Hours and schedule for a newbie?

Do not mention "I'm not a morning person" or "sleep disorder" or you will be forced to do an expensive sleep study, especially if you are overweight. As a company driver you have very very little control of your schedule. You will be expected to adjust your schedule to fit the appointment times you are given.

DO NOT SIGN UP FOR CDL SCHOOL until you have decided which company you want to work for.

 

In the beginning, expect some terrible schedules… it can get crazy especially if your Planners don’t have their act together.

After a few years of safe driving you will be able to have access to better quality carriers.

My current carrier is very good at matching loads to the drivers preferences (day time drivers vs night time driver, early morning drivers to late night drivers) but even then things go sideways.

As mentioned above you can have a bit of control over your schedule to keep certain hours but that’s no guarantee at all.

 

As a company driver I have a great deal of control over my loads.
Most of them have windows of time, so I can adjust things as needed.
Some of them are tight, maybe too tight on time for my liking. I can turn down most of those. (But not all of them.)

I've been out here 11 years and have been able to keep a pretty consistent schedule.
All this talk about shifting from day to night driving and back again... I don't do that.

 

Yup. There are some companies that do a good job of matching loads requirements to driver preferences.

 

Swift doesn't actually do that. The company is too big for that level of close interaction.
I get load offers from whichever planner is in my current area.

But we respond to the preplan with a macro 9.
We have 3 options.
1. Yes, I accept the load - which is obvious.
2. No. - That requires an acceptable reason for a flat refusal. One reason might be a home time request.
3. Counter offer - That option lets me counter the times in the preplan with times I like better.

That third option is the nice one. It lets me adjust the times more to my liking, and often times they will kick back a message saying that those time are fine and commit me to the load.
Often times the pplan is simply removed, soon to be followed with a different pplan.
I am never penalized for using that third option, and most times I get a load offer that I like much better.

The amount of control over how I run is one of the main reasons why I have stayed at Swift.

 

We can't just work day and night or anytime like in the past. People should be telling you about a 14 hour work day. If you start driving or get up to work at 7am. We can legally have stop and park for the night by 9pm. That's 14 hour, if you start at 9am you might need to work/ drive till 11pm.

The trucking companies setup your delivery and pickup times. It's your job to get their on time. You might have 8am delivery but are 45 miles away. So you start driving at 7am and you will have to park by 9pm to take 10 hours off at truck stop to sleep and shower and rest.

Some driving jobs like food service like Sysco they usually start at 3-4 am. If you do cross country OTR you might load at 8am in Los Angeles and then drive 4-5 days and have 8am delivery in Atlanta. You have more freedom of what time you drive because pick them. Just making sure you make it to delivery on time.

Don't do short overnight runs like K&B trucking does. That's their kinda thing and why the pay so much but basically you would want long haul cross country OTR trucking companies. Their average runs should be 1800 miles.

 

Neither do I. Although, if you pull reefer freight, it becomes much more likely.

 

Do you have sleep apnea?

 

There is a big notation in my profile with the company...
NO REEFER!

I do dry van only.