'Home time' definitions and other important questions newbies don't know the answers to

haulit6272 · Apr 15, 2019

Chinatown said: ↑

Companies don't care if you live near a terminal or not, for your home time/off time. You can take time off anywhere you want if you can find a place to park for a few days.
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Chinatown said: ↑

Companies don't care if you live near a terminal or not, for your home time/off time. You can take time off anywhere you want if you can find a place to park for a few days.
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If you're a company driver and not an owner operator, what kind of mileage and gas restrictions will they place on you between the time you deliver the last load before your time off without pay, and when you're on the clock again with pay, on the way to pickup your next assignment? I can't see being allowed to deliver in Dallas, clock out, drive to Weatherford, clock in, then accept an assignment to pick up a load in Dallas or farther east, backtracking on the company dime. Someone has to pay for that fuel. Lemme guess....."It depends on the company?"

Chinatown · Apr 15, 2019

haulit6272 said: ↑

If you're a company driver and not an owner operator, what kind of mileage and gas restrictions will they place on you between the time you deliver the last load before your time off without pay, and when you're on the clock again with pay, on the way to pickup your next assignment? I can't see being allowed to deliver in Dallas, clock out, drive to Weatherford, clock in, then accept an assignment to pick up a load in Dallas or farther east, backtracking on the company dime. Someone has to pay for that fuel. Lemme guess....."It depends on the company?"
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Yep, you'll be backtracking on the company dime. That's the cost of doing business. They'll try to send you home with a load to deliver later or maybe your home will be en route to the next load or you'll back track.

REO6205 · Apr 15, 2019

tucker said: ↑

Does anyone really read a really really long post?
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The staff does.

haulit6272 · Apr 16, 2019

Chinatown said: ↑

Yep, you'll be backtracking on the company dime. That's the cost of doing business.
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Always with mgmt approval in advance, I presume.

Chinatown · Apr 16, 2019

haulit6272 said: ↑

Always with mgmt approval in advance, I presume.
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They'll approve it.
Some companies have weekends at home and most long haul companies want a week or two notice of your home time request so they can plan your loads to get you home.
I don't work for "weekends at home" companies because I prefer to keep the wheels rolling and make money.
So, yeah, you're the employee and have to follow the rules. If you want to be the boss, save your money and buy your own truck.

haulit6272 · Apr 17, 2019

Chinatown said: ↑

They'll approve it.
I don't work for "weekends at home" companies because I prefer to keep the wheels rolling and make money.
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I thought you were a retired hazmet driver based in Vegas. Didn't know you were still driving.

I know what you mean, especially with the advantage of greatly reduced traffic Sat. and Sun., not having to deal with as many big city rush hours. Seems to me those would be the gravy days. I avoid big metro rush hours during the week like the plague.

Chinatown · Apr 17, 2019

haulit6272 said: ↑

I thought you were a retired hazmet driver based in Vegas. Didn't know you were still driving.
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True, living the good life. I still keep up with what's going on though, so it feels like I'm still on the road.
I enjoy staying in the game; better than puttering around a little garden and wondering where my Aricept is.

D.Tibbitt · Apr 17, 2019

haulit6272 said: ↑

This mainly has to do with companies offering CDL training, or other 'team' driving requirements once you get your CDL, wherever it is you got it. And mainly for the newbie with no family left behind.

Once classroom training is over (no more free motel and meals), I'm starting to think that this profession, at least when starting out and not committed to one company long-term, is best entered by springing for a Motel 6 on days off, pitching a tent by the side of the road if it's not too cold, or turning over rocks to find a month-to-month apt. rental that's wasting lots of money when you're never there....but NOT owning a house/condo unless you left your family in it and took off for CDL class in another state with plans to deposit the checks in a major bank for their benefit until you see them again.

If a team company recruits based on promises of '3-4 weeks driving, followed by 3-4 days 'home time,'.... or if they say something else like 'home on the weekends,' what is the actual timing, locations, and logistics involved?

Should you count on 'home time' always being defined as the block of time from the minute you're parked at a terminal city until the minute you have to report back to it?

A few companies show all their terminals on their websites, but the vast majority do not. Are companies basing their home time promises, whatever they may be, on JUST their ability to get you to one of those cities for you to leave your truck there, such that if you 'live' somewhere besides a terminal city, you're screwed if there's any significant commute?

If yes, that 'home time' promises are going to be reduced by the amount of time it takes to get in your car at a terminal city and drive to your bricks and sticks home in whatever city, (or your RV, a Motel 6, or wherever you want to eat/sleep)? If so, wouldn't it be kinda important to know before you hire in what those terminal cities are, and get your REAL home (house) in order, (sold, rented, etc.) before you accept a class offering? Not everyone is leaving a wife and kids behind to watch after it.

When companies talk about 'getting you home' however often, what does that mean? What do they consider 'home' anyway? (Trucks don't normally get to be parked in your driveway, and I doubt they're going to pay your gas to drive off the beaten path to get to the 'home' where your mattress and frig are located.) All you know when you apply for the job are the states (or a shaded area on the map that can include partial states), that you must live in in order to even apply. That's NOT necessarily their service area. It appears they can operate in places FAR from where you must live in order to hire in. I know that's a story in itself, but I've never heard the story behind it.

For team driving, do both drivers get 'home time' at the same time, from the same location (whatever it is) or do companies mess with replacing one driver for home time, but not the other? Does a team driver drive solo if they aren't being given home time starting at the exact same moment from the exact same location as their partner? Does the truck sit somewhere idle until you both finish your home time and come back to the truck at the same time?

I don't see how a newbie can make a major domestic move/housing decision/commitment to sell their house, rent their house, leave it sitting vacant subject to vandalism, skip out on an apt. lease, or whatever, then hop on a Greyhound to train in another state for weeks on end, if they don't have answers to all these questions. Living in any neighborhood that's less than a gated community with armed guard and security system, or a huge condo where no thief can tell if you're home or not, leaves the property a sitting duck if no one else keeps a car in the drive with lights on 24/7 to at least look like someone is home. Not everyone pays for a security system and monitoring, and even if you do, you can't go check on it when they call and say there's been a breach in Florida and you're in Montana.

It seems like it would be easier to be a homeless person when CDL training starts, stay in a Motel 6 on your days off, and forego settling in on a particular city (i.e. buy a house or sign a lease) once you know where you're going to stay put for a few years, which only comes AFTER you've gotten the experience companies require before you can increase your options, like local, regional, days, nights, hazmat, OTR, manual, automatic, flatbed, auto, etc.

Companies don't really talk about this stuff and there's more to it than just 'come to our training class for X number of weeks, followed by team driving for X number of weeks' as if you have no life whatsoever and nothing needs to be planned. Deciding what to do with your abode and possessions, and then DOING it, before you even know if/when/where you'll be in two months or two years is a little daunting. Are we suppose to first liquidate all property or fulfill apt lease obligations, put furniture in storage, live out of our cars, then check email at Starbucks everyday until a company offers a Greyhound ticket? What happens to your car in the mean time? Will they give you money for gas instead of a bus ticket if you want to drive yourself and leave it at their training site? Where would they even mail the bus ticket to? Have it waiting for you at the bus station? Then once hired, if you plan to change jobs to something better, it's rinse and repeat. It just seems like a pain of the profession to pack up and go at precisely the moment that the new company is ready to have you behind their wheel, especially for that first job.

If you're thinking, "It's no different than any other job," I would say the difference is there are too many points along the way where if you don't make the cut, and get sent 'home' (wherever that is after selling the house that you've lived in for years and is totally paid off), you're now homeless and wishing you hadn't sold it. (i.e. failed the medical, failed the writtens, failed the driving tests, got slammed by your 'trainer,' etc.) In other professions, you get an offer letter, you know where you'll be living til the next job, and you call the Realtor to list the house, pack up the moving van or UHAUL, and go. You're in for sure.

If you're thinking, "Dude, you need to come up with 8-10K (or whatever it costs) and get your own training at home without moving, then the CDL is in your pocket and you can jump through the hoops much easier," you may be right. But I don't have $10K so my options are severely limited. And if they still have team driving requirements within THEIR company which must be SUCCESSFULLY met, even after you have CDL paper in your pocket, the same dilemma is in effect.

There's so much talk about how the newbie needs to 'get in their one year,' at which point a slew of opportunities magically open, the whole first job proposition seems like a temp job to where you should just divest yourself of all housing obligations and live out of the truck the whole time. By the time I add up motel costs on off days, which would be two AT MOST per week and maybe just one on average, I can't see it being as bad or much worse than property tax, utilities, a mortgage payment, yard work, insurance, gas expense commuting to your previous job, the risk of vandalism or an arsonist torching your home, etc. I may just sell the house and buy an RV and park it at Walmart since there seems to be one in every town. Do any truckers do that? If they do, I've never heard of it. I'm not talking about parking the truck and sleeping there, I'm talking about their own personal vehicle during their home time.
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Drive for 3 weeks get 3 days off. Most mega companies starting out give u 1 day off for every week out but they cap it on how many days of home time i can take.. Buy a house or don't buy an apt or don't.. Do whatever the hell u want... But ur better off living out of the truck and banking all the money I can save with that no rent payment.. After u get a good year of experience and if u want to go local then find a place u want to live and find a job... No need to make it so complicated , I think x1heavy has wrote some shorter posts and I never thought I would say that Lol

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