The Wife Of A New Trucker

Hi everyone

Thank you all for responding. Now that I have a little better understanding that it’s the drivers decision to stay out longer than two week.

I guess the ultimate question is how do your partners/spouses and or kids feel about you being gone for long periods of time?

I’ve had people tell me they would be OTR for six months to a year straight. To me that’s nuts. You can’t just live in that truck 24/7 you would go completely insane.

I’m just not quite understanding how you can drive for two weeks straight and only get two days off. In reality it should be drive two weeks straight and get one full week off to rest, then go back on the road.

Now I was also told that you be a salary employee if you don’t wish to lease the truck. Is that true?

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I've known guys who literally live in their trucks. They're single and saving lots of money for retirement. They were at my last job where we started and ended at thecsame distribution center everyday. They had a fridge, shower, tv, etc at their disposal. They weren't in their truck out on the road somewhere. They also had their personal vehicles parked on site so they could go places when off duty.

I've also known married men who would stay out for 2 or more months at a time then go home for a week or so to be with their families. It's not for me but it can be done.

There are hourly paid jobs but the ones I know of are daycab positions where you're home everyday. Most OTR jobs are mileage based pay. Even the truck lease jobs I knew of were mileage paid jobs.

I’m just not quite understanding how you can drive for two weeks straight and only get two days off. In reality it should be drive two weeks straight and get one full week off to rest, then go back on the road.

There is a company that offers such a schedule: Roehl Transport. At least they used to. But it is hard to make money working a part time schedule like that.

You are just beginning to learn how things work in this industry. Yet you are making statements about the way things should be. That being said, I began writing a response respectfully asking you to refrain from telling us how things ought to be, but I couldn't figure out a way to say it without sounding like a total jerk.

That is not my M.O. And I try hard to phrase my responses in a way that reflects my true nature, which is to be as kind and helpful as I can possibly be, and to avoid accidentally offending anyone.

Just be aware that asking questions about why things work the way they do is a much better approach than giving your opinion about the way you think things should be.

Please, keep asking questions and try not to let any preconceived notions influence your opinion about the way things work in this industry.

Also, keep in mind that if your husband has to accept an OTR driving job it does not mean he has to do it for years. After one year of safe driving OTR experience many local companies will be willing to hire him. That means more options for a better work schedule and a chance to work normal hours and come home every day just like a normal job.

I'm going to hit that "submit" button now. And I really hope you don't think I was being rude or insensitive😬

The bottom line is up to the individual driver, his better half and children if there are any. I drove for 44 years and never wanted to be a true "over the road" driver as family was my top priority. All my jobs were either home daily or regional which kept me out weekly but home on weekends. I preferred the regional because it satisfied the desire to be on the road but also home on weekends.

Raising a family was hard enough but to put the pressure on one spouse would not be fair or recommended. I missed a lot of school activities and ball games with the regional runs but we all survived. The local jobs were better for family time but of course the long days only got you home but without a lot of time to spend with the family.

It is totally up to each driver to choose his or her path so decide together what is your ultimate goal and be respectful of each others decision. A job is only a job but a relationship is more valuable. I'm still happily married after 44 years and counting and both of my children keep in touch and do not regret their childhood at according to them. Good luck.

OTR didn't work for my family life and it's why I went local out the gate. There are enough options in this career path, that it can potentially work for anybody.

Hitting the preview button and reading your post prior to sending it has saved my from making many a typo😁.

The irony here made me smile

Hi Sabrina, like others said here the $170k a year thing is complete BS. I don’t know and have never met anyone making that much as a company driver. And if that’s all you’re making as a lease driver you’re never gonna make it. For what it’s worth he should really avoid leasing a truck. It’s a great way to end up broke, especially now as rates are down and trucking is slower than usual right now.

As far as the dirty hotel room. I’m sorry he’s having to deal with that. Unfortunately a lot of companies don’t put us in the nicest hotels but he won’t be spending much time in hotels once he gets going in his own truck.

I’ve had people tell me they would be OTR for six months to a year straight. To me that’s nuts. You can’t just live in that truck 24/7 you would go completely insane.

This definitely isn’t the norm. Most people get home once or twice a month if they’re OTR. Also a lot of times bigger companies have dedicated accounts or regional fleets that can get drivers home every week or two consistently depending on where you live.

Regardless of the things you may hear about trucking and other companies and so forth, I’d encourage him to stay with Western for a year or at the very least a bare minimum of 6 months so he’s more marketable if he eventually wants to work somewhere else.

I say this because it’s very easy to start looking around during those first few months on the road and think the grass is greener everywhere else, but timing matters. We’ve seen a lot of people hurt their careers early on by jumping around to different carriers before they get some experience. He needs to be safe first and foremost—no accidents and no tickets. That, along with good communication, is going to be the ticket to him getting good miles and making good paychecks. But keep the expectations low in the beginning. New drivers don’t make a killing

"I’m just not quite understanding how you can drive for two weeks straight and only get two days off. In reality it should be drive two weeks straight and get one full week off to rest, then go back on the road."

FWIW there are jobs like this available with decent pay:

Schlumberger Oilfield Concrete Driving

The guy that started that thread hasn't been back around on TT since he went to work for SLB

A normal schedule for this type of job would be 14 days on / 7 days off. There are a very few service companies that offer a 14/14 schedule. These are hourly jobs and start at somewhere around $60k a year. One advantage of this schedule is you can live anywhere you want, but travel time is done on your own time. In other words, if it takes a day to get to work and a day to get home, then you would be home for 5 days.

But (there's always a "but") the cementing side of the business is pretty much the only part that offers the 14/7 schedule that involves much driving. The cement is delivered to well sites in pneumatic bulk trucks. The cement pumps are driven to location for the cementing jobs, which is cementing casing into oil & gas wells. The normal career progression would be: bulk truck driver/operator, cement pump driver/operator, then cementing supervisor (driving an F250 or something similar).

On the hydraulic fracturing, or frac, side of the business a lot of companies use contract drivers to move equipment from well site to well site and the equipment operators hardly drive at all. Some service companies no longer require the operators to have a CDL. The reason for this is that, once the equipment is on location, it is typically there for about a month depending on the number of wells and number of frac stages per well.

Hauling frac sand and fuel delivery are both more like regular local driving jobs.

The irony here made me smile

😝 😝 😝

I had a... different reaction😳

I think the $170,000 was mistaken as pay for the UPS drivers for their new contract but was really what the total package was worth including their benefits and pay combined.

The Wife ponders:

I’m just not quite understanding how you can drive for two weeks straight and only get two days off.

That's not really the case. Drivers get plenty of time off, but the home folks don't see it. The federal regulation describes Hours of Service that among other things requires drivers to have ten hours off before they can drive again each day. But that will be wherever they end up on a daily basis. No one is "worked to death".

Home Time is of course included in time off, but the company arranges a route for the driver to drive through their home town and spend some extra time at the house with the fam. Usually the ratio is one day home for each week on the road. So driving three weeks could get you at least three days home.