Can I take home time anywhere? (and other related questions)

Well companies love drivers with no realistic home life. Any OTR job I had only required advanced notice. I never had a problem. I live in Florida and have taken my time off in Michigan plenty of times to visit family.

 

Although there will be times when I definitely want to be "home", this is one of the major attractions of the job for me, is to just be out somewhere and take a few days off to see the sites etc...Yes it is very possible, from all I've learned.

 

Yup. Any time you want off in a specific location (and have accumulated enough "days off" to allow it) you can put in for time off anywhere you choose. The only real limitations are if you want to go someplace the company just doesn't run any freight....like if you are working for a carrier doing 99.9% of their work running up and down the east coast, they aren't going to let you take their truck to go see the Grand Canyon for a few days. As long as the request is within their typical freight lanes, it generally isn't a problem.

 

Yep, I've seen the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Smokey Mtn National Park, New Orleans for Mardi Gras, New York City and Chicago just from telling my dispatcher "as soon as you can get me to____ and I'll take some time off". ez peasy )
Park the truck somewhere safe, rent a car, bicycle or scooter and off you go.

 

This can be a positive from a carrier's perspective but it won't necessarily put you head and shoulders above others for hiring consideration. But bear in mind, it's a good idea to be able to take "off time" near where there is a service terminal (if that's how your a and b services are done at your chosen carrier) That way you can get your needed service work done while you're taking time off. It helps also if you have a personal auto insurance policy, make sure that it covers car rental comprehensive coverage so you don't have to pay those excessive rental company comprehensive/damage insurance charges. (When renting a car makes sense)

 

A what???

Mikeeee

 

You can take hometime any where your heart desires.You wanna spend it at disney land,not a problem just tell your dispatcher.Alot of drivers do that.They see an up coming concert,game or whatever so they request hometime there.Just because it's called hometime does not mean YOU HAVE TO spend it at home.I doubt telling the recruiter u dont care where you take hometime,you dont care how long you're out ect will give you brownie points getting that job.They look up all your records like MVR,DAC CSA score job history.Then it goes to the safety dept then their insurance.Your recruiter will not put in a good word for you.She just does the checks and sends it all to safety and they take it from there.