Question for OTR drivers

The first company I drove for prided itself on switching you around. Someone said if it was done more than twice a month they're messing with the driver. I had it done to me 3-4 times a WEEK. It was rediculous. They would have you deliver a normal load, say at 7am. You slept all night and ready to turn and burn. You tell them you need a trip. You get a trip that is preloaded and will be ready at 10pm that night and will deliver at 6-7am. So they say "go drop your empty, take a 10hr break and be ready to run at 10pm." Um, you can't do that. You slept all night.

After about 2-3 years of that crap, I gave them back the truck and do NOT miss it.

 

I wont do grocery loads to warehouse, to many resstrictions.

 

There is a definite science to running down lonely dark highways all night and trying to stay awake. Humans are not naturally nocturnal. Circadian rhythms and all that...
I always say "God meant for humans to work during daylight hours and sleep through the night, and then man invented the light bulb."
I am a vampire driver myself, but it took a good year or so for me to fool my body and mind into backward thinking. I don't even get drowsy until about 10 AM. That's when my body thinks it's night time.
When I have to flip my schedule I am a complete zombie for about 24 hours. Then I can sleep at night(a few drinks also helps me to sleep.)
When I have to get back to working nights, I usually struggle through the last part of the 1st shift. Then I get back to normal(for me.)

 

I do all my loaded hours between 10 pm and 6am and the only driving I do during the day is empty to a morning pickup and then loaded to my best parking option afterwards, almost always before noon.
This is determined by me. And made easier by an employer who habitually edits the logs, even when it's not necessary or useful.
If I had to start with the herd at 7 or 8 am, take 15 minutes crawling out of the truck stop and into morning rush hour, wait 45 minutes to fuel somewhere during the day, crawl through evening rush hour to rejoin the herd after sundown, slowly stalking the last available parking spot at a truck stop, which is probably blocked by some j@ck@ss double or triple parked where he shouldn't be, I'd quit. One day of that would be too much. I don't know how or why you all endure it.