Night driving vs day time

I drive dedicated and have high seniority. I have chosen scheduled runs at night for years. Less cars and less bosses making changes. Sure there are more drunks and deer at night, but many fewer carsaround, so you have room to maneuver when you are surprised.

 

I worked nights for many years when I was doing LTL. The money was good and I was making good time on my loads, but over time night shifts started to take a toll on my health and marriage. I was typically too fatigued during the day to do anything with my family, so I quit LTL and went back to OTR TL. I'm only gone Monday through Friday, and sometimes I'm back on Thursday.

I picked up a part time job driving a dump truck to make up for the lost income on 3 and 4 day weekends.

I'm not making as much (maybe a $5,000 annual hit in pay), but I'm happier running a solar powered truck and having weekends off.

 

I like both for different reasons but what makes either, both or a combo is working the road 12 swing shifts for 20 plus years.

 

right now i'm running slip seat nights. by choice. i prefer the nights, less traffic, less stress, less distractions. my wife on the other hand would much prefer i run days.

just starting out if you think you'd like to run nights, i'd go reefer. when i did that i typically had early morning deliveries so pretty much had to run nights. like someone else said, a benefit of running nights is that truck stops are pretty empty when your looking to park seeing as all the solar powered drivers are all out fighting each other and the other 4 wheelers on the road.

good luck Driver.

 

I've spent the last 17 years driving nights in Southern California. I've turned into a vampire. I feel more comfortable driving nights than I do days because of the lack of traffic. I've been driving here for so long that I know every street and highway and can get to where I need to go in my sleep. Which brings me to my next point:

Nine out of then times when I'm following an OTR truck in my neck of the woods after 1am he/she can't hold his/her lane. I've got hours of GoPro videos to back that up. Sorry folks but I don't care how many years you've been driving and what kind of a super trucker you think you are, you ain't all that when the nocturnal hours comes around. Even after 17 years of driving the graveyard shift Mr Sandman still pays me a visit and I pull over and take 30. If you're not used to nights or you don't do it regularly I suggest you avoid it.

 

Exactly right Tanker. I loved driving notes, but was very aware that without exception the "magic hour" would beat me down. The magic hour is the 30 minutes before and after sunrise. It didn't seem to matter how rested I was,,,this shift always made my eyelids heavy,,,knowing this however, I schedule a coffee break, my dew,,,(no monster or energy crap ) and a few vanilla wafers for a quick boost. Once sun was up I was good for the rest of my shift. Just understand your needs and abilities.

 

I like starting out at 3-4am. It gives me a fair bit of time where there's no traffic, and I can park at the ts early. But I cannot do all-nighters. Just can't. I used to do some dangerous crap when I was an expediter. Never again. I've learned to pay attention to my limitations, as we all should.

Speaking of being awake, I woke this dang post up after 4 years. LOL sorry.

 

I usually drove nights when possible. Keep in mind it was a asset to the two of us as a team. Other driver can deal with mornings.

That would not be the only thing I did depending on where we went to get loads Nogales come to min.

 

Driving nights is way better than driving days. Light traffic all night, lots of parking when you pull into the truck stop in the morning, friendlier truckers and empty fuel islands are just a few things I liked driving nights. Now I'm driving local LTL during the day time and it's horrible. There is way to much traffic during the day time. Wether it's on city streets or highway. My left leg is already feeling bigger from pressing the clutch all day.

Only bad thing I found about nights was feeling tired most of the time between 04:00-0600, most of the time I had to take a nap during that time of the night.

 

I start at 4pm and love it. I'm usually done between 3-4am and driving home before the rush hour traffic.