Approval for Deadhead Home?

I've been sitting in Pembroke, NY since yesterday morning at 11am. I had to take my 10hr break but the rest of the time has been waiting for a load. I live in Toronto, ON which is about 190kms or 100 something miles away. I don't want to be "that" guy who calls and complains to the company. I've never refused a load during my time here, I don't complain about issues and always give the best possible effort I can. I'm wondering whether or not I should call my dispatch and ask to be sent home. My reasoning is that it's better to sit at home getting no miles than sit 2 hours from home making no money. Usually after 6pm or so we hardly get dispatched a new load until the morning. Should I just tough it out and wait for the load or ask to drive the two hours home?

Also, to make this relevant to you, the driver, what are your guidelines for handling a situation similar to this? Does your company have any sort of policy in place? Do you take matters in to your own hands? I will say that I get home on average about once every two weeks, so I realize some of you that are out 2-3 months might feel a little more urgency.

 

Our "layover" pay is a whopping $25 per 24 hours. Lol. I can get a lot of 2 for 1 hot dogs at the Pilot for that!

 

Yeah, I'm a company driver. They're usually very good about getting me home, in fact I spent two days prior to leaving yesterday at home for Thanksgiving. My guess is there would be a lot more freight coming out of the GTA than anywhere around Buffalo, so I'm sure they'll take that into consideration. I'm not disgruntled by any means, I'm just getting a little bored. I was up at 9am and I've watched two movies, vacuummed the truck, did a thorough pre-trip, ate lunch and completed all my outstanding paperwork. Just another day in the life.

 

Our company is very small with respect to others out there. We have two class B trucks, mine is the one on our company website (proud of that...it's neat), the rest are cargo/cube van fleet. We have maybe 16 total drivers. Our office staff consists of 8 people, 3 of whom do dispatch. It's a family oriented business. Usually when I request to go home, they'll allow it unless they have something lined up in the morning. There is constant communication between everyone and the process is transparent. I finally asked our dispatch to head home since we don't normally get new loads past 6pm anyway. We'll see what she has to say. My guess is I'll be leaving shortly lol

 

That's what I thought too. Lot more freight coming out of Toronto/Mississauga than the Buffalo/Rochester area. Anyway, I just got the green light to head back. See y'all on the flip side.