Hauling Asphalt as an Owner Operator

Hi veehood, I hauled "schluck" for a while, as a company driver, but we had many O/O's that hauled with us.
pros: Pays well, better than a rock hauler, you don't burn a lot of fuel, your truck isn't subjected to the horrors of off road dump trucking, regular (daytime) hours, pretty easy work having a paver chase you, no guess work as far as weight(usually load on a scale)
cons: pretty hard to get into( many O/O's have had contracts with paving co.'s a long time, and come back year after year), union differences( most of the paving employees are union, O/O's usually aren't), no work in winter(if applicable), it's HOT, and we used to soak the box with fuel oil, which insured it all came out, now outlawed, and one must use soap suds, which doesn't do near as good a job, meaning some always gets stuck in the corners that has to be chiseled out( however, many old-timers brought their own sprayer filled with fuel oil, but you didn't hear that from me)

 

Well, I live in Wisconsin, and I got laid off and collected U/C, but the O/O's hauled salt or snow, which, if I remember barely paid for their fuel, but they made enough during the warm months to kind of offset that. Not sure about your area, but I heard quad axles are up to $100/ hr. around here for asphalt.