Thinking about being a hotshot driver need some input!

Pulling rv's will not hurt the life of the truck if you do not abuse it. I can hardly remember when I had 300K on the truck. I have 985K plus on it now.

 

Did I read somebody say they were sleeping int their truck? If this is a 1 ton truck, you are making a serious DOT violation. In addition, there is absolutely no reason to run a 1 ton truck for $1 per mile. You should be getting rates much higher than this.

 

The law changed about sleeping in back of pickups. As long as you logit as off duty.

 

yep,log it off duty, i was out 5 days,slept in truck every night, went thru several scales, cked twice, logged off duty, no problems

 

I'm buying a new dodge and 40 ft trailer prolly be rolling in 2 to 3 weeks after all my numbers come in. but I'm trying to find a good place to find loads in in canton tx

 

Jeffb 1985 keep your eyes open when your around town there is a local there that runs a Dodge hotshot for the oilfields.I was running through there and he was pulling out of his driveway onto the main road that cuts across town and we talked on the cb for quite awhile.He can probably point you in the right direction.

 

thanks I will keep my eyes open

 

Hi there. Almost a year has gone by, and I thought I'd update for any who are interested.

Still on the road. I've added a 20 foot flatbed (deckover) 14,000lb cap. because the really small loads were sometimes too few and far between. With that I had to get a DOT number and run throught the scales, but that hasn't been a problem.

I've scaled back on distances, running primarily within 250 miles of home base in order to avoid staying overnight. I found that when I did the longer trips, even with a back haul my expenses caused overall profits to drop. I make more doing one day trips as long as I take only trips that pay at or over my minimum.

For anyone trying to figure out if this style of trucking will work for them, I'd say that the primary consideration is where you are located. If you are in a higher traffic area, you can pick and choose trips. If you have to deadhead half a day to pick up a load, you're going to run into problems unless you have a rig large enough to give you access to more loads for back hauls.

Second item is that you will need to get to know the brokers who work in your area. I'm finding that brokers like to work with a carrier who services their customers properly. I'm getting more and more repeat business from those brokers.

I have worked very little directly with shippers -- everything has been through brokers and everything is factored, with one exception. I got 4 loads from a broker who was declined by my factoring company. I had a little extra cash, and thought it would be worth the chance. It's now 60 days later and the broker still owes me $1900 and I'm having a hard time collecting.

Goal for next year is to start working directly with some shippers. I've had several who have asked me if I would, but I'm respecting the broker relationships. It would be nice to get a contract or 2 for some regular runs.

As for equipment, I'm happy with my PJ trailer. If I had it to do over, I'd buy one with a swing-down dovetail and air ride, and have a sliding tarp system installed on it. I miss quite a few loads that specify vans and/or air ride.

I'm liking what I'm doing. No regrets!

 

Nice to hear your still in the game. Sounds like your learning a lot and taking the right steps to be profitable.

 

I thought that 6.0 was the best motor ever made until my EGR Cooler fried and after some research I saw what all else could go wrong.

If you like those and will continue running them and you ever tear into it at all, contact Bullet Proof Diesel in Mesa AZ and put all the stuff they recommend into it while you have it down. Then you might have the best diesel motor out there, or at least the best 6.0.