The Life Of A Dedicated Driver

During the week (5 days) I was on the Walmart dedicated run. There was only one 10 hour break that wasn't taken out on the road some where. All runs were less then 550 miles round trip with no back hauls. If I would have lived around Loveland and decided to stay on the Walmart account I could have been home most weekends for a 34 reset.

Technically speaking, I'm regional. Ohio west. But that doesn't mean I haven't been or won't go east of there. Pennsylvania, Maryland and North Carolina are all states I've had stops in since going solo October 28, 2018. Probably spent the most time in Pacific northwest and California with trips to the midwest then back out west.

Since picking up my new truck in Springfield on 9/12 my stops have been; Springfield, Cheyenne, Loveland, Great Falls, Missoula (stopped to pickup student), Twin Falls, Denver, Manison NE, Seattle, Quincy WA and heading back to Seattle today.

Point being, I'm OTR but not a super big region. One could almost say, regional. Meat west, potatoes and onions (sometimes fruit) east as I like to say.

To clarify my previous question, I was referencing those regional and dedicated jobs that do involve weekly home time as distinct from those that don't (which would seem to be the majority).

Maybe you can divide dedicated into two categories, "dedicated account/customer" and "dedicated route". Although a dedicated route could have you out for for many nights over the road too, depending on the route.

Maybe you can divide dedicated into two categories, "dedicated account/customer" and "dedicated route". Although a dedicated route could have you out for for many nights over the road too, depending on the route.

I’ve never heard of a Dedicated route being a “Dedicated” category. Can you offer an example of what you are referring to?

To answer Highwaymans question; it depends. Each Dedicated Account is unique.

To clarify my previous question, I was referencing those regional and dedicated jobs that do involve weekly home time as distinct from those that don't (which would seem to be the majority).

My regional job does include weekly home tome at minimum, and I could be home once or twice during the week. I choose to stay out longer so I get longer runs, they don’t have to worry about keeping me close to home. We have other drivers in our region that do take home time more often, but get shorter runs. One guy runs Pittsburgh to Niagara Falls and back home to Erie PA every day.

So I'm guessing that a regional or dedicated job that involves weekly home time is probably going to generally have a smaller geographic area and shorter length of haul? And probably lower potential miles as well?

Highwayman, yes, you are partially correct. When you have a job that gets you home every weekend you will generally run a smaller region and have shorter lengths of haul.

The idea of lower potential miles is a little more complicated. That's really going to depend on the driver's ability to communicate effectively with dispatch, their skill at getting appointments moved forward, and their practices at trip planning and being able to get along well with their customers. Generally an experienced driver understands how to get more accomplished than your average newbies, but that's not always the case.

Some old hands at this never seem to learn how to get where they want to be. They keep changing companies looking for some magic to happen, but they forget to look in the mirror to find the reason they're struggling. They always lay blame on their employer, without ever realizing how much influence they have over their own net results.

There's no reason why a person going home on the weekends can't turn 3,000 miles each week. They just have to work at it until they can figure out how to make it happen.

Take a look at this article and see if it helps you understand the concepts of success at trucking a little better.

How To Get Dispatched 5,000 Miles In One Week

Thanks Old School. I will read the article.

"I’ve never heard of a Dedicated route being a “Dedicated” category. Can you offer an example of what you are referring to?"

RealDiehl admits he may have unintentionally pulled that term out of thin air.

I think I was referring to something like a line haul run where you travel back and forth to the same destination each day.

Okay...I get it. LTL line haul is what I thought you were thinking..,

Kinda like performing a full PTI while logged off-duty...”out of thin air”.

Please take a look at Plan B’s explanation of Prime’s guidance on Pre and Post trip inspections...in the thread about HOS that Joel posted.

Thanks.

I thought I'd share with you my last few loads just to illustrate how my "dedicated" job works. Last weekend I was dispatched on a 1,562 mile load that originated in Delhi, Louisiana, then had four stops. Almost all my loads are multi-stop flatbed loads. This one had it's first stop in Riverdale, New Jersey, then proceeded to Farmington, Connecticut, Bristol, Connecticut, and Amesbury, Massachusetts. It had a pre-planned backhaul load with it where I picked up return materials in Amesbury, then made my way over to Buffalo, New York to pick up some equipment that was bound for the plant in Delhi. That added another 1,700 miles onto that weeks miles.

You were in my neck of the woods. I live in central CT.... I was on a "dedicated" account out of Vermont, and I would go as far west as Buffalo, NY, as far north as northern Maine, and as far south as Maryland. Made very good money as well, usually 2200-2500 miles a week, and home on weekends.