Family Riders/passengers

Getting ready to start driving school and have been wondering about being able to take your family on the road with you. Are you limited to having only one passenger at a time in your truck (being only 1 passenger seat with a seat belt) or can you have a second person in the sleeper awake or sleeping while you are driving?

I have heard about drivers taking their wives and child along with them on the road, just not sure what the rules are as far as DOT , or if its all about company policy. Not wanting to do anything illegal or to endanger anyone, just want to know what options there are and I have not found much information.

Some companies allow you to have a passenger as soon as you go solo, but not all won't. Some companies want you to be solo for a few months before they'll let you have a passenger on board. The maximum amount of passengers you can have is 1. You don't want anymore believe me. The truck is the size of a small walk in closet. It'll be way too cramped and inconvenient.

To get a rider policy which allows you to have a passenger you simply talk to the Driver Resources guy at a terminal or HR. the fee is usually 150$ on average. They will require you to fill out some information and they'll make a copy of your passengers photo ID.

DOT requires that if you have a passenger that the passenger is authorized to be there. If they ask, you have to be able to provide paperwork of your passenger policy. Having an unauthorized passenger on board is a tickets or offense and you'll get in deep trouble with your company. If you don't think a driver from your own company will rat you out then you're wrong. So just make sure that if you do bring a passenger that you also get the rider policy.

For the love of having a good childhood please don't take your children with you. Like I said before, the truck is a small walk in closet. Children need space they need to play and most importantly they need to socialize with other children. Your child will be stuck inside this truck not developing any social skills and being bored and lonely all the time. This life isn't the life for children. Send him to school instead. If you bring him I truly believe you're ruining his life.

I can't agree more with Daniel B about bringing kids along. I totally agree with his points and his view. But my opinion comes from another side.

I talked to an O/O a few years ago. He has/had 2 small kids at home. Along with his wife. One of the kids loved going with his dad the other didn't want to come at all.

This is a story the driver told me one day. They were driving in Maine on I-95. I think he said his son was maybe 8 years old.

Of course his son was in the second seat. They came upon a BAD car wreck. The driver said it couldn't have happened more than a couple of minutes before. The ambulances hadn't even arrived yet.

As they passed the wreck, there were 2 dead bodies and some body parts right beside the road. He said his son was terrified.

Eventually he had to be take to counseling. That was 2 years before and the son was still having nightmares.

It is bad enough an adult see something like that. I would not want my son to ever see something like that. I have seen it. Being a Paramedic for years.

It took me years to get a good nights sleep for all the horror I had seen on the road.

Please don't take young kids on the road. Too much can happen.

Keep it safe out there. Joe S

For the love of having a good childhood please don't take your children with you. Like I said before, the truck is a small walk in closet. Children need space they need to play and most importantly they need to socialize with other children. Your child will be stuck inside this truck not developing any social skills and being bored and lonely all the time. This life isn't the life for children. Send him to school instead. If you bring him I truly believe you're ruining his life.

Sounds like we are back onto the negative side of trucking again. Thanks for all of the insight. Was just a simple question about how to have riders in the truck with you, wasn't looking for a sermon on how going on a road trip in a truck will ruin your kids life. Geeze, what a load of b.s.

I can't agree more with Daniel B about bringing kids along. I totally agree with his points and his view. But my opinion comes from another side.

I talked to an O/O a few years ago. He has/had 2 small kids at home. Along with his wife. One of the kids loved going with his dad the other didn't want to come at all.

This is a story the driver told me one day. They were driving in Maine on I-95. I think he said his son was maybe 8 years old.

Of course his son was in the second seat. They came upon a BAD car wreck. The driver said it couldn't have happened more than a couple of minutes before. The ambulances hadn't even arrived yet.

As they passed the wreck, there were 2 dead bodies and some body parts right beside the road. He said his son was terrified.

Eventually he had to be take to counseling. That was 2 years before and the son was still having nightmares.

It is bad enough an adult see something like that. I would not want my son to ever see something like that. I have seen it. Being a Paramedic for years.

It took me years to get a good nights sleep for all the horror I had seen on the road.

Please don't take young kids on the road. Too much can happen.

Keep it safe out there. Joe S

Well here we have it guys (and ladies) taking your kids on a family trip is a major no-no according to the authorities here at Trucking Truth. You could be happily driving down the highway in your family car and all the sudden drive up on a accident where your kids might see something right out of a Hollywood horror movie. So cancel the family vacations, road trips, visits to the grandparents, and by all means Disneyland. Keep the little ones locked in the house where you can be sure no harm will come to them. Do you also propose keeping your kids home from school because there could be a school shooting?

I have been on road trips many times as a child and adult and never once seen anything like what your describing. Yes, im sure it happens how often? I really don't think thats a reason to have a NC-17 rating on the highway.

I started coming to this forum looking for positive information on a job that I was wanting to get involved with. I still want to do the job, but I think I have had my fill of the characters here. Brett thank you for training materials and all of the actual POSITIVE information here, but you can remove my account I'm done.

I wish you all the best of luck on the road and just hope that some of you can pull your heads out of your @$$ to actually see where your going.

I can't agree more with Daniel B about bringing kids along. I totally agree with his points and his view. But my opinion comes from another side.

I talked to an O/O a few years ago. He has/had 2 small kids at home. Along with his wife. One of the kids loved going with his dad the other didn't want to come at all.

This is a story the driver told me one day. They were driving in Maine on I-95. I think he said his son was maybe 8 years old.

Of course his son was in the second seat. They came upon a BAD car wreck. The driver said it couldn't have happened more than a couple of minutes before. The ambulances hadn't even arrived yet.

As they passed the wreck, there were 2 dead bodies and some body parts right beside the road. He said his son was terrified.

Eventually he had to be take to counseling. That was 2 years before and the son was still having nightmares.

It is bad enough an adult see something like that. I would not want my son to ever see something like that. I have seen it. Being a Paramedic for years.

It took me years to get a good nights sleep for all the horror I had seen on the road.

Please don't take young kids on the road. Too much can happen.

Keep it safe out there. Joe S

Well here we have it guys (and ladies) taking your kids on a family trip is a major no-no according to the authorities here at Trucking Truth. You could be happily driving down the highway in your family car and all the sudden drive up on a accident where your kids might see something right out of a Hollywood horror movie. So cancel the family vacations, road trips, visits to the grandparents, and by all means Disneyland. Keep the little ones locked in the house where you can be sure no harm will come to them. Do you also propose keeping your kids home from school because there could be a school shooting?

I have been on road trips many times as a child and adult and never once seen anything like what your describing. Yes, im sure it happens how often? I really don't think thats a reason to have a NC-17 rating on the highway.

I started coming to this forum looking for positive information on a job that I was wanting to get involved with. I still want to do the job, but I think I have had my fill of the characters here. Brett thank you for training materials and all of the actual POSITIVE information here, but you can remove my account I'm done.

I wish you all the best of luck on the road and just hope that some of you can pull your heads out of your @$$ to actually see where your going.

Hey buddy, you can take YOUR bad attitude and hit the road! The guys on this site, namely the two you have been so disrespectful to, gave you some good advice..don't like it? Great..don't take it, but to come back and tell people to pull their heads out of their @$$es is just rude. I guarantee you this..YOU won't make it in trucking with THAT kind of attitude..you'll be one of those guys that sits around the truckstops *****ing in whining about what a crap life truck driving is..We'll be able to spot you a mile away..

I sincerely apologize for sacrificing some sleep to answer your question last night. It's the truth, you shouldn't bring your kids. What do you remember mostly about childhood when you were growing up? I remember Legos, video games, hide and seek, climbing trees, going on slides and making sand castles on the lake. If you bring your child with you, what will they remember? What will be their memory when they are grown up.

In a way, you're right about not taking your kids to avoid seeing those fatal accidents. What are the odds that you'll stumble upon that kind of scene? But you have to think about the kid. What's best for him. I know you're lonely on the road but that doesn't mean you need to drag someone else in there also.

How long have you been living inside of a truck? You're completely blind to just how small the living space is.

And by the way, I remember Brett talking about why not to bring kids with you in trucking. So I'm pretty sure he agrees with me. Trucking is a great job but with every job there are downsides to it. I'm apologetic that I accidentally pointed a negative side of trucking to such a sensitive and fragile man such as yourself. I should have just handed you rainbows.

Thank you Roadkill.

Daniel and Roadkill, save your breath. People like him are not worth wasting your time and effort on. Just over look him. There will be plenty like him on the road we will all have to overlook.

Keep it safe out there. Joe S

Well, for what it's worth at this point, most companies do have an age limit on passengers. It's usually anywhere from 8-12 years old minimum but that varies wildly from company to company. Some companies also require that you get some experience before you're allowed to have passengers, some don't.

In the past I've mentioned not having kids living in the truck when people have asked about actually raising their children on the road and home schooling them. I don't think that's any sort of life for a kid to live full time, but God knows there are a lot of kids that have it worse than that. But I'm not against taking a kid on a trip. I've taken my mom on a trip before and I had driven around town with my niece and nephew when they were younger. So I think a family trip during the summer when school is out is no problem. Most companies will let you do that as long as the kid is old enough.

Also, never have anyone in the truck without written permission from your company. That's actually a law and you can get fined and lose your job for that. The passengers will have to be put on the company's insurance while they're with you and the company will actually give you a letter stating you have permission to have those passengers with you. So be careful about that.

Brett thank you for training materials and all of the actual POSITIVE information here, but you can remove my account I'm done.

Well, hopefully you understand people are just trying to help, that's all.

We'll now go back to our regularly scheduled programming

Trucking truth is a very informative site (Thank you Brett! Btw) I remember back before I became a driver I used this site to educate myself bcuz as we all know, "Knowledge is power". Never thought about actually joining until now, this thread disgust me to say the least. And since everybody has an opinion on bringing along your children and spouse and so on so forth, here goes mine!!!

My boys love coming along with me from time to time, they love telling all their friends about the experience, the States they've been, all the different things they've seen, ect. ect!! Their friends are always extremely excited to check out my rig in the front yard, they get to understand what "sacrifice" is, "Hard work" is, we get to "Bond" , and there is plenty of room inside my truck!!!! We got satellite radio, high speed internet, PlayStation 4, flat screen TV, refrigerator, and the list of f***ing goodies goes on and on and on!!! Unlike some and fortunately for myself, I keep running and running so it's not like we're just sitting "bored" and "lonely" inside a truck full of spite and depression, on the verge of suicide or committing homicide LIKE SOME DRIVERS OUT THERE, YOU KNOW, THE ONES WHO DONT MIND THEIR OWN BUSINESS, THEY CAN SEE YOU COMING FROM A MILE AWAY, THEYRE MISERY AND SELF PITTY ARE ALWAYS SEEKING TO DESTROY, THEY'RE PROBABLY FULL THROTTLE BEHIND YOU RIGHT NOW, OR MAYBE FINALLY SPEEDING UP (AFTER 5MILES @ 61MPH) NOW THAT YOU'VE DECIDED TO PASS THEM... EVERYBODY LIVES A DIFFERENT LIFE, EVERYBODY FEELS A DIFFERENT WAY, THE KEY TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY'S HAPPINESS IS TO NEVER WORRY ABOUT WHAT EVERYBODY THINKS, DO WHAT MAKES YOU ALL HAPPY!!!!! IT'S NOT ABOUT WHAT SOME DIRTY UNHAPPY JUDGMENTAL TRUCK DRIVER THINKS ABOUT YOU, ITS ALL ABOUT YOU AS A DRIVER YOURSELF ;)

I don't think DOT really cares about his many people are in a truck, just don't be overweight on your steers.. Cheers