Do you truck drivers have time for a life? I am interested in the truck driving career but I do not want to work my life away. Life is short. This doesn't mean I want to be in my hometown every night. I am not wanting to squeeze out every inch of my life for another dollar. Is it possible to drive 8-9 hours per day and be home a day on the weekend or two?

They pay is decent for sure but if you are working more than that you are basically working two jobs making 20k each or less. So my question is, is there a company that would balance living and working out for truck drivers? The way I see it if you drive 8 - 9 hours a day the rest of the day you could relax from that day of work in your cab or take a walk to stretch. One day home a weekend you could visit family and friends, trucking would be bearable. After all one must have some time they are NOT working or what are you making money for?

 

Try LTL. Work 9 hours per day, home everynight and every weekend. Paid for everything you do - no more freebies. Top-rate is north of $22.00/hour at most LTL outfits and overtime after 8/40.

Forget irregular-route over-the-road truckdriving. It's a burn job.

 

You should look into a Class B CDL and apply for local delivery jobs. Lumber Companies come to mind. Bread deliveries, Ice Cream (like Swanson's), Garbage, Sewage, small flatbed steel for local heat treat shops, etc.

Class A is going to require you run a few years OTR first...in hopes of the "cake job" but your competition will be greater for those positions.

I know some people get into Class A opportunities locally from the start, but they generally have some close connection to the business.

Your best bet is in large Cities. You'll find more local jobs there.

Keep asking questions, and reading our topics.

 

Thank you for the information. That gives me some more things to research. I am happy to hear some trucking jobs are more like regular jobs than your life is the job. Money isn't the biggest issue for me. If I can feed myself and still have some life to myself, I am okay.

 

My husband has a Class B and drives a cement mixer. We're in the Northeast so as you can imagine it's not steady year round work. Although he is home every night and on weekends (he does work Saturdays during the summer), we can barely pay our bills. Last winter was horrible, he rarely went over 20 hours per week. This is why he's looking into the Class A, go OTR for a couple years, then try to find something local. We have small kids and I'm okay with him going OTR because I know it's something he'd love to do and hopefully paychecks will be more steady.

 

I too am okay with being on the road for a while. I am willing to put in some OTR time but I want it to be reasonable so I do not burn out before getting that valuable experience in.

I am curious to how much time do you have to yourselves driving all day out on the road? Do you drive 8-10hrs/day and have the rest of the time to unwind and do it again the next morning? Also anyone know of any big companies that allow two days off a week? Money isn't the big sell for me, my time is. That is my priority but to each his own.

I just don't think I could handle working 12 hours, sleeping 8 getting up doing it again and working 7 days a week. Is that picture I just painted just horrible rumors or is that the norm? Home or out on the road, if I have time after driving to unwind, I would be okay. I am a loner anyway and usually stick to myself. Working 8-10hrs/day and watching some movies or walking before I turned in would be okay with me.

Thank for the responses so far. This forum is really helping me learn alot about trucking before I make mistakes of choosing bad companies etc.

 

The big problem with having a 8-10 hour per day truck driving job is pickup/ delivery times. You may wait sometimes for hours to be loaded then you have to beat feet down the road to make the delivery on time. Very few pickup/ delivery are drop and hook so you spend a lot of time waiting.

Another factor for the new driver he/she normally gets the shorter runs where times don't allow much leeway. Plus as a new drivers you don't have the time management skills the older drivers have so you waste a lot of time.

About the only 8-10 hour day jobs are union jobs which are hard to come by.

One other factor is how tired driving is. It is not like going for a Sunday drive. When you finish driving about all you want to do is get something to eat. Do your paperwork. Go to bed. Start another day and do it all over again.

kc0iv

 

I bolded the part that scared me. :shock: If you are doing long hours such as the ones you mentioned above does it even out by getting more consecutive days off in a row? Say you do drive long days sleep/drive and that is about it, do you work for 4 days and off 3? or something like that? I am just curious, am wondering where your life fits in between working. Thanks for the info.

 

"work for 4 days and off 3" For a newb starting out OTR, figure out 27 to 30 days, home maybe 3 - 4. It's called paying your dues and doesn't include 34 hour resets while gone if time management skills are poor. BOL

 

I don't know if you meant to coming off sounding a little harsh but you make it sound more like some elite club rather than a job. I was only questioning how it worked because I never have been in the truck driving field and do not have a clue to hours and such. I mean in any other job, if you worked all day and just had time for sleep, you would only be working a 4 day work week or less. From what you just typed, it sounds like a very broken career field. Most jobs now days are more employee friendly, labor laws went in years ago to make it that way because big corporations were hurting the little people for a buck. If what you say is true and you seem to except it as fair, sounds like the trucking industry slipped through the cracks on those laws.

Working 27-30 days, home maybe 3-4 ..... do you mean doing this while working all day then sleeping .. waking up doing it again? If so truck drivers are working hours that went out almost before electricity was invented. I don't understand how everyone in this career could except this as the norm. That would not be a life, it would be working/sleeping and that is it. Then comes along your 3 days off where you probably couldn't even see straight.

Now, if you mean working 27-30 days, home 3-4 and working 8-9hrs a day .. that would be doable and fair. But if you just work and sleep .. that is very unhealthy mentally and physically.

You are scaring me away, but that might be a good thing. Best to know what I am getting into before I do. Hometime isn't as important to me as having some time off from driving all the time. I could do all day work and just sleep if I got 3-4 days off a week. I could also see doing 6 days a week working 8-9hrs a day and having some of the day parked where ever just unwinding. So far from what I understand these do not exist eh? I guess better to find out now than get locked into a job and feel like a slave with no time off. Thanks for your input.