Stay out for months or stick to minimum required?

Employers only care about your potential damage and losses. And weed out so many choosing another. OR on the other hand you run into a employer who hires you on the spot whatever the job it is. I had no one in my life for many years and relied on just me to keep sane and rolling a big rig. When I got married that changed a bit. A lot of bit.

Here in the south they give you opportunity to show you can do something. Back home in Maryland I kept running into trucking employers saying overqualifed or whatever BS to to really say I wear hearing aids like people wear glasses. They hate me. And so discriminate. TBH Concrete in Westminster to be exact. I deliver to them most days some weeks with a bulk tanker catty cornered to their silo to feed them cement in a hour. No issues.

And here I am being told I am overqualified in a office with windows overlooking a rain filled yard with about 20 Mack Tractors and hitched to their 20 Lowboys ready for action when the sun came out. I wave my arm around the window at the 18 wheelers, look at the Class A (Before CDL in those days) and looked at the VP and said, BS. Such BS.

He turned purple a little bit. How dare I, a little boy speak this way to him. So... when I emigrated from Maryland and found a free state to where Employers who do run ready mix hired me and also had me move rock and sand among other things with a Four Wheel Drive CAT 936 front end loader. Overqualified my foot.

I was home every day. Wife was happy. But ultimately she went trucking with me. Arkansas was a crucial state to make a home in and when done correctly it's paradise. I eventually get into trucking with oppertunities to be involved in some truly expensive and professionally demanding loads.

Ultimately my life was disposed of over 30 years time span due to inflation. Which continue to this day.

You have children. It's a no brainer. Run locally. Don't worry many local runs will net you 600 logbook miles each day or night or both.

When kids are full grown and flew the nest you can roll OTR around the USA if you still have self respect and do not hate this industry for what it is becoming.

Truck driving is such a industry and a seriously BENT way of life that many people don't understand you. Particularly the Labor Board or better yet the Unemployment office. What was your hourly pay? fiddyent a mile.

???? What is .50 a mile to hourly pay?

No, Since 1934 this industry is excluded from hourly overtime rates.

???????

Look at it this way fleet qouta 45 miles a hour required. .50 times 45 is 22.50 a hour. Feast and famine.

 

At one time, I was running 8 to 12 weeks out. When I went home, I was off 7 to 10 days. Not good. You burn out of being in a truck all the time. It gets expensive living out on the road. Did I make good money, you bet. Was it worth it. Not one bit.

 

It amazes me these companies find people that’ll stay out 6-7 weeks at a time then be happy with 4 days off. Spending their 34 sitting at the Love’s in Wamsutter, WY or the TA in Gallup, NM while life passes them by.

It’s easy to find jobs that get you home at least weekly or every 10 days, they’re everywhere.

 

You might qualify for a local or regional job right now. Where is your location?
Maybe secretly you don't want a local job and want to run the roads; that's the way many of us are, including me.

 

Melton favors those who want to stay out.

 

Air Products has a local job listed for that area. And it pays well enough to take care of a family that size. If you dont like local go teaming with them. You will still make more money than a OTR company and be home weekly.

Job Search Welcome | Air Products

There are too many local gigs in that area to be OTR and away from family!!!

 

12 to 14 days out minimum with 3 small children does not sound like a good fit. Have you checked for home daily driving positions. Restaurant Food service companies are desperate for drivers, and pay a fair starting wage/salary for new drivers. It is hard work, but at least you will be home with your family every day. You can always go OTR when your children are older or out of the nest.

 

https://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=Truck...ug&advn=1684417477271275&vjk=d3021d75bc784383

 

Brother, if you and your family are comfortable with you staying out on the road, do it. If not, find a time frame that works for you. You can get more than 1800-2200 miles with Melton and I only say that because they go everywhere. Some local jobs pay, others not so much. It takes a little luck to find a local job that pays what one would earn on the road. For me personally, I stay out about a month at a time. Sometimes i get home a couple times in that span. It depends on how the loads fall. I think 3 weeks to a month is generous and companies should be able to accommodate that with ease.