am i being realistic

Just because the website says hometime every 14 days,don't plan on it.Of course give your dispatcher a couple weeks notice and remind your dispatcher with every load there after that you're dispatched on.But don't count on being home every 2 weeks.Plan on staying out 3 weeks to a month before your dispatcher starts routing you home.You don't tell your recruiter how often you wanna be home,they have nothing to do with that.There job is to get you prehired and that's it.You'll probably have more times then not where you'll be sitting for hrs either at the shipper or receiver.You notify your dispatcher immediately if you'll be sitting for awhile.You check with the office at the cust first then call your dispatcher.That's very important that you communicate with your dispatcher because either he may have to reschedule appt time/day for the next pick up or delivery.Or you may receive detention if sitting at the dock too long,just all depends.Now for breakdown,that's the funnest part to trucking.Better hope you don't brkdwn along side of the road,you could be there for hrs waiting for the rd brkdwn guy to show up.All this downtime takes a huge bite into your hours which causes low paychecks[I'll tell you right now,you're not by any means going to get rich doing this.,not even close.QUOTE=michaeltrahin;3178100]Hey guys.

I have two major concerns.

First: Home time (I've read a lot about how much I should expect as a new driver on this forum) and how does it work. I envission myself working for 14days, then coming back home for 2days. How realistic is that. Do I tell my recruiter that is how often I want to be back home or is my home-time based on when they will allow me to go home (will they randomly say go home for a few days, or do i need to tell them 2 weeks in advance when i want to be home?)? To put it succinctly: how does one go about getting home-time and is 14on, 2off realistic:

Second: How does it work when you are delayed? Say my truck breaks down or that the customer I am dropping a load off to takes hours to do their job. Am i right to assume that I just have to bit-the-bullet on these kinds of situations? Should I expect not to be making money when when I am traveling to pickup a load too?

I appreciate your responses. Thanks.

-MT[/QUOTE]

 

Your first year it could be a problem, although i went to school with a girl who went to TMC, and she got home every weekend even during training. A lot of it depends on where you live, but after you have a year of experience getting home every weekend if you want won't be a problem.

On a side note if I were you, I would let the negative stuff go in one ear and out the other. There is guys on this forum who have been driving for 20-30 years and believe there isn't a good company out there, and if you say there is they will accuse you of being a recruiter, there is, on this thread, a driver who says he has 8 years experience, and says it is basically impossible to get home every two weeks, and to them I say I hope they are better drivers than researchers.

Get a years experience, and then do what you want, be home daily, weekly, what ever, it's a about being diligent when looking for a job.

 

not good...

 

That's how it is at mega irregular route carriers but small companies don't operate that way. They run regular freight lanes and drivers are usually out for a week tops then home for two days. The problem is these small outfits usually don't hire new drivers because they A) don't want to train and B) their insurance requires at least two years experience.

 

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What is the LONGEST period of time that a truck driver can LEGALLY stay out on the road before being required to go home?

 

What is the LONGEST period of time that a truck driver can LEGALLY stay out on the road before being required to go home?

 

I got paid to see America, & most of Canada. If all you want is $ become a lawyer. This is not a money job. It's a choice to help others. Some day you will know.

 

Until he qualifies for a death certificate, no rules exist.

 

Do your research sir. You've found a great tool here in this website. If there is a namebrand truckstop, ie Pilot/ flying J, t/a, loves, petro, take a field trip and talk to the drivers that are coming in and out, fueling, etc about how they like working for the companies they do. Whomever posted the narrative about expect to be out 6-8 weeks??? W.T.H.??? sir or maam, perhaps you should find a different carrier for which to work or lease on with. That amount of time away is absurd and although I have no reason to belive you are lying, If you work for such a carrier, why do you stay there? You chose to work there, you can chose to leave that company as well.