Any Time to Enjoy Life on the Road with Team Linehaul?

Discussion in 'LTL and Local Delivery Trucking Forum' started by insipidtoast, Mar 5, 2023.

  1. insipidtoast

    insipidtoast Heavy Load Member

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    With OTR there was always a chance to trip plan some nice jogs through parks. For example, my wife and I used to stop at the rest area on I-70 in Dotsero, CO and go on a hike up in the mountains for a couple hours before starting the day. That was solo OTR, but I imagine team OTR you could also find find stuff to do when awake time schedules overlap. In solo OTR, every week there were moments where the schedule was flexible and you could trip plan around such points of interest. In linehaul is that pretty much out of the question? Like if you stop for more than an hour they start whipping you?
     
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  3. 201

    201 Road Train Member

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    HA! Well, I'll tell ya', it's not a vacation. You have your terms mixed up. Linehaul is generally the same trip over the same roads night after night with very little variation. Many times linehaul is timed specific, there are drivers waiting for your freight, and the boss knows how long that trip should take. What you describe, could happen on an OTR setting, but many times too, most scenic places have no room for trucks, and generally, an "out of route" detour is looked down upon. Bobtailing, if allowed, is a different story, although, I doubt the boss would like 400 miles bobtailing. Now, if it's YOUR truck, then yes, I would certainly do an outside trip bobtail, but getting off the big road in a T/T is a nightmare waiting to happen.
     
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  4. kidz bop

    kidz bop Medium Load Member

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    it really depends on the routes you are doing. if you tell them you want extra time for that kind of stuff they may assign you routes that give you extra time, just tell them what makes you happier and they offer it to you. it's not about making everyone miserable.

    even in ltl they could modify your routes, maybe give you less miles routes but more window of time for stuff like that, just make sure to tell them it in advance so they know. i see it possible.
     
    Last edited: Mar 6, 2023
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  5. insipidtoast

    insipidtoast Heavy Load Member

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    We hardly went out of route. It's pretty simple. You can look up all the stops on your route and see where the nice areas are. We like to hike and go for runs, so we looked for truckstops that were located near big parks. In TN, there is a truckstop just across the street from Parker's Crossroads battlefield, which has some very extensive walking paths. In MN there was a nice rest area (on a highway, not interstate) that had a pretty big trail network. The rest area on I-70 in CO was right next to this very long trail in the mountains. So long, that we never figured out how far it went. Del Rio, TX has a nice creek that flows through a park, which we swam in many times when on a layover down there. One time we even took some biodegradable soap and had ourselves a bath in it. Just little things like that. Of course, If you were hauling doubles your options would be much more limited. That was the benefit to otr.

    With doubles though, since you know you're going to be at certain terminals all the time, you could get a gym membership in the town with the terminal and bobtail there on PC miles. Which ltl companies would allow this? Do those companies let you live in the truck? That level of consistency would be nice compared to otr.
     
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  6. jtaran06

    jtaran06 Road Train Member

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    We didn’t stop when I did it. Ran about 7k from Sun-6pm to Friday-6am. We switched out same places and took shower daily upon afternoon switch out. Never had time for nothing but driving.
     
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  7. insipidtoast

    insipidtoast Heavy Load Member

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    So you fasted from Sunday to Friday?
     
  8. ducnut

    ducnut Road Train Member

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    Teams are basically full-time expeditors. What you’re wanting to do isn’t conducive to how dedicated linehaul operations work. Teams are tools that get used to their maximum capability, during their work cycle.
     
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  9. insipidtoast

    insipidtoast Heavy Load Member

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    So what's the longest they let you park the truck?
     
  10. ducnut

    ducnut Road Train Member

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    The operation I’m familiar with give ~48hrs, between 5 day dispatches.
     
  11. insipidtoast

    insipidtoast Heavy Load Member

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    In that case the question would be how long can the truck be stopped during that 5-day period? I don't get those companies. Would they really be against the idea of a team grabbing another quick out and back load for the last two days of the week?
     
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