Refer Loads

Thinking of switching to refer division of company I drive for. For the last year I have done pretty good at keeping my driving hours during the day. If I switch to national side refer division am I going to have to get use to crazy hours. I have heard both yes and no so thought maybe some refer people on here could share there thoughts and what the schedules are like.

From my experience, they typically ship in the evening and receive in the morning. Every company has their own schedule, but that's when our loads were scheduled. I think it would be tough to run just days, but you could keep to some kind of schedule . For example, we'd have an appt to load around nine but not get off the property till 1 or 2am. Try running days with that lol.

In reefer , you'll have pickup and delivery times at all hours of the day. There will be times you have to arrive at a shipper at 4 in the morning, and deliver 1200 miles away to a consignee by 3 in the afternoon. Then you might pick up you next load at 6pm and have to drive 800 miles to deliver by 6 in the morning.

Thing with reefer is that your load dictates the schedule, because your appointment times are fixed and not usually a window. Because of this, you have to be prepared to have an ever changing sleep schedule and cannot rely on being able to sleep at night and drive during the day.

Now, I don't know what company you work for, so, they may run your loads differently, but at knight, this is how I run. Have to make it work according to what the customer wants, where the freight is, as well as to be able to keep yourself moving and get more miles.

Prime loads appointments are round the clock. My FM knows I am not a morning person...and I think he tends to send me loads over night that others don't like...but that is him being nice. As a company driver I cannot reject a load.

I can usually stick to a schedule of driving after midnight parking by 1400...but its not always like that.

It just depends on the load.

For example, I delivered a load with an appt of 0700. I got to the customer very early so after 8 hrs in sleeper at the customer, I got a big chunk of hours.the next load picked up at 1730...I got there at 1530..so 2 off duty gave me more hours. I ran that straight up and got to receiver at 0130 for an 0730 appt.

The current load I'm on picked up at 1500 (drove a few hours to get there), had trailer issues so went 8 in sleeoer once loaded and at 0130 left repair shop. At 0600 I shut down for two hours then drove til 1430. Left back out at 0130 and shut down at 1230.

Its really a matter of load appt and whether the customer has parking.