Most profitable tanker companies 4 owner operators

Yeah but they also have loads coming out of Hammond paying $795 going to Elk Grove Village. Load in the morning, del same day, and back home at night. That's 120 miles. You have to pay attention to what your running. You cant just pull junk day after day.

 

Again, speaking from the Lansing terminal, one of my friends that I still talk to regularly, stayed out 2 to 3 weeks at a time and I don't think he saw 170K. Gary told another friend it was his fault for picking the wrong loads. His response, when you only get to pick from bad or worse, you can't win.

Don can be ok, but make no mistake, He'll stab you in the back at the drop of a hat. Of the two, I did like Don better, though.

Scott

 

Yep... Camping out... Thought the picture would help explain the user name.

 

So you know where I'm coming from, I had a saying, I don't care how much you put on the table, I'm only interested what I get to keep. I rarely included the fsc in my picks. You add it to the truck gross, then deduct it right away when you fuel up. I only saw maybe a half dozen of those high dollar loads. Out and back in a day. Never saw one going to EGV. I kept accurate records of what the dollar amounts that came across the quall comm. I'd say about 75% of the time, the fsc that I actually saw on the settlement, wasn't the number I was told. The blanket reply was "the fsc is just an estimate". Yeah, right.

 

Well, there is a little bit of truth in that. If you just happen to like a certain load going out, for whatever reason, easy load. but it puts you into a bad area where you have to deadhead out every single time, quit running it. Nobody is more interested in you making it than you are. You have to look out for yourself as much as possible. Can you still catch a junk load every now and again. Absolutely! But if that's all you pull, your not even trying to get ahead. You have to be proactive, its your business to run.

 

I don't put up with that nonsense. If they cant tell me what the load pays, I don't run it. If it comes out different, there better be a very good explanation. And once the money is on the QUALCOMM, that better be the bottom pay. Then the accessorials and extras go on top. If someone is playing games with payroll, forget the terminal manager and call Jackson. Get ahold of someone with enough weight to do something about it.

 

Like I said, a lot of loads went to places Miller wouldn't even try to get back hauls. The 3M plant in Hutchinson MN paid ok, but 100% of the time, come back empty. The pulp mill in northern MI? head back empty. Totally different story down south. Sure you had to dead head a bit to a terminal, or tank wash, but you would at least get a halfway decent load that only paid backhaul rates.

The more we talk, it sounds like Gary was really on the take. You seem to be doing well and are content. I did 197K the first year and 205K the second. I left 230K and for 2014, I did 235K. In 2 years, I lost close to 60K. Now everybody's situation is different. Some guys aren't married, some don't have kids, no mortgage, whatever. My situation is different than most. Just this health insurance I'm forced to buy is around $450 a month. OOPS, i meant $450 a week. Plus Illinois is a very expensive state to live in. 2 kids with special needs. Oh yeah, no matter what I did, I could count on one good settlement check a month, one ok one. And 2 bad. Like clockwork.

 

I talked to Eric Hanson in retention, I talked to a LOT of people. All said the same thing. The exact same thing. FSC was and estimate only. Sometimes they were off, maybe, $5. Sometimes it was more like $25. Once in a while I got more than what I was told. I'd say it was about 50% that it was spot on.

Did you ever get a load sent to you that had nothing but zero's where the rates were supposed to be? Don would always tell me it was so new that it hadn't been rated yet. He got tired of me telling him I wouldn't pull the load if I didn't know what the rate was. I got tired of telling him that.

 

Well friend, it's been fun talking with you, but I half to put my battery cables on (corroded ends) and hit the sack. Stay safe, bye

Scott

 

I can agree that Lansing sucks for a terminal, but are you saying you had a hard time making it on 197k gross? I'm a little lost on the 1.10 thing, it would take 179k miles to hit 197k gross at that rate. No one that I know at miller could turn that kind of mileage. I will say that if you need 230k plus to make it, miller will fall short of that goal. I can also agree on the management. Best of luck to you