Millis OTR journal

I believe that in the future I need to try to avoid home time that starts on a weekend or a Monday. That way it's not weekend dispatch trying to get me home.

 

Thats probably a good idea lol. If you need home on a Monday just request it for Friday that way your main dispatcher is the 1 you are dealing with. Takes away alot of the unknowns plus freight on a weekend is hit and miss

 

I also would not be afraid to remind them ahead of time either. My experience with Opie so far is he mentions home time in a message a few days prior so I know he hasn't overlooked it without me bringing it up. I would definitely bring it up if I had the inkling he had overlooked it and 100% if it wasn't him I was dealing with a few days out.

 

I was home late once and it was a biggie in my opinion. Asked to be home the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and did not get home until 7 PM Thanksgiving night under a load that had to be delivered Friday morning. I was really pissed. I delivered the load on Friday and stayed home an extra day on the other end.

 

I'm pretty sure that Pat still had it in mind.

Ugh yeah that didn't even give you enough time for a reset. I would've been pissed too. Thanksgiving is a bigger holiday with my family than Christmas.

I'm tempted to stay home an extra day or two this time just out of spite. But who would I really be hurting? Me, because I ain't making money when I'm sitting at home.

 

If you can afford it I'd still take my days off. You earned them while being out away from home. Not sure how long it's been since you were home but for me hometime is super important. It is one of the main reasons I came back to Millis, because they are very good with it. I bust my hump out here just as I'm sure you do. We all do. If it ever changes I'm gone.

It doesn't make it any better but I'm sure what happened to you was an oversight.

 

Since New Year I've been coming home a little often for an OTR driver. I've been trying to stay out for 14 days and then home for 2. So that actually kinda makes me wonder if that has something to do with this home time being forgotten about. But especially through this nasty winter, coming home that often has saved my sanity. I'm thinking about going back to staying out 3-4 weeks at a time for the summer.

 

Nothing to do with hometime but I’m pretty sure my dispatcher preplans me on the weekends. I never have to wait after delivering. Think he just doesn’t tell me my next load all because of me being a knucklehead at times.

 

Mine is hit or miss. Sometimes I'll get a stack of preplans on a Friday afternoon that keep me moving for days. Other times, nothing, but weekend dispatch reloads me instantly once I'm empty. Then yet other times "NO LOADS AVAILABLE" More often than not it's been the latter. Our freight has been #### lately and it has me a bit concerned. I was with my trainer around this time last year with the same dispatcher and we kept moving. I remember only being told NO LOADS AVAILABLE once and that only lasted a couple of hours before we got a reload.

 

You can actually take 3 after 14 days out if you want to. I always do. When Ibwas here before I always did 10 out / 3 home.

I'm out for 3 weeks now with tomorrow beginning the 3rd week. It's tough. I'm ready to get home. I'm actually a little more than an hour from home now but I put in to be home this coming Friday so will be running around a few more days.

I should admit that I have a pension from my first career so I have a lot more flexibility with taking hometime and not worrying about the paycheck. I am only working as hard as I am now because I have 2 kids in college and colleges find every way possible to take your money.