Profile For Driving Under Pressure

Thanks for all the advice and tips guys. It will definitely be a learning experience for me as well as an interesting adjustment period.

Just got hired on with Old Dominion as a line haul driver. Just waiting for my drug test to clear and receive a start date. So I was told that majority of linehaul/ road drivers run at night due to the miles that need to be covered. This is my first permanent night driving job, I've been driving 1 year and 1 month and I have, collectively, about a month's worth of night driving experience.

My question for the people who run at night, how do you keep yourself awake/alert? Throughout the entire night. Any time I'm driving during the day and happen to get sleepy I usually eat seeds, or play some music, or get out and stretch etc and it helps a little. I don't drink coffee that much and I don't drink energy drinks at all so I usually take around 3 straight caffeine pills (200mg each) and it gets me going but after 4 hours it starts wearing off. Also, how long did it take for your body to get used to sleeping during the day?

Any additional information would be appreciated

-Thanks

Thanks old school. And yes I've thought about me having to start over again and the process of how a newer company works. It's just I wish CRE paid more. I've had a lot to think about, I know a lot of people complain about not having a good experience with England so I'm glad that I'm one of the people who have it easy so far. I'd hate to give up what I've started with to go another company and have a bad experience just for a few extra bucks. So there's definitely thinking involved.

As for me buying out my contract it will be $2500 to buy it out. I have the money now but I'm holding on as there's still more things to consider rather than just jumping ship. But as I mentioned earlier it WOULD be nice to get more home time and get paid more. But I'll just see where the road takes me.

Thanks for the advice. And yes I know a bunch about CRE. As a team driver in Phase 2 you earn .14 cpm. If my teammate and I do 5,000mi a week that's $700. Like I was saying my experience with CRE has been really good so far so that's why I really wanted to stick it out to become a trainer or get on a dedicated or local route but even after you get the required experience to apply for the route/account you still have to abide by the wait list and the wait lists are crowded as hell, so is it with the Western Regional trainer route. I'm 21 and single so I have all the time I need so I planned on waiting until my 3 month mark and if there's nothing that's worth the process of me buying out my contract and switching over to another company then I'll just stay here and be patient

I started with CRE in October. I've had a good experience so far; clean hotels, good school, cool driver manager and a good trainer. I'm now in their Phase 2 which is team driving. I'm new to driving so I was going to stick it out with CRE for a year just to get my experience and fulfil my contract and then leave. However, I don't make much money a week, I'm averaging around $750 and the govt takes out about $165 of that for taxes. So I'm thinking of buying out my contract so I can leave to another company once I get my 3 or 6 month's experience. I'm looking for a company that has good local or regional routes and I'm not interested in company hopping so I'd like it to be a good place for long term employment. What can you guys tell me about Interstate, JB hunt, Covenant and Schneider? I've done a bunch of research on their sites but it's better to hear it from people who actually know about it. I live in California if that helps.