Can You Choose To Drive Primarily At Night?

Can you choose to drive mostly at night or are your driving times dictated by other things?

Depends on your load. If you run dry van , you have a bit more flexibility on when you run. If you run reefer , you generally have appointment times and that usually dictates when you run.

Granted, this may just be with the company I drive for, but I'm assuming it works that way with other companies as well. Non perishable loads will have a window, say, on a certain day between xxam and xxpm time frame, whereas refrigerated loads, mostly food items will have an appointment time, be there on a certain day by a certain time.

Depends on your load. If you run dry van , you have a bit more flexibility on when you run. If you run reefer , you generally have appointment times and that usually dictates when you run.

Granted, this may just be with the company I drive for, but I'm assuming it works that way with other companies as well. Non perishable loads will have a window, say, on a certain day between xxam and xxpm time frame, whereas refrigerated loads, mostly food items will have an appointment time, be there on a certain day by a certain time.

Scott there are dedicated accounts that will allow you to choose night driving. OTR however you run when you can to deliver your load on-time.

I run reefer but run mostly nights. If you learn to manipulate your clock you can do it. Regardless of the appointment time and I do encourage new drivers to do it for a few reasons...

No traffic so you get further in less time. Also since you dont know the roads yet it is possible to slow down to read the signs. When you shut down during the day the truck stops are empty in most but not all places.

Here's an example. My appointment is for 1300 today to pick up and they have over night parking. I'm 60 miles away right now at 0800.

I'm about to go fuel get the washout and drive in. After getting loaded I'm not leaving right away like many people would. If I did I would hit NY CT n NJ rush hour traffic. I'll either take 8 in the sleeper or a full 10. Which means I can leave out at 10 pm and get to Carlisle PA truck stops by 9am to shutdown. 530 miles. Truck stop will have plenty of open spaces. And I miss the rush hour afternoon traffic. IF I want, I can take a two hour break between 7am to 9am and miss most of the morning traffic. Then park by 11am. Still missing afternoon rush hour. I usually leave between midnight and 5am doing this consistently.

Now compare if I ran out right away. I'd probably hit traffic after 100 miles and then get to a 25 mph crawl for a couple hours trying to get to a rest area. At which point I would have to shut down anyway after snaking through rest areas that are already filling wasting more clock time. So I'd burn probably four to five hours on my clock and get 100 - 150 miles then take a 10 hr break.

So leaving the customer at 1400, then parking #at 1900 would give me a full 10 hr by 0500. Just in time to hit the rush hour traffic again. If I'm lucky I got 150-200 miles in 5 hours.

In my night time scenario... By 0500 I'd already be AT LEAST 400 miles away. Plus I can break for two hours and miss the morning traffic. Then park missing the afternoon traffic.

It is just a matter of rearranging your clock. Some people want to drive for 8 hours then park 10. But if I park for 10 and drive 8 ...no matter it is still an 18 hour window. But driving at night gets you further in many cases.

However.,.. Night driving can suck in fog, high wind, blinding rain, heavy snow and mountains. True that stuff slows you during the day too, but you have much better visibility during the day. Plus more deer and game are on the road at night...and drunks.

Its not always doable cause sometimes I get a morning appt where I HAVE to run days cause of the delivery time. But keep in mind the dispatchers learn how you run. My dispatcher seems to give me a lot of appt between 9pm and noon. I meet drivers who say all they get are day appts which makes me think its dispatch knowing how I run and maybe giving me loads to satisfy everyone. A day person is not going to like a midnight delivery.....even though we have no say in our loads.

The only time you can rely on truly consistent hours is teaming cause one runs days and one nights in most cases. But I'd say in one week, if I run one full day that is probably accurate.

My suspicions are confirmed - Rainy's a vampire!

The other day she was talking about "biting" other truckers, and now she's saying she only works in the dark...

My suspicions are confirmed - Rainy's a vampire!

The other day she was talking about "biting" other truckers, and now she's saying she only works in the dark...

Been wondering about this myself.

Really good example given though - regarding using night driving in the NE to: avoid major traffic, enhance the chances of actually finding parking (during the day), etc.

It's still contingent on "appointment windows", but by managing your clock correctly - you can pretty much drive any time/way you want - as long as you make your appointment times.

Keep in mind too - Rainy didn't figure this out, the day she got the keys to her solo truck. She "found her groove" over time.

Rick

Keep in mind too - Rainy didn't figure this out, the day she got the keys to her solo truck. She "found her groove" over time.

That's true, but if folks will pay attention to the conversations in this group they will learn really fast. Rainy began using some advanced techniques of time management very quickly as a rookie driver, and told us she had learned those things from "yous guys" here in the forum.

My suspicions are confirmed - Rainy's a vampire!

The other day she was talking about "biting" other truckers, and now she's saying she only works in the dark...

Not to mention she recently invited people over "for dinner"!

I've caught on to many things like this, unfortunately I've learned they apply more to the real world than the classroom based on the looks I get when I deviate from the lesson. Then again, maybe driving an extra couple hundred miles to avoid Baton Rouge at 1900 on a Friday night while still meeting the delivery time is not a real world thing either.

Not to mention she recently invited people over "for dinner"!

Come to think of it, I haven't seen them people since........hmm