What Do Companies Mean By 'Home Time'?

If you look around, you can find any number of companies that are home weekends.

Well umm.....I think the poster who mentioned Greyhound was for DRIVING their buses...not being a passenger? lol

Oh... I thought you were asking why it sucks as in why it sucks to take it to orientation or something. My mistake. Well now you know of more travel options and the difference between them in my view haha.

I do NOT want to be away for so long. I do not want to break the bond with my kids by being an absent mother.

Please dont take this the wrong way... but i have read your posts and Prime really does not seem like the company for you. I LOVE PRime... but I'm going to be frank with you.... I left Sept 19th for Prime. I flew home from Florida on Nov 16 because my parent was hospitalized and needed surgery. (otherwise i would not have gotten home until Nov 26th). Prime had NO problem with me leaving at a moment's notice and did not even ask me for proof-- which is amazing cause my other job would have asked for a ton of documentation. I got back on the road on Nov 22 and hopped on a plane for home on Dec 23rd. My trainer did not run for the holidays, so i'm going back out tomorrow (jan 5th).

Basically when they say "one day for each week you are out" they mean "you work four weeks straight then can go home for four days". If you do not take that home time, you cannot lump 8 days together for 2 months out on the road. HOWEVER< if you are a lease op (which i dont recommend to anyone new-- including myself), then you can choose when to go home and for how long--- but... if the truck isnt running you arent making money and now have a $1300 per week truck payment. Plus insurance, tires, maintenance, fuel, etc

I read your posts about shower time, and I chuckled because there is no "shower in the morning" because the start of the day is different every day. You might pull into a shipper at 2am and sleep, then get woken up four hours later to pull into the dock, then after dealing with the paperwork, sleep for another two hours while they load you up. THEN you get on the road and start your drive time, trying to get to the receiver ASAP. If you're lucky, you have time to grab a shower on the road, sit down and eat and park it. Driving teams --- which I'm still doing after my initial permit learning period-- there is no "schedule" and no "shower time"... it's a matter of "we are between loads so let's shower and eat". We sat at one shipper for over TWENTY HOURS with only a port a pot because they had a window of 24 hours and my trainer always gets to appointments 3 hours early. in the TNT phase, we drive for 8 hours, sometimes not stopping at all, then take the 30 min break for food/restroom, and get moving again. Sometimes we stop long enough for fuel and a bathroom and that is it. With a team, the truck is ALWAYS moving... and you have to learn to sleep with the driver blowing the horn, yelling, playing the radio, hitting the bumps, and the onguard beeping constantly if you are in traffic.

Life on the road is a huge adjustment... it is unlike any job you have ever had. During the learner's permit period, it is much easier, cause you are basically driving as a solo. So when I was not driving, the truck was parked. I knew my 10 hour break started and could wash clothes take shower, go to the bathroom, eat, do whatever and know when we had to leave again. With the second part of the training, you are at the mercy of the trainer--- its their truck... so you eat, sleep, shower, restroom when they want to... not necessarily when you want to.

Now.. if i made this sound gloomy.. sorry... BUT... I LOVE the company.. its awesome. the people are great.. the dispatchers are great. the terminals are clean and available. Having freedom to be out in the open rather than in a stuffy office or a prison like building without windows is fantastic. Not "really" having a boss is incredible. I used to have a micro-managing boss who breathed down my neck. With Prime, you get messages telling you "be here at on this date/time". You confirm the load and go. When you get their, you message and that is it. When in the terminal , i go and say hi to the dispatcher who is a great guy. Prime has all sorts of holiday parties, halloween parties, gives free breakfast every friday, gave free thanksgiving to those on the road... they give incentive pays.... i have no complaints.

But.. it is a completely different way of life. Don't expect to be home for at least six weeks from the time to first get there. After that, your home time is dictated by your trainer until you get your own truck. after that, it is four weeks driving, then four days home.

Umm.....I don't think I ever talked about going to Prime. ;)

PS To clarify, I was only using Prime as an example with my first post. It's not a company I really looked into that much.

I think Rainy D's point was that it will be like that at almost any starter company. Roehl may be different, and I hope it is for your sake, but odds are you'll still be out longer than you would like, at least some of the time.

I'm going to ask a question RV, and I'm not trying to pry or be offensive in any way, but it's something I haven't been able to ascertain yet, and it's something which is very important to understand before starting this career:

Why exactly do you want to be a truck driver?

There are usually just a handful of answers given in response to this question, for example:

- "The money."

- "The adventure/seeing the country."

- "To provide a better future for my family."

I'm still not sure what your primary motivation is for coming into this industry.

And please don't take that as some kind of veiled insult or anything. I just really think it's important to nail that down in order for us to be able to provide you with the best possible guidance moving forward. Of course, maybe you've explained it in another thread and I missed it, but if that's the case, please just humor me here :)

I want to make a living wage, so I never again depend on a man to support me, and tell me that I don't have anything good to offer or bring on the table. I've been mostly a stay at home mom, taking care of everyone and a house. I was never good enough. I lost most of my self esteem, ending up believing that maybe I was indeed good for nothing. I went to school to become a massage therapist and after my divorce, I couldn't find it in me to give the little energy I had left (emotional/physical) to others, when I needed it for myself. I was running my own massage studio for the 3 years previous to that. Now I nanny and that doesn't bring enough.

I feel useless, lonely, and hopeless. I want to be independent and be able to say to someone who think otherwise "I DO have something to offer. I am independent, loving, caring, and I can hold my own". I no longer want to feel sad because I feel I'm not good enough for a man. I want to be enough, period.

I always liked to drive. I like seeing places. I love trucks. I don't like having a boss breathing over my shoulder, and I don't like working with a bunch of co workers who often talk crap about each other and hate their job. Money is nice, yes. But what I want, is to make decent money and maybe find happiness along the way while making that money. I want to be able to afford things for my girls.

*sigh* and now I got the tears rolling down my cheeks again. :(

I want to be helpful,that's just my nature. There are lots of companies with day cab jobs around here surely there are some up there. I don't think over the road is the best thingg for you right now if you have kids that need you at home . Don't give up you seem like a nice person

I want to be helpful,that's just my nature. There are lots of companies with day cab jobs around here surely there are some up there. I don't think over the road is the best thingg for you right now if you have kids that need you at home . Don't give up you seem like a nice person

I'm not looking for OTR....Regional, local. My oldest is 20 and moved to her own apartment but still come home many times a week. My youngest just turned 16 and I want to be there for her as much as possible, while I make an income.

First of all, let me dispel this idea in your head:

I've been mostly a stay at home mom, taking care of everyone and a house. I was never good enough. I lost most of my self esteem, ending up believing that maybe I was indeed good for nothing.

The notion that a "stay-at-home" mom is "good for nothing" is absolutely ludicrous.

Frankly, I believe that's just a myth propagated by the femiminst movement to make a woman feel like she is inadequate unless she assumes a traditionally male role in society... But that's another discussion for another time...

The point is, mothers who stay at home and raise children have arguably one of the most important (if not the most important) jobs in the world. And a man is absolutely blind and foolish if he doesn't understand that.

You raised 2 members of the next generation. You sacrificed so much of yourself to care for them and nurture them, to teach them and train them and make sure they would turn out to be productive members of society. And not only that, you ran the entire household too. That's like being the owner and manager of a small company, 24/7. It's no small task, and you should never feel inadequate, because you accomplished something truly great. So there's that.

Now having said that, since it seems money isn't your primary concern (you just want to make a "decent" wage), and clearly "being home as much as possible" is, then you're already looking in the right place as far as regional/local jobs. But you have to be willing to sacrifice one for the other. You can't get hung up on the pay if it seems low. You need to keep your eyes on your priorities and understand that your first job is probably going to be a steppingstone to something better.

I have more to say but no time, I'll finish up my thoughts later...