How the fleet manager calculates your days off....

..... seems to be a mystery. Lol I went into my fleet manager the other day and said how many days are you off this week. And he responded “Saturday and Sunday as usual, why?” I looked at him and said well we’re going to count Friday, since you go home at 4 PM as one of your days off so you should be back ready to work on Sunday and will go ahead and still count that as giving you two days off.

How the heck is it that they can count for truck drivers one of your days off on a day that you don’t finish up your delivery until about 6 PM? I just got done delivering, I’ve been out 43 days, which per company policy gives me FIVE days off. Ok? So tomorrow should be day one, correct? Well he scheduled me to be back and ready for duty at 7 AM this Wednesday morning. Even if you’re going by 24 hour increments to calculate a day off that’s still over 11 hours short. He explained it goes by 24 hours. I was mad so I said “well then you need to change it and I’ll be ready for duty this Wednesday at 6 PM“ of course there ain’t gonna be any loads heading out of here at 6 PM. He still refused to adjust it.

How does your company count and start your days off?

 

OK I’ve been on message board forums enough to know when someone’s poking to get a reaction out of me. Normally I just ignore posts look like yours but I’ll go ahead and respond this time. What part of I’ve been out 43 days straight didn’t you catch? Number one reason truck drivers quit? Is they get ripped off on their home time. It isn't about pay, it isn’t about respect, truck drivers quit because companies rip them off on their home time. And I’m asking not complaining. Well sometimes those go hand-in-hand.

 

I think it’s because it’s quite like a marriage. You try and make it work until you realize it just isn’t going to.

 

Well I knew what their days off policy was going in. And I found it to be fair. If you stay out for more than a month you get five days off which is pretty rare in over the road trucking. But it’s really not five days off as I’m finding out. It’s four! They can Try and twist it anyway they like but it’s not five days off it’s four! Four has always been four, one less than five and will always be four. You can’t change it to five.

 

No I’ve heard a few other drivers complaining about how they calculate your days off. Another driver who had been with the company for about seven years finally went in and told them, “look anytime I’m doing anything for the company past midnight, that day does not count as one of my days off” and he said they fixed it for him. But he said he hast to remind them all the time. LOL.

It’s not something I would quit over it’s just annoying. Five days off is pretty generous to be honest it feels like a mini vacation. I’m just gonna stay out right at 30 days from now on since I’m really only getting four days. Sometimes I’ll get an early morning delivery on that last day so then it does feel like a fifth day off.