Taking The Truck Home. A Blessing Or A Curse.

I have read and seen all the advertisements from the major carriers promoting all they have to offer. Chief among them is the fact that you can take your truck home for your days off. Well that maybe an incitement for those of you living in a rural setting with ample grounds, but for those of us in the suburbs its become a bit of a challenge.

I made about half a dozen phone calls and no one will allow a tractor trailer to be parked on their property for any reason other than loading and unloading. So it looks like my decision will be based on the distance to my residence and not who has the most to offer. This sucks.

Vlad, it sounds like you've already done your research and know what you are up against, but surely you still have some other options. How close is the nearest truck stop to your home? I've seen people get very creative when in your situation. I know you said you already called a half a dozen places, but surely you can come up with something. Think about contractors in your area that might have a yard where they park their work trucks and see if they would be willing to let you park there while you are home. Sometimes a Wal-Mart will be willing to let you park there - not all of them do this, but I've found a lot of them that will allow me to park there when I'm on the road. Years ago I had some trucks that I had to park somewhere every night, but used them in the day and a local electrical contractor allowed me to park them in his yard at no charge.

Keep your eyes open for any trucks you see parked around there where you live sometimes. You just might spot where some other driver in your area is parking his truck. Even if you have to park at a truck stop that is twenty five miles away it might be acceptable if you had a good friend or family member, or girl friend, or whatever that would be willing to give you a ride to the house and then a few days later back to the truck. These are just suggestions, and you may have already considered most of them, but most drivers eventually get this worked out some way or another.

Vlad,

Old School has some good suggestions. While I live in a rural area and have the land to park a truck, it isn't practical because of the traffic and blind hills. So I park my truck about 10 miles away in a small town that rents truck space for a nominal fee. I have also passed truck parking areas in larger cities that are rented out. If there is a will, there is a way.

I actually drive 2 1/2 to 3 hours to my terminal because there are only 2 truck stops where I live. One is smallish. The other has almost 300 spots, but it still fills up really quickly. I've been driving back and forth because I'm afraid I'll get back to town too late to find someplace to shut down. I've been scouting areas where maybe I could shutdown over night in a pinch and move the truck in the morning, but I'm not sure if that would screw up taking 34s at home. Still trying to work this one out. At first I thought it would be great to be able to take the truck home since the big TS is within walking distance of my house. Then I went a little out of route one time to spend the night at home. I got in around 8 or 9 PM and the TS was already full. Had to hustle to find someplace I could park with my hours running out. It's a totally different experience driving around your hometown when you suddenly have to think about truck routes when you're used to getting around town in a car. There are a few places I think I could get away with parking at overnight since I would just look like someone making a delivery in the morning. But I'm sure I couldn't leave the truck there for 2 or 3 days at a time. What kinds of tricks do the old pros have for inventing truck parking?

If your not sure about parking and no one is around to ask and your runnin low on hours pull that nose of your truck up to nearly kissing a light pole with it, that way if it's not ok a wrecker can't get in and pull you away.

Trucks can be towed from the front or the back.