CDL Home Time Calculator
"Home every weekend" usually means 36 hours, not two full days. "Home every two weeks" can mean 2 days home after 14–16 out. This tool converts route-type claims into honest days-home-per-month numbers so you can compare offers on apples-to-apples terms.
Pick a route type — see the real math
Advertised:
Reality:
Consecutive days away from home in a typical run.
Usable home days between cycles. For regional, count 2 days. For local, count 2 weekend days and leave days-out at 0.
24 for true full days, 18 for "Friday night to Sunday afternoon" regional weekend, 14 for home-daily local.
- Days out per month
- Home hours per month
- Cycle length
- Cycles per month
- Days home per year
Calendar month = 30.44 days (365.25 ÷ 12). Home hours uses your "actual home hours per day home" input — a full 24 for solo OTR / team resets, 18 for the typical regional Friday-to-Sunday, 14 for local home-daily where a 10-hour shift comes off the top.
What honest home time looks like, by route type
Carrier recruiting pages are marketing copy. "Home every weekend," "home every 2 weeks," and "home most weekends" are all claims that fit on a banner ad but don't match a driver's lived experience once dispatch variability, reloads, and weather delays come into play. Driver forums, settlement-sheet audits, and recruiting-call recordings paint a consistent picture of how these claims translate to actual hours at home.
OTR — the "home every 2 weeks" reality
Solo Over-the-Road (OTR) drivers run the longest cycles. Typical numbers in 2026 look like 11–21 consecutive days out, followed by 2–4 days home before the next dispatch. "Home every 14 days" often means 14 days out, 3 days home — so you're actually home 3/17ths of the time, or about 5.4 days per month. For drivers who rotate on a 21/3 schedule, that drops to 3.8 days per month. OTR solo pay per mile is usually the highest in company driving, but the lifestyle cost is real. Before committing, run this calculator with your target carrier's typical cycle and ask recent drivers (via forums or LinkedIn) whether the numbers match their reality.
Regional — the "home every weekend" reality
Regional freight cycles are weekly: 5 days out, 2 days home. On paper that's 30% home time, but the 2 days home are usually Friday evening (the driver rolls into the terminal 6–8pm) through Sunday afternoon (the dispatcher wants a 6am Monday pickup, so the driver leaves Sunday 4–5pm). That's 36–40 hours of actual home time per week. If you set "home hours per day home" to 18 in the calculator, you'll see the honest picture: regional drivers are home roughly 72 hours per month of real, uninterrupted family time — about half a week in a month.
Local — the "home every night" reality
Local CDL is the only truly home-daily option. Drivers work a shift (usually 10–14 hours) and return to the terminal or yard before going home. Weekday only at most carriers, weekends off. The tradeoff is pay — local drivers often earn 20–30% less per year than OTR because mileage is lower and there's no per-diem benefit. Drivers with school-aged children or caregiving responsibilities often accept the pay tradeoff because the schedule is predictable. The calculator defaults to 0 days out and 7 days home with 14 home hours per day to model a typical local weekday schedule.
Dedicated — varies widely, read the lane sheet
Dedicated lanes are contracts where a carrier commits to specific shippers or routes. Private-fleet dedicated (Walmart, Sysco, Pepsi, UPS, Frito-Lay) tends to deliver on advertised home time because the freight is predictable. Dedicated at mega carriers can be anything from true home-weekly to a 7–10-day-out OTR contract dressed up with the dedicated label. Always read the specific route sheet before signing, and treat "dedicated" as a lane-by-lane question, not a carrier-wide guarantee.
Team — different math entirely
Team drivers trade shifts with a co-driver so the truck keeps rolling while one driver sleeps. Cycles are longer (14–21 days out) because the truck accumulates paid miles twice as fast as solo. Home time is 3–4 days together before the next cycle. Married couples and family teams thrive on this schedule because the "away from home" time is shared, not separate. Stranger-pairings rarely last — two drivers with different sleep patterns or cleanliness standards in a 6-foot sleeper for 3 weeks is a hard lifestyle.
How to interpret the output numbers
The calculator projects days-home-per-month based on your cycle inputs. Two numbers matter most:
- Days home per month. The headline figure. Useful for comparing offers directly — "Schneider Regional: 8.7 days home per month" vs "Prime OTR: 5.4 days home per month" is a decision-quality comparison.
- Home hours per month. More realistic than days, because it accounts for the fact that a weekend "home day" isn't a full 24 hours. 160+ hours per month is approximately a normal 9-to-5 worker's evenings-and-weekends home time. 100 hours per month is what regional drivers get. 70 or below is OTR territory.
Our assumptions and sources
| Route | Advertised claim | Typical cycle (days out / days home) | Home hours per "day home" |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTR (Over-the-Road) | Home every 2 weeks | 14 / 3 | 24 |
| Regional | Home every weekend | 5 / 2 | 18 |
| Local (home-daily) | Home every night | 0 / 7 | 14 |
| Dedicated | Home most weekends | 5 / 2 | 20 |
| Team driving | Home after each high-mileage run | 18 / 4 | 24 |
Source: Carrier recruiting-page snapshot Q1 2026 (Schneider, Werner, Prime, Heartland, Crete, Marten, J.B. Hunt, Old Dominion, Knight-Swift) cross-referenced against driver surveys and OOIDA forum reality checks. Cycle numbers use a 30.44-day calendar month (365.25 ÷ 12) to avoid rounding drift across the year.
Questions to ask a recruiter about home time
- How many consecutive days out is a typical run? Not the shortest; the typical.
- When I'm home, what's the earliest the dispatcher usually wants me back on the truck?
- If I want an extra day home, does the carrier honor it or does it cost paid miles?
- What percentage of your drivers on this route get their full advertised home time in a given month?
- Can you put me in touch with a current driver on this specific lane?
Frequently asked questions
Does home time include 34-hour restart time?
Usually no — 34-hour restarts are the minimum legal HOS reset, not "home time." A driver who takes their restart at a truck stop is off-duty but not home. Home time means the driver is at their actual home address with the truck parked there or at the carrier's terminal. When comparing offers, distinguish between "home time" (you're at home) and "off-duty time" (you're just not driving).
What's "full 34" vs "short 34"?
A full 34-hour restart takes 34 consecutive hours off-duty. A short 34 is the same 34 hours but timed to include two 1am–5am periods for full HOS reset benefit under the Obama-era rule that was suspended in 2017. Most carriers use the simpler full 34 now. Either way, restart ≠ home time.
Do carriers prorate home time if I quit mid-cycle?
Most carriers don't. If you quit 10 days into a 14-day cycle, you don't get credited 2 days of home time. Leave between cycles if home time is financially important.
Is 'slip seat' worth considering for home time?
Slip seat (also called 'bus driver' style) is a local/regional arrangement where multiple drivers share the same truck on different shifts. You drive your shift and go home; another driver picks up. Home time is maximized because the truck never comes home with you. Pay is typically hourly rather than per-mile. Good for drivers who want max home time and can accept lower annual earnings.
What's the honest home-time math for a team driver with a spouse?
Together-teams (spouses, siblings, life partners) effectively have 24/7 home-with-each-other for the 14–21 days on the truck. The "home" number that matters becomes "home at family address" — usually 3–4 days per 17–25-day cycle. Together-teams often earn more than two solo drivers combined because of the miles difference, which partly offsets the away-from-children or away-from-extended-family cost.
