Driver Lifestyles

Trucking Life: Holidays on the Road?

An expediter has a number of choices to make in his or her career - what runs to accept or decline, whether to stick it out on a particular layover or relocate, even where to stop - Mickey D's or Wendy's.

When it comes to the issue of choosing to work during the holidays, we naturally think of traditional family gathering times - Thanksgiving, Christmas and even New Year's. Does one remain in service to pick up that possible load offer and run the risk of sitting in a Walmart parking lot a thousand miles from home or does he/she simply go out of service and get some quality home time with the loved ones?

Lynn and Shelly Baxter, D unit expediters say, "We spend just about every Thanksgiving on the road and occasionally a Christmas. We've been running team since '91 in big truck, then started expediting six years ago."
"When we were in big trucks we would take a Christmas holiday from Dec. 20th to Jan. 6th, but now we just take a couple of days off at Christmas."

Lynn continues, "This year, we had an early Christmas with my one son and daughter-in-law and we'll spend some time with Shelly's mom and dad in Ohio before we head to Texas over New Years to see our ten grandkids."

He adds that they don't go hungry, though: "Landstar has a deal with TA where if you're out over Thanksgiving and Christmas, they'll buy your holiday dinner."


D unit owner-operators Skip and Judy Beebe tell us that they have been out on Thanksgiving a few times before, but because the companies that use expediting typically shut down for Christmas, they'll generally give themselves a holiday break between Christmas and New Years.

"If loads came up that made it worth our while to run over that week," says Skip, "we would consider doing it. It's good to spend the holidays with family but as long as Judy and I are together, it doesn't bother us if we have to work."


"We've spent a number of years away from home over the holidays," says Barb Schlimmer who along with husband and co-driver Art ply their trade in a Sprinter van. "We're ex-military and we're used to being away from our family and friends, so we figure, if a good load comes up, we're available."

"Besides, our son and daughter are now serving in the military themselves, so when we're able to all get together, we mainly talk shop. Art and I do miss our three grandkids, but those reunions are that much more special because of those separations."

The Schlimmers say that it was their policy of holiday availability that made for a very special Christmas several years ago when they accepted a cross-country government load that Art says delivered on Christmas Day and "paid very well, in fact, it wound up being our best run since we started expediting!"

He continues, "It worked out great because we delivered, took ourselves out of service, did some last-minute shopping and headed to the kids' houses. We visited our son's family first and after two days with our daughter's family, we accepted a load that picked up just over fifty miles away and took us back across the country. That made for a very Merry Christmas!"


For D unit owner-operators Bob and Linda Caffey, Thanksgiving on the road "isn't too bad, most of the truckstops serve a good meal."

"What surprised me when we first started in truckload a number of years ago," says Linda, "is how many of the local older people come into the truckstops. They're dressed nicely with the men in sport coats and the women in their Sunday go-to-meeting clothes."

"I remember one Christmas on the road in Mesquite, Texas and nothing was open. We decided to go see a movie, but unfortunately, you can't take a commercial vehicle into a parking lot, not even into a Walmart lot."

"We pulled into a theater parking lot but a cop told us we would have to move. Well, the officer must have been in the Christmas spirit because he told us to pull into a closed restaurant parking lot, gave us a sticker for our window that indicated we had so many hours to move the truck. He explained the police would not hassle us for a few hours so we at least got to see our movie."

"Of course, the movie was no good, the truck stop was bare bones and none of the restaurants were open. Overall, t was a bad, really depressing day."

"After that we swore we will never stay out on Christmas again.
Christmas time on the road can be really, really lonely."