For the 4-6 weeks that you are out is it 7 days a week, pick up at point a drop at point b. Pickup at point b drop at point a with no day off?

 

I bet there's a few 34 hour resets taken in truck stop parking lots.

 

There is really no way to plan your time off and you don't really know when it will come. Sometimes I'll only run a few hours on a Monday. Sometimes I'll run a few on a Thursday...sometimes I won't run at all on a Saturday...but it's never predictable so there's really no way of planning it. I rarely ever use a 34 hour restart (maybe once every 6 weeks) and am usually working against my 70 hour clock.

Once you get out on the road you'll grow to hate a 34 hour restart because like someone just mentioned...it's not that fun to sit in a truck stop parking lot for 34 hours. When you're out here you want the wheels to be constantly rolling. The way I see it is if I'm not running, I'm not making money so there's no point to me sacrificing time away from family/friends to be out here. Make no mistake about it, this job/lifestyle is a sacrifice. You can make a good amount of money at it, but you are giving up a lot of social interaction. Right now I have one bill (my sprint aircard) for $60 a month and every other penny I make goes into a savings account so I can save for a down payment. Once I have 20k in the bank I'm buying a house and finding a job that will get me home weekends or every night. I've been on the road now for 2 years and there's not too much that's interesting about it anymore. Kudos to those guys who stay out on the road away from home for 10+ years...but I just don't think it's for me much longer.

The benefit of being an OTR driver is really making money. Cut down all your bills and just put all your money in the bank. Don't sit around and waste money in truck stops because then you're just wasting what you worked so hard for. Make no mistake, this is a hard job...and while you might run across a straight highway with no traffic for 5 days, you can be damn certain you're going to have to work for your money at some point and navigate your big rig through a heavily trafficked city with restricted routes and low bridges or jackknife your trailer into a tiny dock. That's when the money is earned. Sometimes will be great and some days will be horrible. You just gotta roll with it and keep your head up. But if you're getting into OTR trucking for the scenery and whatnot...you're probably making a mistake. There is some nice scenery no doubt, but there is also a lot of ugly scenery...like unloading at a grocery warehouse where no one speaks english on the outskirts of New York/Jersey.


In the 1.5+ years I've been on the road I've been able to pay off my CDL loan ($4500) and $4000 in credit card debt and now I have $10,000 in the bank. So in 1.5 years I've been able to put away about $20k. That's not too bad.

 

i've never had to take a 34. i've had a few 34's occur because i had no freight, but i've never -needed- the 34. you just have to let your hours come back on you log and drive within them.
hell, i kinda prefer bumping up against my 70. that way i can drive less for one day and take my time about it, and nobody can gripe.
i usually take a day like that to drive to someplace interesting enroute and shut down early so i can go to a restaurant, have a few adult beverages, find a mall, catch a movie, whatever.
there was one place, somewhere in tennessee, maybe cookeville, there was a few truck stops, some restaurants, a big outlet mall, and a bar in the restaurant. so i drove for like 2 hours, found this place, shut down early, and just unwound. maybe take a shower, clean the truck, whatever.
it's not all just sitting around twiddling your thumbs.

 

I want to thank everyone for their input on this. I have made a decision on what I am gonna do and this brings me to my next question which I will post about in the Trucking Schools section.

 

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workin 70 hours a week with no OT and living in the back of truck, I say that amount of cash saved is bad money.