Down time OTR?

i can only tell you how "i did it".........years ago, we could only run 10 hours each day. i would run as many hours as it took (but not over 10 hours) and got as close as possible to the customer. if i was with-in a very short distance of that customer, i would call them and ask, if i was early, can i stay on their property. some would say, if you are early, get here and we will get you loaded (or unloaded) ahead of your appointment time. some customers would say, no, there isn't any parking, so in that case, i'd find a rest area or truck stop, and hunker down till my appointment time.

you never want to NOT drive all your hours, and be hundreds of miles a way. trust me, dispatch will have a field day on your arse for NOT driving all your required hours. you will have NO excuse................

get as close to the customer as possible. as far as leaving your truck and riding your bike...........suppose you have all you need, wallet, ID, benefits card, etc, etc............and you have a accident on your bike...........and you are taken to the hospital...........now you have to call your company........you have to explain to them why you are 1 to 10 miles away from your truck............you "could be" charged with abandoning your responsibilities........... try getting a job after that............


drive your hours, when at the customer, walk a LITTLE BIT if they do not need you at the docks..........when at a truck stop.........walk a little bit, or some have "gyms"..........work out there. but for gosh sakes, as a "newbie" you will be giving your company some GREAAAT reasons to fire you, if anything goes wrong..........

 

I'm into all that activity...I seem to find time for it.

To not get your excersize is a recipe for disaster in the long run. Nobody wants to be "that guy" thjat we all see waddling around the truck stop stopping every 30 feet to catch his breath!
As a driver you need to get youe excersize..It is crucial to make the time to do it.

It can be done.

So then since you're responsible for the truck and the load at all times, You log it as "On Duty Not Driving"? What if you're in a motel room? Who's watching it then?
I have one of those cool gizmos that lock over the parking brake knobs and I have a kingpin lock and a gladhand lock...When I'm off duty I'm off duty!

I wander off all the time...but I do it discreetly so as not to call attention to the fact that my truck is unattended...I don't get my bicycle off the truck and pedal off into the sunset.

I've never had a break in or anything stolen off of a load in all the years I've been out here...Somebody did steal an Oversized Load sign off of my trailer once but that was obviously another driver or at least someones poor excuse for a driver.

 

It can be definitely be done. It will take you awhile to be able to juggle all of it and make out some sort of schedule for yourself. As far as all this sight seeing that will definitely be few and far between. That's just "Recruiter Bait". Now if you have driven your 4-6 weeks and you want to take your two days off on the road somewhere then that is when you get your sight seeing in. Otherwise you are going to be running. 3000 miles # .27 a mile is $810 dollars a week. So take home is five hundred something dollars. 3000 miles a week is going to really be pushing you as a new driver! If you take let's say $600 a week which is roughly your take home at 3000 miles and multiply it by 48 weeks because you just aren't going to run 52 weeks so you have now earned 28,800 for the year. I am just trying to show you how much you really have to hustle out there to make any money at all at this gig! I know the recruiters might have told you otherwise. I wanted to show you what to really expect before getting you hopes up too high! Hope you didn't take this in a negative way. Good luck to you and remember the only thing you can plan on in trucking is the plan changing!

 

When I'm out of the house, all I'll be thinking of is driving, working out to stay in shape when I can, talking to my wife when I can and sleep...

 

Well I can tell you I find time for 1/2 hour of brisk walking EVERY day I'm on the road. I run my 11 hours and the minute I park the truck I jump out and walk for 15 minutes in one direction and then turn around and walk right back to the truck. I grab my shower gear and get cleaned up. Usually takes me 50-60 minutes total. Then I do any sort of trip planning if need be and spend the next 1/2 hour or so messing around on my laptop. I also RUN everywhere I need to get to while on duty... ie, going in to see shipper/receiver, at truck stops and even if/when I need to get out and look (goal) at a tight parking space/dock. It may seem like a lot of "extra" work to some but I was a gym rat all my life before getting into trucking so it's nothing to me.

Because of the way I run and the account I'm dedicated to I always get in a 34 about every 5/6 days. One on the road and one at home. I am still able to average 12000 miles + a month easily and get a little exercise in. It does suck in the winter but it's actually easier to work a sweat because you are lugging all that extra weight around when you're walking. Speaking of extra weight I'm also going to order one of those weighted vests you'll see in gyms frequently that are used to make dips and pullups harder. I'm going to wear it while on my walks.

As far as the gym thing... it's never gonna happen on the road. I've seen a few Gold's Gym's here and there but you will never get in a regular gym workout. I wish truckstops would put in a small free-weight, weight room. I would be the happiest trucker out there if that ever happened.

So there is time to get a minor workout in but I don't think you're gonna manage it on as large as a scale as you're hoping for. The real key is what you cram down your pie hole. Get a refrigerator if your truck doesn't already have one and buy decent food while at home and on your 34.

 

When I ran OTR, I could normaly work out or jog 15-30 minutes a day, and then a real good workout over the weekend. I would occasionaly bobtail to a gym on the weekend. With the internet it's gonna make it a lot easier to find a gym then when I did it, because I would have to look up a gym in a phonebook, then buy a map of the town I was in, just to get to the gym. Today, I still have hundreds of maps of cities around the country. I think your gonna have a hard time trying to keep up your normal routine so to counter that, but not impossible.

For working out,
With dry van or reefer I normally did that while at a shipper or reciever while your just waiting to be loaded or unloaded. Can't really jog at that time because you need to be by the truck. With flatbed work, your busy doing work so you don't get that opportunity as much unless your in a staging area.
If not I wait until after I'm done driving for the day or night to exercise.

I had on a bicycle on for awhile. I kept my inside the cab and that was a flattop Freightliner FLD with a 48" sleeper berth. I kept it upside down running down the the center of the cab.....had to take the front wheel off. A narrow Peterbilt, or KW would be pretty hard. I kept it inside to keep it from all the road grime, road salt, rain, etc, etc. To be honest, I never did use the bicycle too much, but then aside from when I was a kid and we used to take 50mile bike rides out to this State Park, I was never big into bicycles.

Jogging isn't too bad, but so many of the truckstops are where there is a lot of traffic and so you constantly crossing intersections, or it's the exact opposite and your out in the middle of nowhere trying to jog along some skinny two lane hwy with cars and trucks flying by you at 60mph which isn't too peaceful, nor safe. After awhile, you'll develop little jogging routes thruout the country.

On of the big things with trucking is watching your diet.

I normally grap a yogurt, grain bar, and milk for breakfast.

A V8, beef jerky stick, and cheese stick for lunch.

A little turkey and cheese sandwich, small bag of chips, and a cookie for dinner....
Instead of the turkey/cheese sandwich, I might grap a little can of beenie weenies, speghetti and meatballs, soup or they have these little meal packs such as turkey on mashed potatoes and gravy, meatloaf and mashed potatoes, chicken-n-dumplings, and a few other flavors. I forget who makes it, but they sell them at Walmart and most other grocery stores for about $2.50 a meal. They are pretty low in calorie and fat.

Good luck.