Working in an area as large as Dallas, it is really hard to make decent productivity and efficiency numbers.  First, loaner techs are farmed out anywhere in the general area instead of just working in one particular area like the local techs are.  We get our jobs from our work laptops (aka IFD).  There is a button on there called the dynamic dispatch.  We press it and it dispatches the next job to us.  If you are a tech local to that area then it will usually just give you a job in your area.  If you are a loaner tech, it will give you a job wherever and in an area the size of Dallas, that can mean an hour or more of driving to your next destination.  Since we don't really get any credit for that drive time (I don't care what they say, I havent seen it in my personal experience) we get screwed over in our efficiency numbers because of that.  You can try to call dispatch (347# by the way) to get it fixed but the hold times are usually so bad that you might as well just drive over since you're going to spend the same amount of time waiting for a dispatcher to answer. 

Then there is the area.  There are a lot of attics in Dallas.  Most houses have them there.  Maybe this is just an issue with me since we don't have very many in our area.  If its 100 and something outside then seriously, its going to be 130 or 150 in that attic.  If someone has to spend half an hour up there crawling around in your dusty, filthy, nasty attic in that kind of heat, don't look for them to be having a good time doing it.  I find I can only work in that kind of heat for a few minutes at a time before having to come down for a cooling down break.  After a while the brain just stops working right and you have to come down before you get too stupid to find the door (joking).

Then there are the accomodations.  Usually its a hotel.  If you're lucky there might be a fridge and a microwave in the room, but not always.  You spend more money because you're eating out the whole time you're there.  Also, you're paying out more for entertainment since you had to leave all of your own stuff behind at home.  That's why I was asking about the CFL in Irving.  Its in a pretty good neighborhood and there is a cafeteria there where you can by food for not a lot of money. Also they have Uverse in every room so at least the TV and the internet aren't too bad.  Only two washers and two dryers for 300 corporate apartments though so you have to get them while they're hot.  By the way, for entertainment, I went to the ghost bar in downtown Dallas while I was there.  I recommend it as a world class club stocked to the rafters with calendar girl and supermodel types. 

Then there is the whole thing about being away from home and away from your family.  Being under appendix J in our current contract they don't have to return us back to home on any regular schedule if they don't want to.  They can tell us one thing and change it around at the last minute at their whim.  I have seen this first hand and had it done to me personally for months at a time.  Every day you spend away from home is a risk of spending even more days away from home, whether you like it or not.

The only really good parts about being a loaner are the opportunity to travel and the possibility for overtime.  Sometimes you don't even get the overtime so you end up hurting yourself financially spending the extra money for food and entertainment.

I am sure that it must be a good thing to live in Dallas but its not so great to just work there.