Off Again?!

Off Again?!

Being self-employed as a truck driver comes with a freedom that many employees don’t have. We can choose when to work, when to stay home, and how much time to take off. But that freedom often leads to an interesting question from family, friends, and other drivers: How can you afford to take that much time off?

Before we judge how much time another self-employed driver spends at home, it helps to do some math. A typical employee working 40 hours a week for 52 weeks works 2,080 hours per year. On top of that, many employees receive paid holidays, vacation time, and sometimes paid sick days. Depending on the job and years of service, that could mean several weeks away from work while still receiving a paycheck.

Self-employed truck drivers don’t have that luxury. We get zero paid days off. No holiday pay. No vacation pay. No paid sick days. As I often find myself saying, “If the wheels aren’t turning, we’re not earning.”

That doesn’t mean self-employed drivers can’t take time off. It means we have to plan and pay for that time ourselves. Every day spent at home is a day when the truck isn’t generating revenue, while expenses such as insurance, maintenance, payments, licensing, and other business costs continue. Then there are the personal expenses that the business helps to pay through the payroll that the business pays the driver(s). 

There’s another important difference: driving isn’t simply an eight-hour-a-day job. Under federal hours-of-service rules, a driver can generally work up to 70 hours in an eight-day period. Those hours can include driving, loading and unloading, inspections, maintenance-related work, required drug testing, and other job-related activities. So when comparing an employee driver’s schedule to that of a self-employed driver, the number of days spent on the road doesn’t tell the whole story.

The real question isn’t “Why do they take so much time off?” It’s “How did they plan their business so they could afford that time?” Self-employment gives us something incredibly valuable: control over our time. But that freedom comes with responsibility. We don't get paid for being home. We earn enough while we're working to make being home possible.

So, how much time do self-employed truck drivers spend on the road versus at home? There’s no single right answer. Every driver, business, and financial situation is different. The important thing to know is how much self-employed driver(s) NEED to work to cover all business and personal expenses while saving for current and future needs. 

We need to make the numbers work. Remember that sometimes, time at home is part of the paycheck we’ve worked for.

Here’s to millions of safe, profitable and PLANNED miles

Kelly Plumb