work hours per week
 

I am thinking about taking the truck driving course at Lansing Community College in Michigan but am still not sure if the OTR trucking life will agree with me. One of my concerns is long hours.

I know about the 9, 14 and 70 hour rules. But how many hours could I expect to work in a given week?

Another concern of mine is getting fired for one mistake such as a preventable accident, or even an unpreventable one. Just how understanding are companies when new drivers screw up?

Not very. Theres always another driver in line. Depends on how reliable youve been and overall what kind of driver you are. Moral of the story is dont get in a preventable accident, if your a PROFESSIONAL driver this should be easily done.

When the economy was strong, I occasionally bumped against the 70-hour/8-day limit. That was before the 34-hour restart rule. Team drivers also ran out of hours in those days. Running irregular route OTR, off duty time is often spent in truck-stops or at shippers'. It is almost like being on duty. There is no place like home, but you won't be there.

Re: work hours per week
 

Please enlighten me on the 9-hr rule. Did Congress/DOT pass a new rule today? :o (I believe you mean 10 instead of 9). 8) :)

A better question regarding the expectation of hours-in-a-week might be: "How many hours does my fleet manager want me to work this week?" :P :lol:

Re: work hours per week
 

Oops. I meant to say 11 hour rule. Wishful thinking maybe.

Re: work hours per week
 

Yeah -- I meant 11-hours as well. Need...rest! Guess my brain was thinking about getting 10-hours of relax time! :lol:

How many hours can you expect to work in a week? Only 70. It says so right there in the book. No more than 70. Right fellas?

I average 124 hours a week in the company truck. Paid for 40.

That is all you need to know right there.

I work 45 hours per week, 5 of which is overtime paid at 1.5 times my base hourly rate. That's $1,100/week on the gross and home everynight and off every weekend/holiday.

When I was OTR, I logged 70 hours but easily put in more than 80 hours per week. If counting time spent in the truck, then way over 100 hours for sure.

So I was making less money working double the hours. That's why OTR is such a blatant ripoff and is best to be avoided if at all possible.