Driving and the Army Reserve

They are required by Federal law to allow her to attend to her monthly and yearly reserve duties. If she gets hired, once they know she is in the reserves, is the question. They have to allow her to attend, and if they make it difficult for her, she just has to let her command know and they will put her in touch with the right people to talk to them (the company).

 

my company Central Refrigerated, guarantees hometime giving it is 9 days in advance.

If she goes home only on reserve time she will get 4 days, as 4 weeks out 4 days off.

For the 2 week a year, she would most likely have to leave truck at the terminal and vacate it. as over 4 days off you have to leave truck at the terminal.

But ####, a year in a truck and you get a new one.


K

 

George..

I'm a reservist and I just finished a search for a new company. Know that there's the way things are supposed to be, and there's the way things are.

Things don't always happen just because federal regulations mandate them to be so...drivers get run too long, out of hours, overweight, etc. I went for a smaller company with about 70 trucks because they had all the big company perks, new trucks, pre-pass, satellite commo, but They don't have such a huge freight base that they can't route me short on weeks before drills or AT. I was worried that even though the bigger company intended to get me home, they couldn't deliver because of load pre-planning and that stuff.

Some of the big companies I talked to were very supportive of military people, but I just got a better feeling that I was going to be home for drills with the smaller company.

 

What is being overlooked here and I dealt with this for several years. Say you have a muta 5 drill. Friday night till Sunday evening. You are scheduled to get in, but something came up and you could not get in, layover, shipper/ rec etc. Now depending on your unit they could put out a warrant for your arrest. This is the reserves/guards. There are some ate up units out there. Now you have to make this drill up. Also you are taking away your hometime. You are in for drill and you have to roll when it is over. Also watch your retirement points. I had 24 years on my LES. 4 active, 16 reserve/ guard , 4 IRR. When I was do to retire they said oh back 16 years ago you did not have a good year for points to retire. I was short 1 weekend to have a good retirement year. Remedy? Re-up for another year and hope you are not late by being in a truck or missing a drill somewhere.

 

Also have your wife look at running local/LTL or a dedicated run. Have her give a copy of her drill schedule to dispatch - your employer is supposed to be informed of your schedule, anyway. I drove for years with no major problems other than the occasional traffic, weather, shipper/receiver etc. causing me to miss a drill day on time. Most units will allow you to make up the time.

 

Roehl is big on military and ex military. I got out 30 years ago and am in their Honor program. Yes, I am an old dog that likes to learn new tricks! I was in Marshfield, WI - their home terminal. A very nice place.