Driving at certaain times?

I try to drive at night when I can, especially if I'm going through alot of mountains. It's just easier, but it can get hairy in the winter since the roads ice up much quicker.

EDIT- It's also much, much easier going through major cities, such as LA and Chicago, at night.

 

My husband always like driving at night better. Less traffic a lot of times, but there are some areas such as Atlanta, GA that has had a lot of traffic at 2am, what keeps people out that late of night is a mystery to me. We would always plan to try and hit cities like that when it wasn't times like going to or coming from school, lunch hours, after work hours so we would hopefully make it around a little faster, ha ha sometimes, then someone would be bounced off a wall and it would slow the whole program down.

Small towns late mean not much traffic. Deer and other critters come out at night. Fog at night, early am may slow you down or put you out for a few hours. Wind increases during the dark hours of night so if it is stormy out you may have higher wind and gusts, this includes areas like Denver, Co, NE, WY etc.

Your load pickup and delivery will also make a difference as to what times you drive, it will seem like you may drive for a long time during the day and then all of a sudden here comes that load that completely reverses you for a couple of weeks or so.

They talk about the circadian rhythm being messed with in drivers, but there are some people I think who are night owls that are not affected by this problem and would rather sleep during the day. The only problem with day sleeping is if you are working for a company that restricts your idle time, you will be sleeping when it is a lot hotter out than at night time, unless you are lucky and have an APU..

It is easier to find a truckstop with an open spot during the day than at night, esp in areas that have few found.

You can see more scenery during the day than at night.

 

A lot of times you really don't have control over when you drive. You are a slave to the stupid 14/11 doomsday clock and your delivery and pickup schedule.
I like to run from about 2am to 4 pm. That way I'm usually finishing my drive to a delivery point first thing in the morning and I'm off the road when afternoon rush hour starts, which is also good because everybody drives like an jack ### at that time of the day.

 

Night time if you can, I agree best time to avoid city drivers who are shaving, putting on makeup, texting, reading, half awake, late to work, hurry to get home, slooooooow drivers in the middle and fast lanes and cowboy road rage idiots. I'm sure I missed a few.

 

Best time to drive? When you're well-rested and alert.

 

If you can manage day time driving with little problems, like a western trip, more power to you. On the east side night time is the only way to go. Going west I like to start early, say 4 am, end around 6. Parking is not usually an issue this way. East I start after lunch and get to bed or my delivery point in the wee hours of the morning, say 3 or 4 am. Note: the east trips are generally over nighters anyway. Planning makes the world go around so much smoother.... Gotta always plan to get your sleep with some form of regularity.

 

what Pete 1 said..

as a company driver, saying running OTR, you have really no choice, you gotta get there at the appointed time.

as a dedicated route driver you may have a particular start time, each and every day, but your ending time may vary due to traffic, weather roads, construction, etc,etc.

you will NEED to be able to sleep when your head hit the pillow.

 

There are pros and cons to driving at various times of the day. The pros for nighttime are generally less traffic and most of the scales are closed. The cons are less visilbility, more criitters wondering about,rest areas tend to be full, difficult to find a place to park for pit stop,and longer response time from road service if you break down. The pros for daytime driving better visilibilty, easier to find parking places in rest areas,and quicker response time from road service for breakdowns. The cons are more traffic,more scales are open. Like some here have posted picking up and delivering loads pretty much dicate what time of day you drive. NavigatorWife the circadian rthyem is real,its just each person's is set at a different time.

 

Agreed, nighttime seems to be more productive for miles and parking. The bad part is trying to sleep in the daytime without an APU. Make sure you point your windshield away from the sun or your a/c will have a hard time keeping up. I try to put the trailer toward the sun to use the extra shade.