Day by day adventures of a new solo OTR driver

I got to Charlotte yesterday, left my truck at the hands of the mechanics and drove my pickup truck home. Hopefully they'll find the ground issue with my trailer harness and will replace a tire that was getting some irregular wear and causing some vibration when lightly loaded/bobtailing. Its nice to have a break after all that crap last week.

mickey, to answer your question about the trailer no I did not send in the exception for the exact reason that steve said, they schneduled me for a pickup 60 miles away with 30 minutes to get there, so I didn't have time to play the "chase the empties" game. However, when I spoke with the guy at support shift I did inform him that the trailer was full of junk so they would (hopefully) not send another driver there looking for an empty trailer. When I called in I told him to send me back to the OC where I KNEW there were empties, but he ended up just getting me permission to bobtail in.

I'm taking 5 days off and when I return to Charlotte before I leave out my DBL and I are going to sit down and have a talk. I'm going to first really push getting me going on the Choice program. I don't know how much time it takes to figure out if I'm eligible or not, but it would sure be nice if I am eligible that I could start my training for becoming an IC right then and there and not have to go out in a company truck again. However, that probably won't happen and it will take some time and I'll have to go out again in my company truck.

I'll go over some of the issues and pretty much explain that if I think it is totally reasonable to be able to run 2800-3000 miles a week. I am a driver that stays out a minimum of 3 weeks at a time and do not need to spend all of my time running short Northeast loads, because they do not need to get me home every weekend.

If I am denied for the Choice program I'll need to really consider if I want to continue working for Schneider or not. I will probably give them a chance to drastically improve my experience as a company driver, but it will be one more chance and one more chance only.

Then there is the option of looking at a dedicated account... but I will be very picky about what dedicated accounts I would run. I will not spend my day unloading trailers myself. If I wanted to do that, I'd go flatbed.

So, I don't really know what to say other than I hope Choice works out.

Ya'll drive safe and I'll be back in a few days!

 

I think you misunderstood my post, I'm just on my hometime, lol.

 

I've done that for a while. I stay out anywhere from 3 to 5 weeks at a time and come home for 5 days. According to my DBL we get 5 days off a month, either 2 weeks out 2 home, 2 more out and 3 home or 3+ weeks and 5 days. Talkin with some drivers, I know some of their DBLs let them take a full 7 days off after 4 weeks out!