General Trucking Industry questions!

[MrToughLuck]

I do apologize if these questions have been answered before- if you can direct me to the right threads... I thank you in advance. 2nd I'd like to thank all of you that have helped me get through my issues with my DL's.. Happy to say I now have my CDL and am working locally w/ a great company BUT it's in my blood to become OTR for a few years. Goes back a few generations -- I've spent many summers w/ my old man OTR.

I have been following this board for quite some time and have gotten a lot of good advice. Even though I have many retired in my family, they have told me that trucking is not the same as it was even 10 yrs ago so talk to some people that are in the field now.

1st question I have is; How easy is it with 'most' companies (big 5) to change your home location? and, How often do most allow you to change your home location?

2nd question: During the training period w/ 'most' companies what is an average 'OTR' budget for the wk? (meaning how much do most of you spend wkly OTR)


I have a ton of others but I will leave it as it is for now. Knowing from the former support of this board I know I will get them all answered.

THANK YOU ALL FOR THE IMPORTANT WORK YOU DO!!!

[Uturn2001]

1st question I have is; How easy is it with 'most' companies (big 5) to change your home location? and, How often do most allow you to change your home location?

I am not real sure what you are asking here.

If you are asking how many times you can move as in relocate your physical home address, the answer is as many times as you want so long as you stay in their hiring area. You may have to change trucks if you move into an area that requires you to change which terminal you are dispatched from as some companies assign trucks to certain terminals.

If you are asking how many times you can change what terminal you are based out of the answer is that depends. With many companies it may not be possible unless you move. A lot of the time, which terminal you are based and dispatched from depends on where you live.

Some companies do have a time limit of how long you much be with the company or assigned to a certain terminal before you can be reassigned. I have seen this range from 60 days to 6 months.

If neither one of those scenarios answer your question please clarify.

2nd question: During the training period w/ 'most' companies what is an average 'OTR' budget for the wk? (meaning how much do most of you spend wkly OTR)

Your single biggest expense is going to be food. I suggest budgeting $25 a day for this during training. Figure 2 meals per day at $10 each and $5.00 for snacks/drinks through out the day. You also may want to figure in another $30 per week for incidental expenses such as having to pay out of pocket for a shower. While truck stops offer free showers with the purchase of 50-75 gallons of fuel, some companies rarely fuel at a truck stop and your load schedule may result in not having time to use the terminal shower facilities.

[Rawlco]

1st question I have is; How easy is it with 'most' companies (big 5) to change your home location? and, How often do most allow you to change your home location?

I think it depends on the company. With TMC you can request your "weekend hometime" anywhere within reason, so if instead of going home you want to visit relatives in another state then a simple phone call to your FM monday morning will change where you are tagged for the weekend. Now you may not always get there, especially if you are in California on Monday, and expect to be in Maine on Friday, you'll have to think about some rocket boosters, because that many miles aren't feasible.