New Truck Driver Home Daily?

Keep in mind that "home daily" means your 10 hour break. So you have to park and if lucky have a truck stop near you. Need to wait for someone to get you to go back home...then eat shower and sleep. Included in that ten hours is the travel back to the truck.

Sounds like you'd get a ton of family time, doesn't it?

Keep in mind that "home daily" means your 10 hour break. So you have to park and if lucky have a truck stop near you. Need to wait for someone to get you to go back home...then eat shower and sleep. Included in that ten hours is the travel back to the truck.

Sounds like you'd get a ton of family time, doesn't it?

You have a misconception of home daily. I'm home daily with JB Hunt intermodal. My start time is 2 pm. I am required to run the truck for 10 hrs or 2 loads. I can run longer if I wish. It all depends how smoothly things are going for the day. I am on pace to make 62000 for this year

Most important thing is never take a position that you're not 100% sure that you can do . Just because someone else tells you you're ready doesn't necessarily mean that you are because a lot of times your best interest is not what they're looking out for . If you find a company willing to work with you lay all your cards on the table because your lack of experience something that they can work with as long as they know for sure what they're getting into. I have a large family being home as much as possible anyway has always been important to me and honestly most companies will push home time when they're advertising but when it really comes down to it Hometime is at the very bottom of the list for most companies because if you're at home you're not making the money or yourself . Welcome to the industry I wish you all the luck

Keep in mind that "home daily" means your 10 hour break. So you have to park and if lucky have a truck stop near you. Need to wait for someone to get you to go back home...then eat shower and sleep. Included in that ten hours is the travel back to the truck.

Sounds like you'd get a ton of family time, doesn't it?

Yes, you're operating under a couple assumptions, and depending on the job, they're misconceptions.

Local encompasses a wide variety of gigs. Outside of truckload gigs, you've got food service, waste management, fuel hauling, and LTL to name a few. A lot of these jobs operate on a set shift schedule. A lot of them have day cabs the driver returns back to the terminal , so having to find a truckstop to park at is not even part of the equation.

I can only speak for LTL with my experience. In linehaul , we have our set schedule runs, and we have our wild drivers or extraboard. The wild drivers might be expected to max out their 14, and some of them have to find a hotel - but that's bobtailing off-duty. Most hotels are close to the respective terminal so there's not a lot of down time.

Out of my home terminal, most of our bid runs are schedules that on average are 10 hour days. We have some that are 12 hour days. We have some that are less than 8 - the driver doesn't even need to take their 30 to complete their run on those short schedules.

For one bid, I decided to take it easy and I took one of those short, gravy runs. I wanted a 'vacation' and some extra family time. A single-turn meet and greet. Just under 450 miles a day. A Monday - Friday linehaul run that is 5 days a week, takes around 8 hours to complete, and has weekends off. I slept in my own bed, had 6 hours a day with my family at home before heading into work, and yes - that meant a ton of family time. I also grossed over $1400 every week on that short run, because it was a scheduled run so the miles never changed.

I went into detail to show exactly how some local gigs run. Granted, my little gravy run is not the norm for general local trucking jobs, but they aren't uncommon at LTL terminals for linehaul schedules. Like I said, at my terminal, most runs are 525 miles a day and take about 10.5 hours to run. On these runs drivers average over $80,000 a year and still go home every day and have some time with their families during the work week, not to mention having a real weekend off. Most careers I know that pay over 80k a year require the individual to work more than the standard 9-5.

The picture you painted applies to some of our long runs, most of which senior drivers gobble up. And that sacrifice of working a 12 hour run will give them 100k a year, and they'll still get to go home every day and have their weekends be a real weekend and not just a 34 hour reset at a truck stop.

The point is that there are many kinds of local jobs, and yes, some of them still pay well and get you home to have a normal family life.

I am in a Daycab, 9 1/2- 10 1/2 on the clock and a 20- 25 minute commute each way. Basicly 12 hours door to door daily. After training I will be running nights, 1600 - 0200 ish. My work week will be Sunday thru Thursday with Friday and Saturday off. After driving OTR , it's kinda like a vacation every week!

I'm home daily with JB Hunt intermodal. My start time is 2 pm. I am required to run the truck for 10 hrs or 2 loads. I can run longer if I wish. It all depends how smoothly things are going for the day. I am on pace to make 62000 for this year

Hey Shiva. Sounds like a good gig. Intermodal was on my list too when I was getting ready to graduate from trucking school. We've got a lot of intermodal in the Carlisle - Harrisburg PA area. Do you guys bid on schedules or are they just first come first serve? I realize you might not call them 'schedules,' but I'm referring to your shift / start times.

I'm home daily. I start around 4am and have my truck parked and paperwork completed by 1-2pm. I deliver milk, one truckload per day. I do 6-11 stops per day 26 pallets total. Trucks are Parked at the milk plant. No logs required. It's a sweet gig.

Wow! What company is this?

I'm home daily. I start around 4am and have my truck parked and paperwork completed by 1-2pm. I deliver milk, one truckload per day. I do 6-11 stops per day 26 pallets total. Trucks are Parked at the milk plant. No logs required. It's a sweet gig.

McMahon Dairy Service. It's a small family owned company. We are a contract carrier for Dean Foods. It's a lot of work cause we unload our own trailers. But it's much better then just driving all day in my opinion. How far are you from Huntley?

I'm home daily with JB Hunt intermodal. My start time is 2 pm. I am required to run the truck for 10 hrs or 2 loads. I can run longer if I wish. It all depends how smoothly things are going for the day. I am on pace to make 62000 for this year

Hey Shiva. Sounds like a good gig. Intermodal was on my list too when I was getting ready to graduate from trucking school. We've got a lot of intermodal in the Carlisle - Harrisburg PA area. Do you guys bid on schedules or are they just first come first serve? I realize you might not call them 'schedules,' but I'm referring to your shift / start times.

As far as schedules, I was asked if I wanted to start at 1200, 1400 or 1600. I chose 1400. There are earlier shifts but those shifts were the ones available when I went to local. If you want an earlier shift you go on a waiting list and when it becomes available you get it. However, I like my shift. I get paid by what's called activity pay and hub mile. Every thing we do, be it drop n hook or live load/unload, detention, rail delay, crosstowns, chassis moves, mt moves etc. we get paid for it. The rail is open 24/7 so there are always loads, so no sitting around spending money at a truck stop. Food is better too, healthier cuz you get to have home cooked meals and not so much junk