Avoiding Night Hauling....?

I know I wasn't trying to make a comment on your preference just making a comment on the hours I preferred to drive.

 

Same here. Everyone's difrent, that's why there's so many options in trucking.

 

Yep, everyone's different. Most can adjust to pretty much any schedule though. What gives most trouble is changing sleep schedules.

There may be some exceptions but I think most can keep a fairly regular schedule, whether they start at 12 midnight or 12 noon.

If a company is regularly expecting you to turn you schedule around to the point you can't get proper sleep then there's a problem.

 

I try to drive at night whenever possible. My dispatcher says the night time is the right time. I'd never drive during daylight if I had my way

 

OTR loads dictate your hrs..Folks coming into this industry should be prepared for anything and everything because its always changing.Loads for example you have a time you need to be at the destination a few hours later load time changes.If people aren't open to flexibility they need to find a different line of work.Good way to get on dispatchers bad side is when the driver tells him he can't make delivery because its night driving.

 

I agree and that's one of the reasons I never hauled reefer otr.

 

I couldent stand reefer.

Atleast with flatbed I was able to stick to a pretty standerd schedual. It really only fluctuated by a few hours plus or minus on my normal start time

 

You do not avoid anything in trucking.

There is no one forcing anything. Anti corection laws have been in place since roughly 2012 at the Federal Level. Generally aimed at forcing you to be in fear of losing job and run you outside of your hours of service that is preventing you from running.

Such HOS (Hours of Service) failure is easily traced to several problems, First lack of professional trip planning prior to telling dispatcher you will be there. (Afraid to refuse load for being fired etc or worse, not given any at all... which does happen) second appointment times are unrealistic, they can and should be changed constantly to suit the situation. If you are out of hours in 3 hours time today and still 5 hours left to drive to reciever and wont make it until tomorrow (You should already have identified this problem before you took this load or said you would to your dispatcher.) A phone call can and is made to make a new appt based on your situation. OR.... advanced dispatchers who are smart will already have a team coming at you to take away your load and deliver it while you stop wherever your HOS tells you to stop and get rest, either in the sleeper berth or at the hotel.

Night time is the bread and butter of trucking.

What is even worse is you will learn about awake time, versus your natural body clock. We all are hard wired to the sun. When it rises, it's time to get up and get food etc. Then go to work. When the sun drops it's time to go home go to bed and rest up for the next day.

Unfortunately your HOS logbooks will make you sleep by day then 18 to 30 hours later sleep by night, then flip back to day time sleeping. Trucks have very good light blocking equiptment to darken you really good for day time, night time illusion. The problem is also noise pollution etc.People around you in the truckstop will bang on your doors looking for illegal and STD infectious as well as marriage wrecking prositution prepositons for you while you are trying to get rested etc. Which is one reason I do not sleep IN truckstops where possible. I usually go to remote places at least two hours from any town or city and sleep there. I do position the truck so that 20 more truckers will pull in and not get trapped by morning.

Sometimes you can literally hop off a exit, drive over a berm or levee under construction and find yourself very quiet and no one wiser. You can get some of your best rest in these places 100 yards from the interstate.

Much of the Nation runs at night. There was a time long ago until roughly 1870 where everyone worked by day time and went to family time and then bed by sunset or somewhat later. When the railroads show up and needed 24/7 and addition of the 4 time zones to keep safe into the 1900's (Which is why we have pacific, mountain, central and Eastern time zones. in our country.) Many employers realized that a 24/7 workforce literally triples the production. World war one and then later world war two sealed that forever. To take the USA into 24/7 war production to work as fast as possible as hard as possible

Trucking is a very intense 24/7 problem. You are not going to be told to quit at 4 pm today. no way. In fact you might have to have a load put on tonight which will be done sometime before midnight and then drive 600 miles to be somewhere by noon tomorrow morning and get unloaded asap. If you can go now and get that load done by dinner instead of midnight (Essentially skipping a meal) you can get ahead and have it delivered by sunrise. and move forward into tomorrow's loading. If you are very lucky in the right companies with the right freight just so, you will know what you will be doing tomorrow, the next day and so on. Some people thrive on that. Others get bored with that routine.

The very action and or talking about "Avoiding" is itself defeatist. You will literally be showing a form of weakness that will bite you and hurt you before too long in trucking once someone wonders why you are being lazy at night? Dispatchers love newbies because they can run the hell out of you in 90 days flat. You will either thrive and bloom or wither and die. You will not have it both ways. It will build u or destroy you.

ESPECIALLY IF THEY CAN make you wink and say it will be delivered, logs be damed. YOU are going to be a problem to MY Family on the highway trying to stay awake weaving like a drunken lout with that 18 wheeler. Not acceptable to me. Which is WHY there are laws in place to protect YOU from being weak and cowardly against a domineering dispatcher who sometimes literally gets off on such power plays against someone too weak or too little taught to stand up to such a bad person within the industry. And you wonder why you got fired. There are 50 more wanna bes filling that orientation trailer fresh off the bus ready to take your place. Your name and memory will soon be forgotten.

I hope this helps you. I'll teach you what I can to help avoid bad people before they infect you and infest your future. But there is NO avoiding much of anything in trucking. This Nation requires truckers and you need to be stronger than yourself for that cause. Everything else is BS.

 

I like nights, if I can get get a run of them back to back. It's the flip flopping days and nights that wears me down.

Reefer by far has had the most night driving for me. My company does reefer and dry van and you could be pulling either one at any time.

 

Save yourself and the company your gonna
Work for a whole lot of bitterness,anger and
Bad attitude towards one another.

Find another line of work.
If your going OTR you will be expected to
Drive at nights. With e-logs coming you drive
When the clock says drive.