Keeping A Remote, Part-time Job On The Side While Full-time OTR

Hi everyone. This is my first post and I will try to be as concise as possible.

I am in my early 30's and currently work part-time as independent contractor, and the work is entirely on my laptop. In this job, I can accept -- within reason -- as little work I would like. I would like to start doing OTR , but to still keep doing some of my current work, which I would obviously significantly reduce, but I would still probably need to spend 15-20 hours each month on it. Is that feasible? Can I fit in 15-20 hours of side work in a month while doing OTR? I don't have family commitments and can spend my home time anywhere, so that's a plus. Still, I expect that this would likely be very exhausting, since my down time while OTR would be sporadic and unpredictable, or so I imagine.

Any insight? Any of you know of someone doing some flexible work on the side? Is this something that companies would care about?

Thanks!

Alexandr, I have been thinking of doing the same thing. For one thing, we hit somewhat of an income ceiling in trucking...no matter how much we earn per mile or per trip or per whatever, there are still the HOS limits that we run up against. I earned far more in my prior life than I can now, so I think about doing something on the side to increase income. I tried increasing income by becoming a trainer and did that for a few months, but I found that living with another person in a little box forever isn't for me, not to mention the extra risk and stress of constantly being in the right seat with a newbie at the wheel...two close brushes with death were enough for me. Recently, someone in my former industry offered me a short, one-shot consulting gig, and I completed it...and enjoyed the extra dough. So, I'm thinking of putting the word out that I'm available for more of those kinds of assignments - like you mentioned, these could be done all on a laptop from anywhere.

HOWEVER, as some have already mentioned, you may often be too tired to do any more work after driving all day. Recently I drove in NE daytime traffic for the first time, and there is no way I'd have been up for doing anything else after that.

I'd say that part of the equation will be what sort of freight you'll be hauling. If you are going into the reefer world, you'll be sitting in docks for hours and hours and could do your other gig then. Combine this with what Brett mentioned - you'd seriously need to be in total control of when you do the work including when assignments have to be completed. Furthermore, you'd want to undertake assignments that don't have tight deadlines...make sure you have plenty of time to get any job you accept done because you might have a few days in row with little room for other work. You'll want to be sure you can keep all your committments in your primary job, including being well-rested before getting behind the wheel each day.

TECHNICALLY... If you're running a log book, ANY work you perform for compensation has to be logged, in the truck or not. It could come up to bite you in the behind should an incident ever happen and it's discovered that you're "moonlighting" and not accounting for all of your time.

It's one of those grey area "how the heck can they even enforce it" kind of things, but just keep it in mind. Loose lips sink ships, and all that jazz.