What's a day in the life of a local driver like?

I was a local driver most of my career, regional really. A typical day started at 1am to be to my 1st delivery by 4am. Usually worked my way through 10 stops, maybe by noon, if I was lucky, emptying out near a backhaul, and if all went well there, home by 3pm. Spend some quality time with the family, and be to bed by 6pm to be up at midnight. It was an awful schedule, many times, I wouldn't get to bed until 9pm. It was the only way I could have both worlds, ( family and trucking)and it ruined my life. I lost it all, home, family, truck because I was trying to do it all. Be advised. OTR drivers have an easier schedule, especially with the HOS today.

 

sounds on point

 

It's different for everybody, but your description pretty well describes my last local job. Much happier being OTR.

 

I run linehaul and this is what I did last night:

5pm - Wake up
6pm - Leave the house
6:20pm - Arrive at work. Grab my BOL, truck keys, sign out, pump DEF/Diesel, hook and do pre-trip.
7:30pm - Leave the terminal
11:30pm - Arrive at my destination, unhook/hook another pre-trip.
12:30am - Leave Terminal.
4:30am - Arrive at home terminal. Drop the trailer, return the truck keys with paperwork.
5:15am - Home.

 

Not all local stuff is a pedal run (many stops), for example, when I had my own truck, I pulled rail cans out of Chicago, again, leave the house BY midnight, run down to the Windy at night, deliver 1 can, pickup another, usually cross town, and get out out of town before traffic picked up, I had a sleeper, so catch a few z's after I got north of the chicken coop, deliver morning, pickup a backhaul for that night, and hopefully be home for a while. With the HOS today, I doubt I could run that schedule. Sometimes, I'd pick up a load, and take it right down to the rail yard ( open 24 hours),,,THAT got to be a long day and never did get home. A sleeper was imperative.

 

A linehaul like that, drop and hook, is probably the most predictable form of trucking there is. I did that for a while. The downside is it's INCREDIBLY boring

 

you forgot to do 2 posttrips...

 

Don't forget, the wagon you are picking up at 11:30pm has 2 flat tires nobody wrote up,,,

 

because someone didn't do a posttrip...