Days Off

With OTR , I understand that a driver can be on the road for weeks at a time and then have several days off. Does the driver always have to schedule his days off at home or instead of driving the truck to his home, drive it somewhere else to have his time off away from home.

ie... a driver lives in Texas and normally his dispatch will make his last load somewhere near his home. Can he have the dispatch make his last load Rhode Island if he wanted to visit RI for several days? Is this something that is frequently done? Thanks.

I actually asked this exact questions a couple of weeks ago as my first post, and the answer is "yes." As long as it is somewhere they run freight to they will do that for you. It makes no difference to them as long as you don't want to go somewhere difficult for them to route you to.

Just like Steve said, it doesn't matter where you take home time. As long as freight is going through the area it shouldn't be a problem. If your company only runs west coast you probably wouldn't be able to head to Florida (in the truck). But if you work for a large OTR carrier you have a lot of options. Personally, I'm planning on hitting Vegas and New Orleans and a whole lot of other places.

Mark, those responses are correct, I recently enjoyed two days off in New Orleans, and then I spent my next days off with my two grown daughters who happen to live in the same town, an then for my next break I spent some time in Florida on the beach.

Thanks all for the replies. Now my next question, still pertaining to this topic is, whether the driver is at home or elsewhere, can the driver drive the truck for personal matters, sightseeing, etc. or is a personal car/car rental required?

Mark, it's a great question because it used to be that some companies would let you unhook and use the tractor to move around a little, but with the advent of electronic logging the logging device records everything that goes on with the truck. Depending on how the device is set up, there may be a few companies that allow you to use the truck, but I doubt if there's very many. I simply rent an inexpensive car, and to be quite honest with you, I enjoy a break from the cab of my truck when I do that.

I think I need to clarify that if the electronic on board recording device is recording everything, then when you're using that truck for your break time it's being recorded as driving time and that will really mess up your logs.

Trust me you do not want to buy fuel out of your pocket for the truck unless you can afford $500 to $600 dollars for a fill up.

Thing is if you are off duty then you can not drive the truck. Have to be on duty driving to move the truck which means you will mess up your logs.

Then do I understand correctly that you make you last dropoff (wherever that may be), then, while still on the clock, you drive to your destination for home-time, park the truck, log-off the clock, do what you will for several days (your off-time). Then, when your on-time comes, log in and start up the truck, drive to your first destination to pick up a load.

One thing I am trying to clarify is that you are still on company time from the time you drop off the last load til the time you arrive at your destination and log off, for down time. Is this correct?

thanks.

Then do I understand correctly that you make you last dropoff (wherever that may be), then, while still on the clock, you drive to your destination for home-time, park the truck, log-off the clock, do what you will for several days (your off-time). Then, when your on-time comes, log in and start up the truck, drive to your first destination to pick up a load.

One thing I am trying to clarify is that you are still on company time from the time you drop off the last load til the time you arrive at your destination and log off, for down time. Is this correct?

thanks.

You make the drop. Go to home to park the truck and do a post trip inspection (on duty). Go home for a few days (off duty). Then come back to the truck and do a pretrip inspection before you leave for your pickup. You're correct. But even if you're going home you still must do an inspection.

Correct. You're still on company time. You're still being logged on the Qualcomm. Ill use this as an example because I think it'll help you understand.

At Central we are not allowed to consume alcohol unless on approved home time. So if I drop off my load and now I'm empty. I still can't drink a beer. I drive to my house and park the truck and do an inspection - I still can't drink a beer. I go home - now I can drink a beer because I'm officially on home time.

The biggest thing when going home after a load is planning to make sure you'll have enough hours to deliver and then drive home. You don't want to run out of hours when you're 1 hour away from home. It sucks believe me.