What A Long Week!

I figured I'd share my experiences i had with the last 4 days I worked to show that being local/home daily isn't necessarily better than being OTR.

Saturday I clocked in at 10pm for a 4 store run to Southern Minnesota. Total miles was only about 450 so I thought I'd get about 11 to 12 hours and take it easy. Turns out my 3rd store doesn't arrive until 5am so I had to wait nearly 3 hours. Clocked out at 14 hours.

Sunday I figured I'd try again to get an easy day by clocking in at 1am. Pretty easy, run an empty trailer the 160ish miles out to Davenport and load up at our flower subsidiary out there and deliver to 3 stores in SE Iowa, about 450 miles. I was delayed getting loaded due to other drivers picking up and despite only having 4 pallets total it still turned into a 14 hour day.

Monday i figured I'd take a 3 trailer load totaling 300 miles with 6 stores and 2 backhauls and clocked in at midnight. I made it back to the yard with 6 minutes to spare, got 14 1/2 plus an hour break I didn't take.

Tuesday my oldest had his first t-ball practice at 445pm. Unfortunately I have only 5 choices for routes and most were 4am starts. I luckily(?) Took a midnight 360 miles to 2 stores in Davenport with a pickup at Heinz/Kraft in Muscatine IA. Relatively easy it'd ensure I get home with plenty of time. That is until I sat for 5 1/2 hours waiting on my load. I kept dispatch informed and they told me stay as long as possible without staying out overnight. Everytime I called shipping (3 times) I kept being told they're waiting for a loader to free up meanwhile I watched many trucks leave. I called dispatch at around noon and asked to confirm I was free to leave empty. Ended up being 15 1/2 hours plus hour break I didn't take by using my 16 hour rule. Fortunately I made it home at 420 and we were able to walk down the street to practice.

In the last 4 days I've maxed my clock and had to clock in shortly after my 10 hour break was up. Its 45 minutes one way to commute. It can very easily eat up your 10 off and limit the amount of time you have for seeing your family. Not every home daily is this way but I don't want anyone having the wrong idea of having much more time at home than if you do OTR or regional.

I can imagine how bad it sucks to work a 14+ hour day and have to commute. I think nothing of working 14 hours OTR. For some reason it's way different when at home. I used to hate working more than 8 hours bc it felt like it was eating up my "me" time at home.

I can't explain why it feels so different when out here OTR. Maybe bc I live so simply. I have very few options. I'm not missing out on life. This is my life. Make sense???

Anyway, yeah, that sounds awful, Rob. I hope you don't have to deal with those types of weeks too often in the future.