Avoiding Night Hauling....?

Flatbedding had alot of nights too.

I recall leaving one saturday afternoon out of a Aluminum Plant in Lancaster PA off that 30 west side and was in Idabel OK (Around 1530 paymiles more or less... the long way I ran) monday morning 7 minutes prior to 8 am appointment time with three coils for Uncle Sam. To this day I know absolutely nothing about this customer in Idabel. Half tempted to do some googling map visiting to see what I can learn there.

What I should have done was had the appointment made for tuesday morning AND run west virginia, Kentucky, to Oklahoma and down. It might have taken a hundred or two off the whole route. That's worth some fuel, time and maybe padded the pay into my favor.

 

I drive nights whenever I get the opportunity. Fewer idiots to deal with on the road at night and finding a spot in a truck stop should be no problem if your shutting down at 7-9am like I prefer to. That being said running nights only (or running days only in the OPs position) isn't always an option. If you drive a truck your job is to safely get from point A to point B when the customer wants you there. If you can't handle that this isn't the gig for you.

 

I can give you a decent example based on a load I am under right now. You do have some choices to make.

I had a load that paid 793 loaded miles, but is actually 800 miles driving. I can do about 70mph, but I'm averaging about 60 from Dallas, Texas to Golden, Colorado on 287 and I70.

About mid way is Amarillo, which I made it to with several hours left on my clock to drive. I know that the towns get smaller and the parking situation gets desperate as I head further north and it gets later. I had to be in Golden at 1400 today, which I had about 4 hours buffer to make.

I had a choice to divide 800 miles over 2 days at about 400 miles a day, or to run as much of that load off as possible, park on a shoulder, offramp or desolate rest area in Colorado(no wifi, no radio, no shower, no food, no noise).

I chose to run the miles and park in the middle of nowhere at night. Why do this? Because if I get up today with a full clock and only drive 3 hours to deliver, I still have 8 more hours to drive miles off of my next load. I can make more money that way.

Dispatch didn't give a #### how I chose to run, so long as it was legal and on time. And that is what they expect from you. Many times you will have choices to make and they won't affect your job security, but they may position you for a week of making 600 take home, versus 1300. It won't be one load that pays 700 dollars. It will be 1 load that you chose not to utilize your clock in a way to position yourself for the next load--and you'll be getting whatever load is left.

In my case, I can refuse any load I want to. That gives me all the more incentive to run fast and hard when I run. If the next load offer is garbage and I reject it at 9am on Friday morning I may still get a good load to run over the weekend. If I reject one at 6pm, I may be sitting until Monday.

And it would have been a 6pm load offer for me today if I wasn't in position.

 

I will share a small issue about running nights. Normally I have been walking rather tall helping people if they were afraid of heights or mountain grades etc as if Im afraid of nothing. That's not completely accurate. One of the minor details I am a little bit scared at night is the red river valley area along the TX/OK border. The ranches do not always run the fencing line to ensure the barbed wire is tight and square. Steers the size of a VW Bug gets through that loose fence really easily at night.

For me it's a threat because the pavement in those days is the same color as the hides on those steers which will not reflect sealed beam lighting very well. But will reflect Halogen and or LED based lighting of sufficient power. I generally took the backroads along that border pretty slow at night fearing a impact with one of those very big steers. Those things are big enough and heavy enough to do some real damage, if not a complete total on your tractor but also to you personally should you be forced to bail from the wreckage due to fire etc.

Hopefully your company is very kind to you and installs a two inch pipe based bull bar system to your entire front end. That way you can actually nudge em stubborn bulls off the roadway if need be.

 

Buddy of mine was telling me about a situation just like that back when he was still running.

Totaled a kw cab over by hitting a walking steak. Messed him hlup pretty good from what he told me.

 

Don't forget about 30 minutes EZ break at fuel island at 12-1 am, peaceful, quite, no trucks behind you,no trucks ahead of you, beautiful!
Also if I have load going NE I always trying to run at night, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, ez 55+ speed

 

Just as the fuel islands are empty at that time, rest areas are packed. Almost got stuck when I pulled into one and found the access to the truck area blocked. Had to to back up the length of the access road and cut through the car section. Got pretty hairy a couple times when cars came barreling in not expecting to see a truck backing out.

 

Knock on driver door at tell him to move his truck cause he blocking driveway, if driver refused call cops they will make his ### nice and polite, not my problem that some "prodriver" decide that he better then rest and can park his rig where he feels like

 

There were 4 trucks parked in the road. I took what I felt was the path of least resistance.

 

OTR companies would consider your request as a disqualification. How do companies unload your freight at 6 am, if you don't drive nights. You are limiting yourself to flatbed, local, and ir dedicated, but only daytime dedicated. I would find another occupation or learn to drive at night. It's NOT a 9-5 M-F industry.