Trucking Companies??

I live about 50 miles south of Columbus, OH. It seems a lot of companies have terminals there. Does that eqate to a better chance of home time if I drive for a company like Knight?

I think it does help with home time, specially if you are willing to park at the terminal and drive your personal vehicle to and from home vs depending on the company and dispatch to get you home. Plus you are responsible for the truck while it's parked away from the terminal while you are off.

I think it does help with home time, specially if you are willing to park at the terminal and drive your personal vehicle to and from home vs depending on the company and dispatch to get you home. Plus you are responsible for the truck while it's parked away from the terminal while you are off.

My wife works in Columbus so securing a ride from the terminal is not a problem

The scheduling at times may prevent that from happening,you may have to wait on her several hours or vise versa. Good idea though if you can make it work,anything to keep the overhead down always helps..

Pastor C,, Knight often has some dedicated and local type work out of their various terminals available to their more senior or experienced drivers. It would be worth looking into, but more than likely they are going to want you to work over the road for a few months before you can get in on one of those. They do have a lot of opportunities like that though, and the offerings are different at each terminal based on what they have available to them at the time. They actually seek out this type of work and consider it a niche market that they want to serve.

I would focus more on the job description than the location of terminals. If a place hires from your area and they say they can get you home every weekend then you can pretty much count on that. It doesn't matter if they have a terminal nearby or not. I drove for a few years on a couple of different regional accounts with US Xpress that had me home every weekend and my company didn't have a terminal or drop yard or anything in my home state. Heck, the closest thing they had was about six hours away in another state.

So don't pick a job because they have a terminal nearby and you're hoping that means more home time. Pick a job that gives you the home time you're looking for regardless of where their terminals are located.

One thing that we rarely mention is that trucking companies have a lot of problems getting drivers away from home when their home time is up. Suddenly on the day you're supposed to leave there's a family emergency or your truck won't start or you "thought" you had one more day off or your phone didn't ring properly - that kind of thing. They also run into a lot of problems with drivers stopping by the house on the way through with a load. So it's not uncommon for a company to purposely keep you away from your home if they can do so without interrupting the normal distribution of freight. I'm not saying they wake up each day with the explicit goal of keeping everyone far from home but if they can do it without disruption they will. So getting on with a company that has a terminal near your home may not help any at all.

Finally, one last thing to consider is that most drivers avoid the terminals like the plague. You tend to have a list of annoying procedures you have to go through when you're there (could be truck-related stuff, paperwork stuff, ongoing training, etc). They also tend to accumulate a lot of drivers waiting on loads so you might sit there more than you'd like without making any money. And you might think, "Oh that's fine. I'll just go home while I'm waiting" but of course as Murphy's Law suggests as soon as you start heading home your cell phone will ring and you'll have to turn back.

I personally used to avoid the terminals as much as possible. It was a gigantic pain in the neck most of the time.

I live about 50 miles south of Columbus, OH. It seems a lot of companies have terminals there. Does that eqate to a better chance of home time if I drive for a company like Knight?

I live 70 miles from my company's closest drop yard & >250 miles from my operating center/terminal. My company always gets me home. BUT, it would be easier for the company if I were closer. Like Brett said though, they recruited and hired me knowing where I live.

What is nice is if my truck needs maintenance requiring me to be out of it, we schedule it at a location (like Columbus) where I can visit with friends and it saves the company a hotel charge.

Good luck.

I would focus more on the job description than the location of terminals. If a place hires from your area and they say they can get you home every weekend then you can pretty much count on that. It doesn't matter if they have a terminal nearby or not. I drove for a few years on a couple of different regional accounts with US Xpress that had me home every weekend and my company didn't have a terminal or drop yard or anything in my home state. Heck, the closest thing they had was about six hours away in another state.

So don't pick a job because they have a terminal nearby and you're hoping that means more home time. Pick a job that gives you the home time you're looking for regardless of where their terminals are located.

One thing that we rarely mention is that trucking companies have a lot of problems getting drivers away from home when their home time is up. Suddenly on the day you're supposed to leave there's a family emergency or your truck won't start or you "thought" you had one more day off or your phone didn't ring properly - that kind of thing. They also run into a lot of problems with drivers stopping by the house on the way through with a load. So it's not uncommon for a company to purposely keep you away from your home if they can do so without interrupting the normal distribution of freight. I'm not saying they wake up each day with the explicit goal of keeping everyone far from home but if they can do it without disruption they will. So getting on with a company that has a terminal near your home may not help any at all.

Finally, one last thing to consider is that most drivers avoid the terminals like the plague. You tend to have a list of annoying procedures you have to go through when you're there (could be truck-related stuff, paperwork stuff, ongoing training, etc). They also tend to accumulate a lot of drivers waiting on loads so you might sit there more than you'd like without making any money. And you might think, "Oh that's fine. I'll just go home while I'm waiting" but of course as Murphy's Law suggests as soon as you start heading home your cell phone will ring and you'll have to turn back.

I personally used to avoid the terminals as much as possible. It was a gigantic pain in the neck most of the time.

I say the same thing... I hate the terminals... Its like they have tracter beams on you as you get close and then you get sucked in and stuck.... I have a terminal about a hour and a half from home and when its time for home time they act like its hard to get me there so it doesn't matter as long as they hire from your area....

Pastor, to answer your question, most companies have a different home time policies, even if you live on the area. If you are looking for something to get you home more often, look for local jobs. Be warned most local companies want 1-2 years OTR experience. Good luck with what ever you do!

Hey Pastor,

Just to add some info for your search. My wife and I are currently attending Napier truck driving school in Hamilton (just NW of Cincinnati). There are recruiters at the school every day from different companies - many I had not heard of in my research prior to going to school. So far a lot of these companies are "local" and by that I mean within 100 miles or so of here. They are hiring graduates of the school and a lot of the companies are touting that you get home on the weekends, and sometimes additionally more than that. I guess my point is that there are a lot of companies out there that might fit what you are looking for and be in your "area." However I would not have known about them unless I had attended this school. Look into local schools (private, community colleges, etc.) and see what their "job placement" arena is like - do they get a lot of recruiters through the school, what are their connections with trucking companies like, etc. If you would like to know about some of the companies we have heard presentations from, let me know. Also, remember that the recruiter's job is to get a body in a seat so you will need to do more specific research with a company that sounds like it might fit you from the first look. I hope this helped. Go Buckeyes! lol