Is sleeping at night realistic?

[Tillz]

I'm researching this career and as many threads as I've read and videos I've watched I'm wondering if it's even realistic to think I'd be able to (mostly) drive in the day and evening and sleep at night.

I've seen tons of videos where the driver picks up the load in late afternoon, drives immediately all night (overnight) to deliver someplace first thing in the morning of the next day.

I'm really starting to wonder if this is actually the normal most likely scenario or not.

I'm in a position where I could get a van, get set up, and don't have any reason I couldn't stay out 4-6 weeks at a time and go wherever so a lot of things look good but not sleeping at night most of the time is probably a deal killer for me.

I could be wasting my time researching this career if I'm not cut out for the reality of the hours.

Is it possible for a driver to do mostly day/evening driving and sleep at night or not?

 

[LDB]

I retired a decade ago. I drove straight truck for about 7 years and then van about 4 years before retiring. I only took jobs that required no more than half the night. Either finish driving by midnight to one and sleep until delivery or sleep until at least two or three in the morning and go out. I missed jobs because I wouldn't risk driving all night. Only you can decide what is right for you. For me that was on a job by job basis.

 

[Turtle]

Ah, the old recruiting joke...

Become an expediter! See American... AT NIGHT!

Somebody needs something built, it gets built during the day and then is picked up late in the afternoon, and is delivered when the consignee opens at 0600. A normal thing in expedite, but by no means the only scenario. As LDB noted, you can pick and choose what loads to accept. If you can't see at night, expediting in the winter is gonna be tough, because the daylight hours are so short.

Expediter loads can come early in the morning, but it seems they really get going about 12:30 PM. If no load comes by 1330, many take the "expediter nap" for a few hours in anticipation of the late afternoon or early evening pickups, going 8 or 10 hours away for early morning delivery.

For many expediters, sleep management is the toughest thing to deal with. You have to make sure you have enough sleep to deal with the unexpected emergency freight trip at a time which can't be anticipated. You stay up all day, finally go to bed at midnight, only to get a call at 0230 to pick up something that a nuclear power plant needs to stay online, and it's going 500 miles away. You can't do that one.

 

[LDB]

Yes, I should have included you sleep whenever you get the opportunity. That may be the difference between accepting and rejecting a load offer. About once or twice a month I'd use Five Hour Energy, usually about half the little bottle and then again an hour or two later rather than all at once. I'm not sure it helped any but it didn't hurt.

 

[danthewolf00]

Anytime after 3pm expect to get calls on over night runs....plan on it. Learn to power nap because it will save your life and possibly your job.
Also learn to get out and go for short walks even if its 5 to 10 mins walking around the van while fueling up the van.