Home time when you don't live on a route or in a terminal city of your employer

I had a little bit of an advantage. I get income for my pension from the Navy.

 

I would think there would be lots of people who only want to drive part-time. Why not? Most industries have part-timers. They may be semi-retired, have a pension, just want to get out of the house, do it for vacation money, boat money, whatever. Or their spouse works too. The house and car are paid for, no kids, or kids are grown, and for whatever reason, they don't need it to pay all their bills.

 

Do most city's ordinances even allow you to park a cab anywhere on a residential property No and its getting worse every year

 

Or on the street.....

 

It's not a question of being "soft" or not. What it amounts to is being aware of your own limits as to what you're willing to put up with.

Living in the same area as your home terminal is certainly the easiest way to minimize the hassle of finding a place to park the truck on your time off. Having worked for several carriers, I have always maintained the same permanent domicile for licensing & tax purposes. Even so, there have been times where I wouldn't visit my "permanent domicile" for months at a time, finding it more convenient to take my off time in a "suites hotel" such as Extended Stay America.

BTW, "deadhead home" means that you're running home empty and no, you don't get paid for that. A standard rule of thumb for OTR trucking is that if the company isn't getting paid, you're not getting paid.

 

I'm surprised they'd let you drive it ANYWHERE they aren't getting paid, or WILL get paid with a load once you get there. Who's paying for deadhead gas? They do, as long as they've approved your deadhead status? Lemme guess, 'depending on the company,' you can live X miles away from the terminal, and they pay for the gas. That seems like a big perk. I presume they only do it to keep their home time schedule what they promised you, they don't have a terminal nearby, and/or another driver to take over the truck during your hometime.

If your city doesn't allow trucks to be parked on city streets or a residential property, there might be a yard where you could pay to park it once you get there. She's fortunate to be able to park in front of her house.

It just kinda surprised me when she said she deadheaded from GA or AL to FL, especially if she's nowhere near the FL panhandle. I don't see how they can afford to pay for that, without reasonable assurance of getting an expensive load out of FL, quickly, once her home time is up. And it doesn't sound like she lives in a major metro area where people get upset over trucks parked in front of houses.

 

A lot of ordinances do allow your work truck to be parked on your property but it has to be behind the front setback line.

 

Actually, the only reason they do it is because you've been a profitable link in their profit generating machine. If you're a pain in the butt, late for loads, drive your dispatcher crazy with stupid questions, etc., etc. you won't have to worry about deadheading home. They'll keep you on the road until they find you a "load through the house" and they won't be looking very hard.

 

Wow, you just answered another question I didn't know I had. So, there's never anything in writing, from any company, that any amount of home time is guaranteed. It's just a word of mouth promise that may or may not hold true for any amount of time.

 

Every company does it differently, current company I am with, 95% of the time I deliver to Walmart dc in Cheyenne, then deadhead to Greeley and drop empty clean trailer at jbs, then bobtail 200 miles home, then bobtail 200 miles back to Greeley at end of home time to grab a load and hit the road. I don't get paid for any of the bob tailing home or back, not complaining though because they are paying the fuel on it and hired me knowing where I lived and what kind of mileage it would be to get me home, and I am usually home every 4 weeks unless I stay out longer so can schedule home time around different events that would normally be on weeks I am driving