Night or Day?

You will drive both, it all depends on what time your appointments are.

 

as stated, as an OTR driver you WILL DRIVE when it's your time to drive. all hours are open to you once you have finished either your 10 hour break or your 34 hour reset...

if you were to find a job locally, say with an LTL carrier, then you could apply for what is commonly known as "line haul" which by and large, is a night time operation, although, it has been known that there are day time line haul runs, but those from what i have heard, go to the senior most drivers.

also as previously stated, you WILL HAVE appointment times you MUST adhere too. failure to do so will end up in you getting whacked big time (not Soprano's whacked) but whacked with a service failure on your record. get too many of those, and you can find getting another job difficult.

hang in there, do your job, never be late, in fact try to be "up to" 30 minutes early for ALL your appointments, and you will be the number 1 driver that they can DEPEND ON.....now THAT....goes a long way in this business...>!!

 

It's up to your trainer really,he will put you on whichever he wants. Night driving is less stressful due to less traffic,you just have to stay awake.

 

And to add most of all the trainers I've ever been paired with absolutely have no problems running me at night so they can get some good sleep in. By me being a flatbed driver I had the luxury of driving nights most of the time and usually being anywhere from a day early to a couple of hrs ahead of time and in position to get double stacked on loads. Not sure it's done on the vanside though. Best of luck and no matter which one you end up doing DRIVE SAFE!!!!

 

Don't forget your night vision goggles.

 

Trucking is a 24/7 job. However, when I get the chance to pick my time of day to drive, I prefer the daytime. Yes, there ismore traffic, DOT, and what have you. But, find it alot easier to see alot further down the road, read the streetsigns to get in and out of a customer, and so on. Other drivers prefer to run at night to avoid traffic, get in early, and because parking is easier to find during the day (typically). Find what your comfortable with, and go with it. Bear in mind that schedules can and will change without notice.

 

when i was solo MOST of the time i would get up at 0100 and start driving at 0200, do what i needed to do del/pu and be in the truckstop by 1600 for the night, shower eat a little tv and in bed by 1900. took a few weeks for my fm to understand how i like to run after me telling her "i can't make that pu because my 14 was over"

again it is a 24/7 job and you can't always drive when YOU want to