7 on 7 off or 14 on 7 off for newbie?

(politely) You might get better answers on the DAC board, Knight.
http://www.thetruckersreport.com/truckingindustryforum/knight/

 

Why don't you ask your dispatcher or driver manager or whoever is over you?

 

That's just a ploy to get you to sign on with them! Take the time to sit down and do the math.... you won't make a dime running on a schedule like that. As a new driver its hard to vision what I am talking about, I know, and so do they! This is how they get their drivers.

I will try to explain in the shortest form possible....

In trucking you don't just drive from point A to point B and then get paid. It doesn't work like that. There are many, many other factors involved. As a mega-carrier driver you are going to be running about 1000 - 2500 miles a week. Very rarely will you run coast to coast as a solo driver so with that being said your runs are going to be comprised of lots of short ones and lots of sitting waiting to get loaded and unloaded. If you aren't willing to stay out 6-8 weeks then your dispatcher is going to use you to do all the grunt work. Those that stay out are usually rewarded with the better miles and trips. Home time is a big pain in the butt for dispatchers to arrange so in order to make it easier on them they just won't send you very far. Dispatchers also work off of commission so if they have a driver that doesn't want to drive, like I said they will give them the grunt work and crappy miles so eventually the driver will just quit. Your dispatcher doesn't want drivers that don't drive because it costs them money! They are going to do their best to have all drivers under them willing to stay out and make them money. Wouldn't you? If you were a dispatcher and I was a driver driving for you not making you money wouldn't you want to replace me with a driver that did? Not to mention, this is the goal of the entire company!

How do they get away with advertising 7/7 programs you ask? Easy.... once you go through their school, training, orientation blah, blah, blah consuming vasts amount of your time and also oweing them money for school, and on top of all this you still have to provide for yourself and your family. All this leaves you with no options. If you take home time then you will be sat and used for grunt work... or you can stay out and run hard and make money.

Even if you take the dispatcher out of the equation you still aren't going to be able to make the math work for you. First off, everytime you take home time it messes up your pay for three weeks. Why? The week you are going home slows because you are trying to get a load going toward home. Then the week you are home you don't get paid and then finally the third week is slow heading back out trying to get back into the freight lanes.

This is why its pretty standard across the board to run 6-8 weeks. This allows your pay to average out. There are many factors out there that will affect your pay during the week. Breakdowns, waiting to get loaded/unloaded etc... weather, traffic, sickness etc....

So with that being said, lets say you do decide to run 7/7. You just finished your first week and ran 1800 miles. You are being paid $.29 a mile. That = $529 gross. So then you now have a week off. So basically you can divide that figure into two if you want to breakdown your pay weekly. So you made roughly $260 a week. This is where the 7/7 program isn't worth it! You would have to have a second job to make it worth it.

Sorry if this sounds chopped up or confusing, I was trying to make it short.

On a sidenote..... I went through Knights orientation with the thoughts of this 7/7 working out. I had a business at home and just wanted to make extra money but didn't want to be gone from home long. So I attended the three day orientation and also their 10 hour doctor assault to make sure I wouldn't commit workmans comp fraud. I was assigned a truck and a dispatcher. I went into the office to meet and talk to my new dispatcher and we hit off pretty well! I then proceeded to ask her all about the 7/7 program. She started to laugh and then gave me funny look and then said to me, "I thought you were an experienced driver?"

Good luck man.... hope this helps you!

 

I wish I could afford to only work 2 weeks out of the month!

 

Make it clear in the beginning. "if you were looking to make money you would have applied at a good trucking company".. 7 on and 7 off is why your there. Not 6.5 off and not at midnight on the end of the 6th day. They have non forced dispatch so take advantage of it. Let them know in the beginning where you stand. No multi stops and no live unloading. They have city drivers.