Am I Expected To Not Plan or Schedule ANYTHING At Home

If you want predictable hometime you need to go to a company with a "hometime" fleet. You don't get as many miles and you have to slipseat, but you have a pretty good idea of when you will get home and how long you will be there. Regional will keep you closer to home. Look for companies that are serious about getting drivers home on time. Research the various companies on this site and ask questions. Request hometime with at least a 24 hour lead time for any event that can't be moved. Just some of the things I've learned through the years. You can't get home for everything so learn to prioritize.

 

Take your own advice. When I was still a company driver I learned to quit asking nicely for home time. TELL THEM WHEN YOU WILL BE HOME!

If they dont comply, find a new place to work. Im not saying to be an a hole about it, but the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Be sure to back it up, make yourself a good employee. Don't reject loads, get them there on time. That way when you're ready to go home you got plenty of ammo to fire back when that dispatcher starts the crappola.

 

What's a steam ship captain? Do they still exist?
I know a Merchant Marine. He's gone a month and home a month. He lives pretty good by the size of his house and nice cars.
Airline pilots even have a flexible schedule and don't work many hours.

But back to trucking, hometime varies by company and yes, even the dispatcher. My last job I went through two bad dispatchers that never got me home on time. One time I made plans two months in advance to fly my girlfriend to meet me in St Louis for offtime since it was in our regular lanes.
I reminded the company several times with a "No Problem" for an answer. I paid for the motel and rental car and everything was set up for July 3.
Come July 2, I was turned the opposite direction. My girlfriend flew in and spent the mini-vacation all by herself. I got there July 7th just in time to take her back to the airport. It seems like crap likes that happens all the time. I only go home every 6-7 weeks and expect to be there. Them dispatchers ended up getting fired.

Any company with size can get a driver home on time if they want to. A relay or two you can get any driver anywhere in a day or two. The problem is too many dispatchers are too lazy to do the extra work.

My next dispatcher at that company turned out to be one of the best dispatchers I ever had. She got me home on time about 95% of the time.
So you see the dispatcher is just as important on how you get home.

One of my earlier jobs was home on weekends. I usually got in Saturday and left out Sunday. Yep, I was home weekends.

When you marry the job, you take the downfalls with it. When a driver looks for many things in a company, it's hard to find a perfect one. You have to forget about your other working life before trucking. Try to be more flexible with your hometime and commitments if you can. Sure you can get home for the rare occurances. But other times, plan on going fishing or other things that take the "time" factor out of the equation. Then you won't get as upset.

When I started having health problems, I got home ALL the time on time for doctors appointments. Don't you feel a little sick? Hint, hint

 

Digger, I was not discussing wages in general. Everybody would like to be paid more. But I think if you knew how thin the profit margin gets in the trucking game, you would be surprised. The "Fat Cat Owners" as y'all call them made their money over many years of hard work. But hey, today's world thinks they're evil people who should just hand over everything the company makes. What can I say.

My problem with the OP's general tenor in his post was that he seemed to think that he should be able to just go home for whatever reason whenever he chooses. OTR is not now, never has been and never will be that kind of job.

Disagree all you want but every time a driver is unavailable for whatever reason another driver must pick up the slack. Simple arithmatic. If that "home" driver takes his rig with him, there's a whole freight unit out of the system. The load count stays the same no matter what.

Like I said, nobody will ##### about family emergencies and the like. In fact, they'll often go to extremes to get you home for them. But concerts and the like? Not so much. But if you have some reeeealy special event and you let them know waaaay ahead of time you'll probably get accomodated.

But straight up, if you come into this trade with any idea that the company should accomodate whatever you want.... well, you're in for an unpleasant surprise. This is what takes most newbies out within the first year.

 

Take my current situation for instance. I'm supposed to be attending an event this weekend. I told dispatch of it 2 weeks in advance. Between tickets, campsite, food, and all the other amenities to take a family of 6 out to a weekend atv event we spent around $1,000, plus I dropped another $500 on repairs and maintenance on the bikes/atvs so everything would be good to go. Was supposed to be home yesterday to help set everything up and haul equipment to the park. but I was in georgia yesterday with 10.75 of my 70 left and over 1,000 miles until I got home. With 2 weeks notice there really is no excuse for this. I had to run right to the edge of my 10.75 and request a t-call so I can get home. Luckily I get just enough hours back to make it to the event this morning.

I did not piss and moan about it. I was nice with my DM. But if it becomes an everyday occurance I will not be so nice about it.

 

I have to agree that alot of people coming in new have unrealstic expectations.....

but i do get home EVERY weekend, for how long is up to me. I just got lucky. the companies are out there if you don't just jump at the first one that will hire you.

And for condo, just fyi lol......having been an airline pilot as well, the schedule isn't THAT flexible.....true, you can only work 80 hours a month, but that doesn't equate to either 2 weeks on/off or any kind of flexibility at 2-3 hours max for an average flight.....they will fly you right up to that 80 hours even if it means 10 day to 2 weeks on straight and sitting jumpseat to finish out your hours in the middle of someone else's flight once their hours are gone.....just like trucking there are good and bad flying jobs, but unless you fly international with big hours on each flight, it's like running 250-300 mile trips in the truck over and over until your 70 is exhausted and then you go home lol....when THEY say, not when you want to

my hometime driving a truck has been much better than it ever was flying for a living.....

but what do i know? lol i got on with a good company where hometime isn't an issue and they've run me 120 miles empty to the yard to make sure i got my weekend.....guess i'd see it alot differently if i was with another company....but it also works both ways....i've stayed out for them through the weekend when freight was heavy just to make sure the job got done and then they backed it up with a couple days off....you have to be flexible and have a family/spouse that is as well or you're in the wrong job

but i agree with the others like kitty that maybe the OP didn't know what he was getting into

 

Possibly, but local doesn't guarantee free time. Go pull for a road construction company, and find out what happens when that project goes into the penalty phase.