Showing up too early a problem often?

Well, your "condition" is unusual, it used to be, you showed up early, there was an excellent chance you could deliver and be on your way. Doesn't work that way today, and everything is strictly timed, your appointment time is one of them. You can pretty much throw all previous information to the wind, as trucking has probably the most unpredictable schedules, for a host of reasons. It's definitely not the same everyday, and therein lies your problem. Your "NEW" sleep disorder will be, not getting enough sleep, as you will need to fall asleep at the most inopportune times, noise being the biggest concern. I also highly doubt ANY prospective trucking company wants to hear about ANY sleep disorder. I think you may out of luck here.

 

It depends on your customer.

Some places allow you to show up early and get unloaded early.

Some places allow you to show up early and check in early, but you won't get in a dock til your appt time.

Some places have overnight parking/staging area for the truckers that arrive early or on time.

All that being said, you'll have to do your due diligence and check out the area around your customer. Maybe there's parking, maybe there isn't. Most grocery warehouses won't take you before your appointment but that doesn't necessarily mean that you can't park on the property.

 

Many large customers will not accept freight more than 30-60 minutes before the appointment time. Trucking and good sleep do not go together. You will learn to live with the inconsistent disrupted schedule of customers or change jobs or quit trucking. Reefer is the most disruptive to sleep kind of trucking.

I always you find the job that fits you BEFORE you go to CDL school. Being desperate or uncertain what other job you can do doesn't mean trucking will be a good job for you. Ther are vary different types of trucking so there is likely a schedule that will work for you. I would bet mega carrier reefer is not going to work for you. But, I don't know you and your situation.

 

Once you start your Hours of Service or HOS clock only certain things pause it. So you may start your HOS clock when you start driving, get to the customer and if you don't sit stationary at least 3 hours you HOS clock keeps running. Customers seem able to disrupt everyone's planning.

 

Check customer reviews on google maps and many I find have reviews stating whether or not customers have overnight parking at facility…

 

I would not want you on the road in a truck.

AND before you try to defend this idea, I know exactly what this is and how it all works. I am not commenting blindly.

Non-24 is a serious sleep disorder and you should not be able to pass the DOT physical because of the fatigue factor involved. The FMCSA and the US DoT both reconginze it as a serious sleep disorder and while there are workarounds, it is one thing that has been focused on for many years, just like Sleep Apnea. Many insurance companies will not insure you in a fleet if you have it, they want to limit the risk of an accident and what the payout would be if there is litigation. These self-insured companies still engage underwriters for large risks and they too see it as a problem.

It isn't as rare as people think, there are two types of people who have it and both have an unpredictability of falling asleep involved. Get into one accident where there is an injury or a fatality involved and your career is over with a possible lawsuit against everyone involved, there is no immunity even for the examiner at that point.

I am puzzled by this ...

Which makes no sense. You seem to have a misconception of how this all works, it isn't rush and hit the pavement hard, go go go, there are times when you are limited on how hard you can drive. Seeing your target company isn't the one where they are small enough to accommodate you, you won't find much time to run hard as an owner would.

You may show up early 10% to 15% of the time and that's it. Megas especially are time-managed companies, not load-managed companies, their load planners are not going to focus on short time runs for one driver.

 

On the other hand, you'll make a decent reefer driver for coast to coast runs. Most driving time is at night and that's why many drivers won't do reefers. Most reefer loads deliver in the wee hours of the morning. Whenever you arrive, check in at the gate. May be surprised how many times you can get unloaded early.
If the company can't unload early, you'll be told where to park and "We'll contact you if you can unload early."

 

n24 + 1st-year (rookie) driver + reefer duty (inconsistent sleep) = BIG TROUBLE

-- L

 

I pull reefer and i’d say 80% of my driving is during the day…not very much overnight driving.