Can An OTR Owner/Operator Take Time Off Between Runs?

Dave hell no it didn't but I made it work. I was with 2 otr trainers after school. Both a total of 13 days and 3300 miles. Then I tested out and went solo. I learned the basics, that was all we had time for. I am retired and my retirement pays my bills. I am very blessed and have a solid financial future. Most people dont, irregardless what business they are in. I do this because I want to at this point in my life. I have mainly learned things on my own by research, talking with folks on here, and other tenured drivers I meet. Always take things from others with a grain of salt and find a way to verify it. I have learned so very much in the past 10 months it makes my head hurt when I look back at it. Time has flown by.

Understood PJ. Thanks. Stay safe.

Thank god some rationality his hit me and the obsession with truck ownership has gone away. The company trucks are 2015's from what I hear. So maybe it takes me 40 minutes to clean it up an personalize it before a trip Now it becomes "my" truck for the following few weeks, without the stress of fuel and maintenance. Just easy going driving. Now I will have to figure a place to store the existing mattress, as I'll havy own. Truckers are notorious for bad heygene, who knows what filth is in the mattress.

By doing this as opposed to leasing, I don't have to surrender my remaining years of life to solitude on the road. I do have other dreams to pursue. I'd rather put that truck lease money into buying a condo in Los Angeles.

It is a headache of sorts. I just hit 3 months at it. There are perks, you wont get as a company driver. As for fuel, thats pretty easy. The company takes care of all that for me, including road taxes. No headache at all. I have a strong mechanical background. I know I am very anal about my equipment, but I treated the companies truck the same way. At least now I have the say if something does in fact get fixed. As a company driver I had issues at times I wanted fixed but the company decided they didnt want to fix it. Major pain in the rear end. Here is a quick true experience. I had a battery go bad. Truck is going on 3 yrs old and were the original batteries. 1 bad no question, 1 tested on the bubble, 2 tested good. Truck is in the shop apart already. Company policy is they would have replaced 2 and rolled it out. My position was change all 4 while its there 1 time. Time is money. The other 2 would be failing soon enough. So I dont pay labor twice either. The company started using some type of recycled oil. It drops your oil pressure about 20 psi on the top end. I do not like that. I pay a little more but my oil pressure is within freightliner specs. If something major does go wrong they cant claim it was because of anything I did. I maintain their specs.