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I don't know for sure right off hand. I'll look into the fuel thing next time I'm in town. That may be a viable option. Ozark doesn't squirm too much when you tell them you could use 50 gallons just to be safe. That could get the parking fee waived.

BTW, I-95 a tough road to like. It's kind of busy from DC to Richmond. New York to DC isn't all that fun either with all those slow-assed 4 wheelers in the way. My first time traveling that path from MA to NC. Only had 638 mile trip with a full 11 to make it. Almost made it, but the traffic "got in the way". Somehow, I managed to get around the GW bridge without having to pay that $85 toll. New York has some strange traffic lights BTW. I was confused on one intersection as to if that red light was for me or some other street. Finally managed to get through it. Too bad it was heavy mist all morning, didn't get to see much. Maybe next time.

Because sometimes you can compare routes and one is only gonna save a few minutes/miles, but cost 20 bucks or so to take the toll route. A company caring driver might sacrifice a few minutes of his/her day just to save the company a few bucks. But if the company doesn't care to save the driver a few bucks, well, it works both ways.

If you think about it, companies really don't want you doing that sort of thing. They want you to get from point A to point B as quickly and safely as possible. By running the backroads to get around tolls you're wasting time on your clock, you're working the truck harder with more shifting and stop-n-go traffic, and you're taking more risk because of that same stop-n-go traffic. If you had 1000 trucks and every day 20 people decided to take back roads to avoid a toll you'd almost certainly have another 5 or 10 minor accidents every week and you're certainly not going to save any money that way in the long run.

People think that way sometimes with unloading too. They say, "How come my company will only pay me $100 if I choose to unload the truck but they'll pay a lumper service $250 to do it? Why will they pay strangers a bunch of money to do it but not their own drivers?" That's because they don't want their drivers unloading trucks. You're wasting time on your logbook , you're wearing yourself out, and you're risking injury by unloading freight. They want the lumpers to unload the freight while the driver takes a nap so he can be ready to roll when the truck is empty.

Like Old School said, don't take stuff like that personally. It's business. Everything they do has a business reason behind it. It's not that they don't care about their drivers. They just don't care to lose money, waste time, or take unnecessary risks.

Thanks Brett, that makes perfect sense now that it's been explained. I guess I just needed it spelled out.

An adjustment to my driving route will now be applied.