finish, I was paid $200, or $26.50 an hour. Which load was a better use of my time?

 

That depends what you are after.Home time or money.Being on the road I would never agree to a load that makes me $60 for a day.

 

It was $65 for 2 hours, not a day. I knock out 4 of those, maximum 8 hours total, only 7ish off the 70 and it is the equivalent of driving 500 miles. Did a short haul into the house, took less than an hour, $40.


My point was that more miles does not necessarily mean more money. There are a lot of guys at my company that moan about multistop loads, or short hauls, or this or that but the accesory pay usually more than compensates for the extra time/work.

Sometimes less is more. Sometimes more is more. Sometimes more is less. The key is figuring out how to work less and make more.

 

Most I've done in a week was 3675 miles in 62 driving hours and 69 hours 22 minutes on-duty over 7 days. 64 mph truck, Winnipeg, MB empty to Houston, TX partially loaded (20,000 lbs of product) to Edmonton, AB via US-81.

If you are getting 4000 miles a week, you better be driving a 75mph+ truck to have any spare time to do any actual "work" beyond pre-trips and fueling.

 

4000 miles a week? Occasionally, sure.
Consistently? Week after week? Month after month? Never happen.

 

I don't know. But I did just drive from NE to IN and got parked at the destination with only one minute left on my 11. I knew it was going to be close, but not THAT close

 

Well...They May look a little "sketchy" on a log.(especially without modification).

 

Like an extremely tired possibly running illegal driver if they are doing it consistently.

 

Anything is possible here in Canada where we still run on paper logs.

You may be half asleep all the time but you can do it.

 

At Central Oregon Truck Company they have like 5 guys who run 16k miles every single month, including a 34 every single week in 65mph trucks. It literally comes down to planning, keeping your door shut and having a curtain van lol.

It can be done. They are doing it mostly legally. I say mostly, because they look sleeper at the shipper and receiver as almost everyone does.

They also have the ability to cross the border into Canada... so they take loads from Laredo into the far north. That will be their week.