Can't find my perfect truck driving job

Assuming this is not a troll post. I'd say look around for jobs with 3rd party contractors who pull trailers at night for the likes of FedEx etc. Grab a trailer from warehouse, run to different warehouse, drop and hook or wait to get unloaded, rinse repeat. Also look into highway work at night.

 

I did dump truck work with a paving company who was actually just the three of us. Him, foreman and me. We worked on a farm rolling hay and occasionally feeding his cattle. Talking about PRECISION trucking, it's really important not to spill giant rolls of hay off a unsecured flatbed onto the electric fence with 30 cows near it. Particularly when your dually 10 ton is leaning way over and wants to spill the whole thing off road.

That dually is a 1955 dodge with three on the tree manual.

What a .. beast. You had to know what you are doing to drive that old thing. Just so.

Intense.

The paving company is some of the best work I ever did. Why? because at that time I had too many strikes against me for OTR hiring. This little company could not give a #### how many people I murdered, how many police is lookng for me and how often I have to go to the court on this or that. It's 6 am, where are you!? Yer late get going #### it.

Ive been yelled at profanely, fired a thousand times at 6 PM and called up at 6 am the next morning. WHERE YA AT!? GET GOING YER LATE #### IT.

Same time to start every day. That was the best part. That and the old Superliner Mack with the V8 desiel under the hood and the 15 speed. Ive driven really good trucks in the past but for some stupid reason my heart is with this little slow one.

 

There is no perfect job. I’ve learned that that hard way myself. Each job has its positives and negatives and you just have to weigh what you’re willing to put up with for the $.

Sounds like you want to run overnight linehaul. I do this myself and it’s definitely not stress-free even though it’s better than a lot of other gigs. But we deal with our share of bs too. Waiting for other drivers, having other drivers leave trailers with flat tires in the yard with no tag that there’s an issue, etc. And almost all of those jobs are 5 days a week and not 4.

Your best bet in finding a 4-day work week and nights is being a spotter/yard jockey. Lot of those jobs are 4 10-12 hour days and have multiple shifts. Obviously the senior guys take the day shifts so you’d get nights easily.

 

Some companies are offering 4 on 4 off. Not quite home daily, but maybe a compromise.

I'm a yard spotter now and kind of sick of it. It's just really boring. I sometimes wonder if I'd like it better if I spotted a yard with rollup doors instead of having to close the doors every move. I didn't mind doing that at first, but I think it adds to making the job feel tedious and repeatitive.

For what it's worth, I work 2nd shift starting 5pm which I'm actually fine with. I have liked that I've been working close to 40 hours a week and staying close to home, but I'm also sick of trying to move trailers in the winter.

 

You want 4 on 3 off become a police officer in California
Doubt you’ll find that in trucking.
Company owners have bills too. Monday through Friday is a reasonable job.
But most local is 16 hour days so you’re gonna be using that up most of the time.
It’s the system.

 

My Perfect job OTR is Mckesson Memphis. Show up. Grab envelope from dispatch, find trailer. Hook, set up qualcomm, pretrip and go. Show in detriot at 7 am next morning. Dock, wait, empty, reload with bales of cardboard, they bring bills to you in 40 minutes signed and gone back to memphis. Always.

Arrive Memphis later that afternoon. Drop, find dispatch, hook and go. Don't be late. Get going yer late.

NO bs. You have 5000 chiefs very interested in your progress. You don't stop for nothing. If you stop somewhere routinely say 150 miles from Memphis... Make sure that is the same stop every time. Because if YOU DID STOP say wtihin 60 miles you have 2000 people very interested in seeing you get moving within 10 minutes. If you do not, then you are going to get some attention to make sure you aint robbed or killed.

It's really intense. A million dollars in narcotics inside that trailer. Falling asleep or being bored is not a option.

 

Linehaul night shift with a steady run. Your life will resemble the movie "Groundhog Day"

 

That's the answer, get a line haul job with a company like Estes Experss or Old Dominion Freight Line and a few others.
Line haul is terminal to terminal/drop & hook in most cases. You need doubles & hazmat endorsements.

 

I wonder if pulling linehaul doubles is a good thing for someone with anxiety and desiring low stress... it can get fairly stressful in heavy rain, heavy fog, winter, etc....

I'd try a temp agency.... lots of choices to find a niche....

Many years back, I pulled for Leaseway....not a temp agency, but was probably a pioneer in dedicated truck services.... anyway, I was put on one account hauling seats out of Lear Seating to a GM plant. 3 turns in an 8 hour shift. It ran 3 shifts, 24 hours a day. 4 Trucks.... one at GM, one enroute to GM, one enroute back to Lear, and one dropping and hooking at Lear. It was as Stress free as I can ever remember.............BUT, also got to be as boring a job as I can remember as well. But it was stress free.