Is it reasonable to ask for 6 weeks off?

Detention pay for van & reefer is the equivalent of tarp pay for flatbed. Almost everyone claims to pay it, but it's only sometimes seen. Gotta give customer 2 hours free waiting, then some customers are exempted, or detention pay requires signature from George Washington & Joseph Stalin before leaving facility.

 

Look for a trucking company that has a guaranteed minimum pay or a couple even pay by the hour. My company had me at $900 a week guaranteed minimum pay. They also paid by the hour for lots of extra stuff like detention after 1 hour at $20 per hour. The trucking company paid the detention pay themselves, even if they did not collect it from customer. They paid when truck was in shop for repairs. They paid $10 for a drop and hook. If load was live load they paid $20 for that. Plus detention after 1 hour.

They expect me to drive the 14 hour clock out and get up and go after 10 hour break. Most weeks I made more than the guaranteed minimum. Remember they don’t way to lose money or pay me some crazy rate per mile because of slow 5 days of work.

I was getting shorter and shorter trips and was usually racing the 14 hour clock to get home for my 2 days off. They even let me PC to get home if I was out of HOS at last delivery for the week to get home that night. But I never had to worry about getting anything less then $900 for working 5 days. $900 does not far anymore it seems.

 

In these times, it's entirely possible. So many companies are leaning towards experienced drivers. It isn't a new driver's market right now. If you quit, with 3 months experience, to do something else, it definitely could be possible. I think it's better to have a job lined up if you're going to quit so soon into your career. If it were me, I'd try to tough it out as much as possible in the industry, whether you stay with Western Express, or move to JB Hunt, or whichever company. At least get a year in before you try another endeavor. That way, if you change your mind and decide you're ready to truck again, you have enough time in to keep you options open. There was one guy on here that went to CR England, quit within 90 days, but didn't line up another job. He couldn't find any other company to hire him. To be fair, you being from Chicago will give you more options than him, because if I remember right, he was from the Bay Area in California. That situation popped in my head, because it's really hard to predict how companies will go about hiring drivers these days. 5 years ago, they were more tolerant of drivers doing whatever, or having situations etc. With low freight, not so much.

 

Really, 3 months and you want to take off 6 weeks working for a great company?

well, right now, and into the next year, it is an employers market.

what that means is outside of a leave of absence, you will have to quit and then find another job,

with 3 months of road time, you will end up with a worst company to work for.

because the good companies are not looking for marginal drivers, they can pick the good ones for a while.

 

If the OP lives in Chicago my company probably has a job for you. $900 or $1,000 week minimum guaranteed and $20 per hour for detention after 1 hour but you can’t take 6 week off and will be working 14 hours a day and get up can go after 10 hour off . Some loads have extra time. One week I had 22 hours on a 120 mile run. That week they paid me like $0.90 cpm because the low miles and guaranteed minimum pay kicked in. Easy money for me.