SECOND BEGINNING - The rest of the story
After 12 years of doing driveaway, our kids and grandkids were finally on their own, and my wife and I wanted to spend more time together. We first discussed me getting a non-driveaway job and then looked at making ends meet on just my driveaway income.
Around August of 2014 my wife quit her day job with the intent of riding with me. It ended up taking almost three months before things fell in place.
My first arrangement was with Co #1. They hired my wife as an employee and she would be able to ride with me as long as she worked 'x' hours for the company.
Both of us flying home was prohibitive so we started driving home. At that time Co #1 was doing a lot of runs to GA. I did some research and found a company in GA that moved cars and I hoped that would offset some of the transportation home. It took months of frequent calls and emails to get contracted on. I finally called them and said I would be in their town, could we talk.
At that point both my wife and I hired on to move cars. Co #2 was eager to have my wife start driving trucks but we were going to start with cars. We started out moving cars to work our way home. But we also started moving some multi-leg trips that weren't to get us home. There isn't big money in cars but this company was good at keeping us moving.
Co #2 also moved a few trucks out of the southeast and those paid better and my wife was able to ride with me because she also drove for the company. Then there was a brief period of time when Co #2 split the dispatchers for cars and trucks and you either had to work for one or the other. Luckily that did not last long and I was back to moving both. The first big downside of this company was they had regional dispatchers and local dispatchers and each had their own area. The other part of this downside was that the dispatchers like to keep their own (known) drivers busy and they did not understand my wanting work when I wasn't already on a trip. As I got to know the dispatchers this changed but it was something that took time. Of the dispatchers I got to know, they were all great to work with. IF you could get ahold of them. That was the second downside and later would be one of the last straws.
For about 14 months (ending in the Spring of 2016,) we would leave our home area with my driving for Co #1. If we would get work with Co #2 we would stay out anywhere from a couple of extra days to weeks before getting back home. Then one day after I had already committed to a trip with Co #1, they called and said my wife could no longer ride with unless she also was an independent contractor. I backed out of the trip and worked local for the next few weeks.
At this point I immediately called Co #3. Within three weeks I had interviewed, contracted on and started driving. With this company my wife could ride with me for a monthly insurance charge. Once I had dropped my rig with Co #3 we would call Co #2 and work our way back home. Working for Co #2 lasted for about two years.
After riding with me a few months, my wife decided she could do this and took a CDL class to become familiar with moving something bigger than a car. She didn't care if she pasted the test as it was not required to drive the units for Co #3. But as long as she paid for it she took the test and past. Now Co #3 wanted her to drive trucks also. They did require her to take a test with a dispatcher (but Co #3 did not.) Over the next few months my wife drove a few CDL trucks but mostly we moved the non-CDL ones. Both companies were keeping us busy.
As we saw how easy it was to work with Co #3 and how hard it was to get a dispatcher on the phone to get work with Co #2 our frustration grew. At one point our regular dispatcher was gone and we waited days ... not hours ... days to get an answer and a trip. Shortly after that my wife and I needed to be off the road for an extended period of time and were not able to work within the 30-60 days as required. My last trip had been later than my wifes and Co #2 called and asked for their plate back ... until she was ready to drive again. She never drove for them again. That was THE last straw for her.
I drove a few more trips before voluntarily returning my plate and quiting. Because my wife hadn't quit, she continued to ride with me those last months.
We ended with Co #2 in the fall of 2017. We now started trying to get work out of Co #3 from other parts of the county. Some places were easy, others there is nothing. So we have been trying to get work going into the area's where there is statistically work. My wife has never been OKed to drive CDL for Co #3 which is fine with her, she would prefer the smaller units. We have been able to get just as much work out of the southeast since we dropped Co #2 as before so that has not been an issue.
At this point we do not leave home unless there are two units going to the same place or close to the same destination. We stay in motels every night and have only flown once since 2014.
On a couple of occations when Co #3 hadn't had a return trip I have called Co #1 and gotten work. In those cases my wife had followed in a rental car. It is still much better money than coming all the way home with both of us in a rental car.
Because my wife and I are cheap by nature and have almost no monthly bills, if we get a good multi-leg trip we only have to work a few days a month. The rest is bonus for those times when we have to be off the road for extended periods of time.
One big difference on how we drive than others is we generally only drive about 500 miles a day vs 600+. Another difference is we take as many days to drive home as it takes to drive our units to the customer. My thinking on that is the DOT says it is not safe to drive over 11 hours a day. It does not make it any more safe for me to drive more than that in a personal car. It may be legal, but no more safe.
One other thing to mention is my ... On the Way Home ... is now coming back to be part of the story. When I started in 2003 I thought finding a way home would be the adventure. Now that my wife and I are traveling together, we have started taking a few extra days coming home at times.
In 2019 we spent the whole month of January in the southeast working. Surprisingly we made some of our best money yet and we only worked a few hours most days. Besides that we have been to a few of the national parks, large zoos and many beaches.
I started doing trip journals again when my wife started traveling with me. I am now re-posting some additional write-ups as they were written, between 2003 and 2017. Some have limited info. I do have write-ups starting in Aug, 2017.
Besides these journals, I have also done over 1,500 reviews (now deleted) and pictures for Trip Advisor and also have posted pictures on CNGPrices.