Can you dictate your own hours OTR?

Why would you want to spread your hours? You aren't earning if the wheels aren't turning.

 

would you rather sit around a nasty ### truck stop waiting to make you appointment time, because they will not accept the load early, or park at a spot that you can enjoy some down time during the trip? and enjoy your life?

and it does not matter how hard you run, you only get 70 hours out of every 168 to keep the wheels turning.

 

Guess i jumped the gun a little bit.

 

I don't know about you but I don't sit around nasty ### truck stops any longer than 10 hours. I guess that's the benefit of pulling a tank. I get in, get loaded and boogie on down the road. I get to delivery and unload. I see your point though.

 

I generally do. I'm a relatively new company driver, and most of my loads have enough time that if I slack off(or get delayed by traffic/weather/cattle uprising), we can just reschedule. It might affect my miles a bit but I've never gotten crap from dispatch. I keep it pretty laid back. Sometimes I'm not quite as motivated as I should be, I've been on the fence about it since day one.

 

You need to deliver on time. As long as you can deliver on-time it doesn't matter what you do while in route. But remember the sooner you get that load off (if the receiver allows early delivery), the faster you can get reloaded which means more money.

 

If you can't deliver on time something needs to be said so the dispatcher can save the load before you're actually late. If you can't deliver on time do to unforeseen circumstances (jam due to road closure, unexpected bad weather), same thing. If load cannot be done safely before he accepts it he needs to let dispatch know so they can either a) get a new delivery time or b) find a driver who is able to deliver it on time. Good knows how many loads I've been given that were hot on the get-go or just plum not doable due to no fault of mine.