Local guys, who works nights?

[TruckerChris]

I finally got and job and I'm so excited to get back into and truck and driving down the road, BUT I'll be working nights for awhile until I get bumped up to day or afternoon runs. To start, my hours are going to be from 6pm-6am.

I'm not worried about being tired, but just wondering what you guys do when you get off? Do you go right to bed and do your chores before you go to work or do you do it right when you get off? Any tips for a new night time shift driver would be great.

Chris

[Mr. Ford95]

I can't speak from experience but the time you get off, nothing is usually open at that hour. Better off doing whatever you need before you go on duty. My dad used to work "graveyard" shift as a mechanic for Southland. The only problem was not being awake when us kids were awake. We never saw one another but other than that, it was fine with him. You do the same stuff as if it were daytime only you do your errands before work usually.

[Colin]

Sounds like you got the job at Bettendorf. Cool.

I worked with a lot of their drivers up in Oregon on the night shift. They brought funny looking doubles up to the Weyerhauser sawmill in Cottage Grove. 5 axles total over 2 trailers instead of our 8 axle doubles!

My schedule was 5p-5a for almost 4 years by choice.

First day on:

If you're starting on Monday at 6pm, stay up late on Saturday and sleep for about 5-6 hours. Do your best not to nap on Sunday. Stay up all night on Sunday. Edit some photos. Surf the web. Go grocery shopping around 3 am to keep yourself awake. Get to bed Monday morning about 6 am and you should be able to sleep all day.

When you get home at 6 am, don't eat or drink coffee or soda with caffeine. I like to go to bed after a hot shower within about 2 hours of being off work. Get up around 3 hours before you're due in for work.

You would think that treating your night shift as a day shift (staying up until 10 pm, then sleeping until just before your shift starts) is a good idea. I never found this to be the case. The bulk of my free time was spent before work, not after. If the opposite works for you, do it.

Now when your week ends and it's a Saturday, try to get to bed as soon as you can and get up by noon to be a 'normal person' on the weekend. On Sunday, maybe a short nap so you can stay up overnight on Sunday and then repeat. If your days off are during the week, I would keep the same schedule. I hope you can get to dayshift soon. Night shift is not easy on your life.

[TruckerChris]

Sounds like you got the job at Bettendorf. Cool.

I worked with a lot of their drivers up in Oregon on the night shift. They brought funny looking doubles up to the Weyerhauser sawmill in Cottage Grove. 5 axles total over 2 trailers instead of our 8 axle doubles!

My schedule was 5p-5a for almost 4 years by choice.

First day on:

If you're starting on Monday at 6pm, stay up late on Saturday and sleep for about 5-6 hours. Do your best not to nap on Sunday. Stay up all night on Sunday. Edit some photos. Surf the web. Go grocery shopping around 3 am to keep yourself awake. Get to bed Monday morning about 6 am and you should be able to sleep all day.

When you get home at 6 am, don't eat or drink coffee or soda with caffeine. I like to go to bed after a hot shower within about 2 hours of being off work. Get up around 3 hours before you're due in for work.

You would think that treating your night shift as a day shift (staying up until 10 pm, then sleeping until just before your shift starts) is a good idea. I never found this to be the case. The bulk of my free time was spent before work, not after. If the opposite works for you, do it.

Now when your week ends and it's a Saturday, try to get to bed as soon as you can and get up by noon to be a 'normal person' on the weekend. On Sunday, maybe a short nap so you can stay up overnight on Sunday and then repeat. If your days off are during the week, I would keep the same schedule. I hope you can get to dayshift soon. Night shift is not easy on your life.

That's EXACTLY what I was looking for thanks man. I'm going to try that schedule. I still want to have a "normal" weekend when everyone else is off and it will be nice to go to a party and be able to stay up all night without passing out around 2!

I drove for the first time in a couple months today and was more nervous than I've ever been. My co-driver was pretty chill so I relaxed and drove down the road. I have to get used to driving a different truck with diffrent clutch... But I did it and he said I did a "helluva job". I hit the unloading back like I just quit driving yesterday. He was impressed... I'm so happy that I can go back to driving. Now all I need to do is find a portable XM player and I'll be set!

Photos to follow as soon as I get in the truck.

[Colin]

Be careful of the axles being all the way at the back. I never drove anything but rear placed axles for 7 years until I drove OTR. Just watch your off track!

[TruckerChris]

Yeah, thats something I'm going to have to get used too. I used to hate going to places like P&G's that make you slide your axels to the back before entering the facility. I always had my axels to the CA line or tucked all the way forward. Here in CA, bettendorfs trailers are 42' to 53 and most loads are right at 80k

[TCT]

The best tip I can give you is that you need to put up foil in your bedroom windows. At noon it will look like midnight in there which will be perfect, cuz the last thing you'll need is sun in your eyes when you're trying to sleep.

When I worked graveyard I would come home an unwind for and hour or two and then crash for a few hours, then I'd wake up and hang out with the family for a while, then I'd go back to sleep for 4-5 hours before I got up to get ready for work again. It sort of sucked splitting up my sleep, but a lot of guys do it so they can spend time with their families. It's not that bad, you'll get used to it.

Good luck.

[Jackrabbit379]

Working nights is cool, to me. I run nights. Before I got married, I used to come home, clean up, and get online on the forum, and read some threads, etc. Now being married, just after I shower, I find myself crashing as soon as my head hits the pillow. :shock:

[Dawn Kirshna]

Ok, i just quit a gig doing exactly this.

First of all, this is not a life----it is a survival. You'll see.


1) The first thing you want to do get your windows completely dark to the point where NO light gets in whatsoever; What i did was to go to Office depot and get the fiber presentation boards. This, along with duct tape pretty much did the trick. You could also use cardboard if you have enough of it. The main thing is to completely cover the windows so that absolutely no light gets in.

i then experimented with using timers to turn lights on a a pre-determined time. For example, i would get to sleep at around 5am and would sleep to about 12 or 1pm, so i would set the timer to turn lights on at around that time. You could also set the tv to come on at that time.

i wanted to experiement with a electro-mechanical shutter system like they use in the photography world which would let natural (outside) light in at a pre-determined time using the timer but i did not get around to doing it before i quit the wretched job. But you could try it.

2) When i got home, and by the way if you can get home before the sun comes up then that's a big plus, what i would do is get something to eat (hint:milk helps you fall asleep although be careful if you can't digest it to well like me) maybe a sandwich or something light; You don't nessesarily want to eat TOO heavily before going to bed.

Go to the bathroom.

And then get into bed as quickly as possible, but what i would do is turn the t.v. on but use the "sleep" function to turn off say an hour later; I found that the t.v. sort of helped me "decompress" and helped me fall asleep. I would usually fall asleep long before the t.v. turned off.

And, that's about it. In your case, you'll have to tell everyone to be quiet while you're sleeping----be serious about it.

3) It's messed up because what are you going to do on weekends? You're going to sleep, trust me.

Not trying to rain on your parade, but i don't think the gig will last. Not because it's a bad gig, but because of the hours. I'm living proof of this.

[glasman2]

Ok, i just quit a gig doing exactly this.

First of all, this is not a life----it is a survival. You'll see.


1) The first thing you want to do get your windows completely dark to the point where NO light gets in whatsoever; What i did was to go to Office depot and get the fiber presentation boards. This, along with duct tape pretty much did the trick. You could also use cardboard if you have enough of it. The main thing is to completely cover the windows so that absolutely no light gets in.

i then experimented with using timers to turn lights on a a pre-determined time. For example, i would get to sleep at around 5am and would sleep to about 12 or 1pm, so i would set the timer to turn lights on at around that time. You could also set the tv to come on at that time.

i wanted to experiement with a electro-mechanical shutter system like they use in the photography world which would let natural (outside) light in at a pre-determined time using the timer but i did not get around to doing it before i quit the wretched job. But you could try it.

2) When i got home, and by the way if you can get home before the sun comes up then that's a big plus, what i would do is get something to eat (hint:milk helps you fall asleep although be careful if you can't digest it to well like me) maybe a sandwich or something light; You don't nessesarily want to eat TOO heavily before going to bed.

Go to the bathroom.

And then get into bed as quickly as possible, but what i would do is turn the t.v. on but use the "sleep" function to turn off say an hour later; I found that the t.v. sort of helped me "decompress" and helped me fall asleep. I would usually fall asleep long before the t.v. turned off.

And, that's about it. In your case, you'll have to tell everyone to be quiet while you're sleeping----be serious about it.

3) It's messed up because what are you going to do on weekends? You're going to sleep, trust me.

Not trying to rain on your parade, but i don't think the gig will last. Not because it's a bad gig, but because of the hours. I'm living proof of this.

This would be LewisFriend? Sounds JUST like him.
Mod want to help out here?

[Rev.Vassago]

Yes - Dawn = Lewis = Chad = Colonel = Ron

[ben45750]

Not trying to rain on your parade, but i don't think the gig will last. Not because it's a bad gig, but because of the hours. I'm living proof of this.

Not to rain on YOUR parade, but working every night is cake to deal with. Try running the extra board.
You will run early mornings, afternoons, evenings and nights. Then to make it worse it changes everyday, 7 days a week.
10 hour breaks? whats that? Get to the terminal, clock out, takes you an hour to get to the hotel, take a shower, try to sleep, get your work call on your 8th hour, get a shower, spend an hour getting back to the terminal and your rolling again to another terminal and repeat process and hopefully you get a long run so you can take a nap.
We have drivers that have been running the extra board for 15+ years.

[Jackrabbit379]

Yes - Dawn = Lewis = Chad = Colonel = Ron

Yall are pretty quick on the draw. :P

[One]

I get home sat mornings and head bed pretty quick- maybe a quick chore in the yard or something exercise like, then I sleep for a few hours but no later than 3pm or 4pm. sat night I sleep like the civilized people do. Sun awake in daytime, go to bed in evening, get up early mon, chores, chiropractor, email and back to bed for a nap (usually 4-5 hrs). Driving that night im usually a little more tired than usual, but no biggie- Ill stop for a short nap if I feel like it. Thats how I do it. Ive tried the method of continuing the weeks rhythm on weekends, but thats no fun and you end up without much of a life being the only one up all night.

[TruckerChris]

Sounds like you got the job at Bettendorf. Cool.

I worked with a lot of their drivers up in Oregon on the night shift. They brought funny looking doubles up to the Weyerhauser sawmill in Cottage Grove. 5 axles total over 2 trailers instead of our 8 axle doubles!

My schedule was 5p-5a for almost 4 years by choice.

First day on:

If you're starting on Monday at 6pm, stay up late on Saturday and sleep for about 5-6 hours. Do your best not to nap on Sunday. Stay up all night on Sunday. Edit some photos. Surf the web. Go grocery shopping around 3 am to keep yourself awake. Get to bed Monday morning about 6 am and you should be able to sleep all day.

When you get home at 6 am, don't eat or drink coffee or soda with caffeine. I like to go to bed after a hot shower within about 2 hours of being off work. Get up around 3 hours before you're due in for work.

You would think that treating your night shift as a day shift (staying up until 10 pm, then sleeping until just before your shift starts) is a good idea. I never found this to be the case. The bulk of my free time was spent before work, not after. If the opposite works for you, do it.

Now when your week ends and it's a Saturday, try to get to bed as soon as you can and get up by noon to be a 'normal person' on the weekend. On Sunday, maybe a short nap so you can stay up overnight on Sunday and then repeat. If your days off are during the week, I would keep the same schedule. I hope you can get to dayshift soon. Night shift is not easy on your life.

I'll be putting your info to test starting tomorrow night... I start on monday. Man, I'm so ready to get back in a truck. I'm still torn on what I want to do at the moment. I have 10months experience so I may stick with this job for awhile or get a couple more months and go drive for Pride OTR... Who knows, right now I just want to DRIVE!

[Colin]

Good luck.

Chips is a fun freight. You get to run empty a lot of the time if the mills are far apart or there is not a load ready.

Contact me privately if you have any specific questions.

[TruckerChris]

Well, I stayed up until 7am and I just woke up. I have to be there @ 4:30 to turn in my paperwork and get situated with another driver that I'm riding with for the first week. I'll report back in the morning with how the first day went... I hate riding with someone when I'm driving. It's like taking the DMV driving test, very uncomfortable, but oh well, I can do it.

Chris

[CaliTrucker]

Good luck with the new gig Chris.

I know what you mean about riding with other people. Seems like every time someone is in the truck with me, i forget how to shift

Looking forward to the update, i was considering jumping ship lately, but now that I am getting more hours I am content for now. I'm curious to find out what the job is like and how they are to work for.

[TruckerChris]

I'm back from my first night. Basically, I think I'm going to really like this job! My co-driver sean, is a super cool guy so I felt totally comfortable driving with him. He's totally laid back and has been working there for 8 months. He says people come and go a lot due to the night schedule and stupid mistakes (more into that later).

We did just under 300 miles tonight and the 12hrs FLEW by. We hit up 3 chip yards and hauled Douglas fir green chips and a load of saw dust. It's amazing how these things dump their load. No forklifts or shovels here!

I have lots of things to learn, but by the last dump, I was doing it all. All I have to work on paperwork and remembering how each customer wants their paperwork completed and turned in.

We drove #131 Which is a peterbilt 377 built probably within the last 5 years. Real nice truck but it's small inside for my 6'8" tall body. Nothing like the legroom of the columbia I used to drive. I will get used to it, but I wish it had more space. Eaton 10spd, jakes, sliding 5th wheel, cb, long range cb, etc. Real nice truck.

I had a blast today, it's sort of overwhelming the precautions around the dump and loading area's but I'm figuring it all out.

All in all, I'm excited to go back to work tomorrow, well, later today I guess

I love driving.

[west_coaster]

Chris is haulin' chips!?!? Nice. I hauled chips at night for a while and it was damn fun. I pulled 40-20 A-Train doubles, which are a pain in the butt cause you have to break them down and hook back up like 5 times a night, but oh well. You're gonna like haulin' chips. Just be very careful when loading. It doesn't take much to jam the jaws on the chip bins and box out the trailer! Then it's diggin' time! One night I was waiting behind a newb who was loading and he pulled the wrong bin lever, dumped about 30,000 lbs. of chips on his catwalk and cab. Oops! Good luck man, and careful driving at night!!

West_Coaster