Home time without having a 'home'?

Not sure. You should give em a buzz tomorrow and ask them. I'm sure they have answers for that because they primarily deal with truckers.

 

I just don't want to change my driver's license, Hazmat, vehicle registration, insurance....

 

I understand that, but if you are an O/O, it wouldn't matter where you have that stuff, including the insurance, as long as it's affordable. If you are living on the road, what difference would it make? It's a permanent move, so you'd pay for it once and be done. When the time comes, you'd go to TN and pay for your Hazmat and registration there.

 

Hi, Ursus,

You are correct in that this site has a great deal of information, and there are many perspectives to consider.

What you are considering doing with respect to not having a home can be a double-edged sword. We are right now what you are considering doing. My wife and I have been "houseless" for over a year. After our landlord decided to raise the rent and my subsequent pay increase went out the window due to that, we stuck with it for a few more months. We were able to meet our obligations but not save any additional money from the paycheck. Major big time BUMMER! We decided the home had to go and were in agreement with doing that.

We put everything in two units, one climate controlled, the other non-climate controlled. With what we were paying in rent for one year, our storage bill will cover for 4 years. That's something you may want to consider.

Concerning getting a PO box, we got a box at our local UPS Store. It works well for us because they accept ALL packages; that's not true for a PO box. You won't be able to get FedEx, DHL, UPS or whatever other package companies there are. For me, it's worth the extra cost to have 24 hour access to a facility that accepts everything. This is an option that you must seriously consider.

There is something to be said for having a place that you can all "home." For me it's having a church that I can attend when I have home time, and a place where I can come to pick up mail and sort through the junk that comes. It's also someplace where you can kick up your heels and come and go as you please. Just because you don't have a home doesn't mean that the bills automatically disappear. You may be very politically involved, as we were. If you don't have a home, you can pretty much forget about the right to vote, because you no longer have an actual physical residence. Consider that trade-off. There are probably other areas that bear deep thought that you will want to keep in mind.

Hotel rooms can get very boring and sterile, not to mention expensive. We know, because we've done it several times over the last year. Consider also about how family members may feel when you come onto their turf when you have time off. They may come to resent you always being there and question you about having your own home and why you're not there instead. My sisters thought I was crazy when we lost the house, but they understood. We have an open door with them, but we choose not to abuse that right.

Others are also sharing their concern with the CDL and HZ endorsement and the complexities that come with our occupation. Remember, you more than likely cannot have a PO box address on you CDL. I know it's true here where we "live." Your DMV will more than likely want an actual 911 address. We use an address where our car is parked and we've never had any problems. That's also another consideration when it comes to auto insurance and the annual property tax bill that you might have. They will want an address where your car is parked and a PO box won't cut it with them.

There is a great deal of freedom in just not having a home. As I have said to others when it comes to being "houseless" or "homeless", no matter where I go, there I am! I can park wherever I choose, be it at the company terminal, with friends, family, or whomever. I don't have to wonder when I'll be getting home because it doesn't necessarily have to matter. My wife and I have Internet access through our broadband connection, so as long as I have access, I can get our bills paid and download financial transactions with our various accounts. A great deal has changed since we started driving in the early 90s and Internet access is a wonderful part of our lives. That may also be an option for you to consider. Obviously because you have posted to this board, you have access of some sort, so that is a very good thing to have.

However, now I'm looking again at having a place when I come in for time off. We are in a transition phase right now with my job and my wife and I have a decision to make relatively soon. I'm not getting any younger and it seems that a heart for home is starting to tug again at my own heart. We haven't decided yet what to do but we have started looking at something here in our area what could meet our needs. It's a big step take and one which we don't consider lightly. I would encourage you with respect to where we are now and with the decision you will eventually be making.

I believe that I've seen others post that you probably won't be home very much. That is quite true. When you are employed as a professional driver, you need to be out on the road to get those miles needed to meet your obligations. There may be the choice to consider what is affordable for you, how much equity you have in your home (if you are a homeowner) and what are your chances in selling soon, especially considering the current housing market and economy.

If you rent, how much time do you have left on the lease agreement? Perhaps you have a written agreement with the landlord that you can give "X" amount of written or verbal notice.

I truly understand where you are coming from and there is much to consider. As I type this post, we are with friends and will be here for probably 2-2.5 weeks total. Of course we will pay them and have already given them money for their generous hospitality. We are grateful for friends like this!

You don't need to be in a rush to make a decision. If you would like to email me, please send an emai to truckdriversmoneysavingtipsat gmail dot com and I can refer you to several pages that will help lend some perspective to your impending decision.

All the best in your decision, and I hope to hear from you soon!

Best regards,
Mike

 

Hi, again, Ursus.

You're certainly welcome, as that's why we're here: to help one another.

Regarding the UPS box, it's good for using as an address on your CDL. You could reasonably just use the actual street address and leave off the actual box number. Your DMV may think it's a PO box. You NEED to stress that "No, this isn't a PO box!" They may want to say "Well, is it an apartment?" Once again, "No, it's not that either!"

Regarding how long they keep mail, you may be faced with storage charges for packages over a certain number of days. 5 days seems to be the rule for my store, but because I know the owner, it would probably be waived. If you have 6-8 weeks of mail that can fit in the box, that's not a problem at all. Much depends on how much junk mail you get! If you are used to handling finances over the Internet, consider going paperless and that can cut down on the number of bank and credit card statements you'll receive. The UPS store in my town has three different sizes, so we went with the middle sized one. It has worked well for us.

I've had my share of fun with people and their computer systems that want to recognize an apartment number, but it's not. Some forms you may use will probably have a second address line. You can definitely use that to your advantage. Picture it something like this with the following address:

100 Westgate Drive # 999

Address 1: 100 Main Street
Address 2: #999 (or NBR 999)

You might even be able to get the entire address on one line. That's what I try frequently to do.

Insurance can be a little more tricky. If you decide to keep a car, company terminals (in general) allow for cars to be parked long-term. After all, that's why they're there and why they have parking. Our first two companies kept our car in their parking lot for a month at a time. I really don't see why you couldn't do that yourself, and for even a longer period of time. It may be helpful to ask drivers that work at their company what they tend to do. You will probably find that this is the case.

Considering that situation, your insurance company will probably ask, "Where will you be parking the car?" If your company grants permission (and again, why they wouldn't would be completely beyond me), then you could give the address at the terminal where you will be domiciled. You may want to ask your insurance company to run a quote based on a couple of addresses so you can get a good rate.

As it relates to voting, if you don't have an actual house where you actually live, you can probably forget about voting. Poll workers and managers are trained to ask certain questions like "Is this the address where you live?" If you have an address at the UPS Store, of course you don't actually live there in the box! There are a wide range of problems that can ensue and your ballot can be challenged. That's not something you want to have happen, so again, there's much to consider about getting rid of the house.

About selling your car, I would encourage you to think twice about doing that. Rental cars are EXPENSIVE! That's true even if you use something like Expedia.

My wife and I would love to talk privately with you and refer you to some of our pages. Look at my link, then click on the "About Me" tab. That page has some helpful information and a website you can take a look at.

Gotta run for now! Hope this helps!

Best regards,

Mike

 

I would think single people could save a lot of money without having apartments/homes and all the other bills that go with it.. Thats If you have family or another place to stay on your home time/days off..It sounds like truckers are home 3-4 days every month to 6 weeks anyway.

 

My method of doing it is a little differnt but it works for me. Doesnt mean it will work for you though.

I have a brother who is single and no children. I rented a house in my name where I was able to put all of my stuff and happened to have enough parking for my truck and trailer when I did come home. I moved my brother into the house (he is going to college right now) charged him a small amount of rent, left him responsible for the utilities. He keeps the house clean, maintains the yard and can basically do whatever he wants there while I am on the road.
I reserved on bedroom for myself, on which I put a lock on the door.

I do this because while it true I am not home very often or for very long there may come a point where I find myself between jobs or am looking for a new career. Staying in the truck during those type of periods would of course not be an option and trying to scramble to figure out where I am going to live for that period of time would be far to great of a hassle for me.

Like I said, it works for me, maybe not for you or anyone else on these boards, but taking into account possible future circumstance this way seemed to make the most sense to me.

 

Great thread. Pretty much echoes my plans for the next couple of years. I've been in some pretty miserable conditions and places at sometime in my life during my years in the military, so, however austere the conditions, it sure beats my former experience, plus, being w/o a home for awhile is definitely a revenue saver.

My rent, cable, electric, water, sewer, garbage all add up to around almost 1000.00 monthly. Figure if I need a reset, it's a fraction of this, same with down time for a couple of days out of the month in a decent hotel. Truckers Base seems to have fizzled out with their website now out of commission and the last entry on FB was August of last year. I'd be curious to know what happened as it seemed like a good idea on paper.

Just wanted to thank zincman for some pretty informative advice, for both the things you think about and the things you NEED to be thinking about.

 

Selling stuff stinks! I did that before I went into trucking, so much of the stuff I sold I regretted. i broke with ex. girlfriend moved all my stuff into storage. Left her my apartment she had good job. I had lots of stuff, figured I would sell most of it. I am moving away a long way away from her, never ever come back to same state she lives in ets.. Never need any of it. I miss all of it. I mean all of it. I sold my friggen car, figured I wouldnt need that eather. As soon as my car sold, lived in motel for half week till time to board buss to CRE school in mira loma. Sent family keys to storage few months later and told them 50/50 on everything if they would clean out shed and sell everything of value and donate rest.

I had lots of really really nice stuff, I miss it all, I miss my car big screen everything, I miss it all. Worked my friggen ace off hard as hell for everything then poof its gone, one of my biggest regrets!

Dont sell your stuff! You will regret it!