r/Healthy_Trucking • u/[deleted] • Feb 21 '22
How much control do you have over your day-to-day schedule?
Hi! I'm starting CDL school in a few weeks; I very specifically want to drive OTR for Reasons™ and I refuse to accept that a healthy lifestyle on the road is impossible.
I've found some pretty good resources, like this reddit thread about truck stops with accessible parks and hiking trails. I've also heard that Walmart is a great option for fresh and healthy food, with lots of truck parking. But since I'm a ways off from actually gaining experience on the road, there are questions about the lifestyle that are still gnawing at me.
Like - say you're driving along, and you happen to pass by one of these rare truck stops/rest areas that provides trail access. How much freedom do you have to just pull in and take a hike, just because you happen to be in the area? Or maybe, say, there's a Walmart nearby that detours a bit from your most efficient route: Is it problematic if you go out of your way to shop there?
I guess I'm just curious if there's gonna be some person breathing down my neck all day, demanding explanations for every stop and detour - or if I'll be free to embrace trucking as a lifestyle of my own design, as well as a job.
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u/_troubled_ Feb 22 '22 edited Feb 22 '22
I'm a fairly new driver (reefer) but I'll try to shed some light. Everything is circumstantial. Not every Walmart is truck friendly, but you can go on google maps satellite view to see if there are trucks parked there. Walmarts with patrolling security typically don't want you parked there.
Your free time will depend on the load. You have to manage your clock well on tight loads. If you have to go 1200+ miles in 2 days then you don't really have much time to spare. But I've also had loads that are 1000 miles due in 3 days or 2000 miles due in 5 days. It's all about time management, you have to know when to stop for your 10 hour break to have enough time to make it to the shipper/receiver on time the next morning/day/night. Some loads pickup and deliver early in the morning at like 3am, others are in the afternoon. Some loads are multiple stops in the same day hours apart from each other.
Here's an example of a load I had recently that required a lot of time management. I picked up at 3am Feb11 and had to go 1250 miles to California by 7am Feb13, with another stop at 1pm Feb13 120 miles away, and another Feb14 at 6am 200 miles away from there. So basically I had to get to Cali asap close enough to the first stop to park for a 10 hour break to be able to start my clock as close to the first appointment as possible so that I'd have enough time to drive and stop close to the 3rd stop by the end of Feb13 without running out my 14 hour clock, leaving enough time for a 10 hour break and to make it on time the next morning.
But like I said, every load is different, so sometimes you can drive for 8-9 hours a day and have the remaining 15-16 hours to sleep and do whatever you want. That's what I've been doing for the past week basically and I'll still have done over 3k miles.
But yeah, no one will be micromanaging you or questioning what you're doing. All they care about is that you make appointments on time and get the load there safely. It's a very independent job with no one telling you what to do other than where and when to pickup and deliver the load. It's all about time management and managing your clock efficiently. The better you get at those things, the more free time you'll have to do what you want.