No home, no job, worth it?

As a example of the florida thing..me and teammate picked up in l.a.going to Miami ...made on time delivery then got loadout..it originated in jacksonville fla ..350 deadhead miles for a load goin to Montgomery ..didnt seem worth it but like has been said Florida is dead when fruit isnt nseason

 

Life will also have to give you penicillin.

 

I'm 'homeless' now, and it more or less sucks, but I am putting money away to buy a home, FOR CASH, with an eye toward retirement. My car is in good shape, and paid for. I have some things in storage.
I do hit a motel sometimes when i am at my home terminal and off for a few days. I have done this before, and at one time when I lived in Florida it was my justification to have a boat I could spend a few days on when off.

You can save money if you want to. It's not always worth working balls to the wall, without taking days off, since some companies will see you making more money than others, and try to balance it out by cutting your miles....and in reality, the truck does need repairs and servicing, which may mean at least one day or more per month. You may as well get that done at your home terminal, when you are off, unless you get a big thrill out of hanging around the terminal and the drivers lounge.
My preference is to find a company that has a terminal near where I live that has a full service shop, and will actually fix the truck while do other things.
MOST OTR companies assign you to one truck. If they put another driver in the truck when you are off, it's called 'slip seating', and you generally want to avoid that, unless the company is paying very well or there are other benefits.
Since the truck doesn't make any money unless it is moving.....the company will also pressure you to work, and time off is more or less limited to what they can get away with.
Most companies track the revenue of each truck, (Not that you will see it or get a bonus). Somewhere they'll have some figure set that each truck needs to earn to break even, make a profit, etc.

 

We use my husbands sisters house as a home adress, we sorts stay their on off time, but also in the truck. We ended up with a couple extra home days ( not counted against us) before we got a load out, had to deadhead 164 miles from lakeland to lake city. Freight is sometimes harder to get out, but because we dont care if we get home its no big deal if we dont head their in the first place.

We sold everything, but not til after we knew this was what we wanted to do. Because I am with him ky husband doesn't mind being out. We had actually planned on hotels and a rental car as home time, but their is no terminal for Melton in Fl, so the truck has to fit in the hotel parking lot or somewhere safe.

I would hold pff on selling everything til you know if trucking is what you really want to do. Good luck and do your research on the company you want to work for.

 

I agree that you should not sell off everything until you have enough time in, (1 to 2 years, anyway,) that you KNOW this is what you want to do. You find yourself homeless, carless and possessionless and hating your lifestyle, then what. . .

Life is something that happens while you are working your way through it! Make time to enjoy it as you go along, or you are not going to have much to look back on.

 

I would proceed with baby steps. Don't sell off everything just yet because if you hate trucking, and there's a good chance you will, you will still have something to come home to. Once you have finished school and your time with a trainer give it a good three to four months out there to get used to it. Then make a decision as to whether or not you want to sell off all your belongings.

 

Of course you can park a car at your terminal. At a good company your truck is your truck. You can always sleep in it. I know a few drivers who don't have homes, they just take time off at friends and sleep in truck. We live with family, we're only home an average of 3.5 days a month, so it doesn't make sense for us to have rent. Don't sell everything. Your computer, Xbox, whatever is a life saver on the truck. Just look at the companies that pay for your school if you agree to work for them for a while.

 

a post office box at a ups store is a real address compared to a po box at the post office
covers you for all the above

 

Now your really confusing him, lol

 

Started driving school recently,,,,I leave just before 6am. Haven't had to be on the interstate that early in many years. It IS bad. Crowded. Aggressive. On my way home yesterday? I saw immediate taillights up ahead and thought it was a fresh accident. No! Some *moron* driving a beautiful sports car decided, I guess, that he he'd missed his exit on the interstate; had turned his car AROUND and started driving against the traffic! UNreal.

And I cannot tell you how many times when I pick up my child at the bus in the afternoon, how many people pass right on by the flashing red lights. It's scary anymore...