Assigned A Job While On Home Time

I was a dispatcher for 2 years.

Now I understand where you're coming from. Because it certainly didn't sound like it was coming from the perspective of someone who has put in 70 hours a week for 3 straight weeks without seeing their home or family one single time.

And I'm sort of surprised that it would be a problem. A lot of drivers would jump at the opportunity to be available to make more money.

When you're on the road 27 out of 30 days a month you're making money 27 out of 30 days a month. If I run 27 straight days I expect to be left alone for 3 or 4 days. That's not asking too much.

You can't just focus on making money every second of your life or you'll burn out and wind up in an institution. Even robots have to go down for maintenance at some point for God's sake.

Gnawing at the bone over an anomaly? It doesn't happen that often.

Greg, in five plus years of driving I have been asked twice to work during my time off. Considering I am on a Dedicated account with about 100 full time drivers during peak season, occasionally they can't find someone to take a scheduled load. But it's a rarity...

And I'm sort of surprised that it would be a problem. A lot of drivers would jump at the opportunity to be available to make more money.

When you're on the road 27 out of 30 days a month you're making money 27 out of 30 days a month. If I run 27 straight days I expect to be left alone for 3 or 4 days. That's not asking too much.

You can't just focus on making money every second of your life or you'll burn out and wind up in an institution. Even robots have to go down for maintenance at some point for God's sake.

Yeh, sorry, I thought about that after I'd written it and already sent it. Honestly, I believe we're both right.... it's one of those, I'd have to show you exactly where I'm coming from type deals. But, I can't emphasize more that it is total crap for a load to be put on you without your prior knowledge.

I've had some people more than a few times try to pull some pretty ranky crap with me throughout my driving career. It will make your head spin and say, ' what? '.

I'm an honest person (I mean, I don't try to get things over on someone else.), I expect no less from anyone else.

But, again, I get completely where you were coming from. It just sounded more like you were saying drivers are expendable.

Brett's point was more of; one driver who takes 2-3 days of home time after 30-45 days on the road is not going to be missed by any of the bigger companies. And he is totally right. They will figure out a way to keep things moving while an individual driver is away because they should have planned for it well in advance.

Greg...I'd like you to consider a different perspective on this, one of safety, productivity, and performance. Any seasoned Driver Manager (DM) or dispatcher , worth their weight in paper-clips, understands the overall value and importance of time-off. Their most important asset is their drivers and they need to enable the "recharge" when it's necessary. At least where I work, time-off is sacred, it's respected, and (like I already said) rarely "messed-with". For a top performing driver to keep their edge; balance is vitally important to prevent burn-out (and the stress that accompanies it), minimize momentary lapses of concentration and maintaining good health. Push a driver beyond reasonable limits (just to make a couple of extra bucks), and many of the basics required for top performance will degrade. Besides, top performing drivers are already making excellent money, and typically will not risk any of the aforementioned for a couple of extra bucks. It's not worth it in the long run.

You replied on another thread with some thoughts to Tim, a driver who decided to take a different career path, in part due to solitude and his inability to enjoy his life. You asked him to think about it more..."I think" he thought about it quite enough to know it wasn't for him. Much credit goes to him for understanding himself and taking corrective action. Something I'd like you to think about as you attempt re-entry into trucking; one of the best ways to manage the "one-ness" of this profession is to take full advantage of scheduled home-time or time-off. Compromising it, can compromise many of the basics required for safe and efficient operation, softening the edge required to perform at a top level. You ask anyone in here with proven experience, and they will basically echo my sentiments. Balance...when taken into consideration, is not always about the money. Bigger picture...

It probably won't change any of your guys' minds on the subject, but the particular load i was assigned I've done multiple times (it seems to be their go to job to get me out of the house), and usually pick up on Monday morning, stop at the Loves in Bridgeton MO, deliver at 1000 on tuesday. But that time out, I got home a day late so I took an extra day and came out on tuesday instead. A 34 has already been completed by the time I noticed I was assigned the load.

Personally, if I was given notice, I totally would have had no problem whatsoever picking up that load on Monday and parked at my usual park location and returned home until my wife took me to my truck on her way to work in the morning. Would've had slightly less stress on that day knowing i was already under the load and could leave as soon as I needed to.