Is it reasonable to ask for 6 weeks off?

Excellent advice.....

-- L

 

What do you want to get a degree in? Online classes are definitely more flexible than campus, but they still require time and attention. I can barely get in a netflix movie on my 10, but that's just me.

 

Do you want to truck? Or not? If you quit for 6 weeks I don't know if you will be able to get hired. Jb Hunt would probably be a good place to get 9. months at. Push you to a year.

 

I picked up a job earlier this year. Unfortunately most of the employees are college students. We Are Doomed. Anyway, most of their tests are online (even though they are IRL students). Some tests are "take & submit the test after this Thur at X am and before Fri at X am. Some of their tests seemed to be "on this day between X & X+2 am." I imagine ANY online school or course can readily tell you the testing schedule. Perhaps they can't tell you before the semester starts what days will be test days, but they will know the test schedule on whatever the test day will be. I'm thinking online college is just barely possible while trucking. Having gotten my degrees, I would only commit time and money toward a degree is that degree is required by an employer, not just a good luck piece you hope will do some good later. If ABC, Inc isn't absolutely requiring a degree and that degree isn't actively used in a particular job the degree is not worth it. I'll trade you my 3 degrees for a hot pizza. It's been almost worthless otherwise. I only worked in my field for 2 years, almost became homeless. My technical license was useful, but I could have gotten it without the college degrees. I probably should have. A degree is largely useless except in specific circumstances.

 

You need experience in order to get hired by another company, so your feelings towards a garbage starter company doesn’t really change things. If you’re confident that you can get hired by another company with 3 months experience then just quit and go on with your plan. If it were me and I wanted to focus on school I would find a “normal” job with “normal” hours on a “normal” schedule so that at night you’re not completely fried trying to do your schooling. Personally I wouldn’t want to try and do schooling with such an irregular schedule. By the time you park and shut down and shower and maybe eat something and then do your coursework it will be time to get out of bed and drive again.

 

From my perspective as a Director of Safety that is also in charge of hiring at a 250+ truck fleet, no it is not reasonable to ask for 6 weeks off when you are only 3 months into the job. When we hire a driver the breakeven point is about 3 months before they are productive enough and have produced enough revenue that we have covered the costs of hiring and onboarding them.

Given the industry standard for OTR drivers is 2 days off for 2 weeks out, and regional get 1.5 days per week, you would need to work for most of the year without coming home to bank the time off to take 6 straight weeks off, and even then, I am responsible to my shareholders for what is called a "seated tractor count", so having you on the books, even unpaid, for 6 weeks but not having you generate any miles is problematic. Some OTR fleets might give you a 3 week out 1 week off plan, but none I am aware of will give you a 6 week leave for anything other than a FMLA qualified event.

I would have a hard time justifying 6 weeks off for your reasons even if you had worked for me for a long time. Is there another way you can meet your goals of free schooling while still meeting a commitment to a trucking company? Maybe a driving job with a 4 day on 3 off schedule, Uber for half the time off then take a 34 to reset, because you can't work elsewhere without impacting your HOS (at least legally). This might slow down your 1,000 ride progress, but it would be fair to your other employer and allow you to make a decent income while also working towards college.

Sometimes it is about sacrifice and compromise to reach your goals.

 

Ha ha ha One word, “NO”, ha ha ha

 

I remember the days when guys got in to trucking because it was dream they had the first time they saw an old flat top 359 rolling through Wildwood, lit up like a Christmas tree in the early morning hours of any given day. This is all I could think about from the age of 7, been at it 21 years, times have changed and the passion has been gone for a while, but come to think of it I started losing the passion for this job when drivers started camping out in the middle lane, completing their online degrees in said middle lane, then semi retiring for 6 weeks at a time to drive Uber so they can pay for that middle lane degree. Sounds like something only the new breed of YouTube famous truck drivas’ could cook up. Good luck!