Remember that the callout time means the time by which you must be at the gate. If you are a two hour drive to the airport, that's not going to work since you still need to catch a bus to the terminal from the employee lot (at EWR that's 10-15 min, depending on whether you catch it at the right time), get through security (2 min KCM, potentially 10+ if you're randomed), and walk to the gate (10+ minutes if you're stuck at the far end of the terminal and have to take yet another bus to get to an aircraft on a stand as opposed to a jetbridge.

Airport reserve gets a lot of cr@p on this board, but I found it easier than short call. To me airport reserve is a lot like a regular trip on the line or long call. You're given 12+ hours notice so you can plan to leave home as early as the current traffic conditions require (3+ hours if needed in other words). The other perks of airport reserve, at least at my company:

• I'm paid per diem even in base. It's not much but it does pay for tolls and a lunch...though I tend to bring my own.
• FDP begins when I show up at the airport. If doing airport reserve that means that first 8 hours gets you 8 hours into your FDP. On short call, If the call comes late into your RAP and you've been up 10+ hours already, that could result in flying late and sets you up for a fatigue event.
• Our airport reserves are used pretty much every day. I noticed that when I was on short call I never flew because the company pulled from airport reserves first. Since most people on reserve are new and need flight time to consolidate it's better to fly than not, since it avoids another jeopardy event (a checkride).