Being an O/O under a Carrier's Authority

Heading back to NJ. I am looking to maximize my time this month. A week of downtime and spending 3000.00 in maintenance made for a poor month. Even with all that expense I still made 975.00 after all expenses.

 

Since the service things have been good. It did its first regen yesterday while driving; first one in two weeks. It was doing it every 2-3 days before. Hasn't used a drop of oil in 5000 miles and no longer using coolant. Not sure why the coolant issue stopped; I was adding 1/2 gallon every 10 days before. Only issue left is the passenger steer tire. The driver side is just fine but the passenger is wearing the outside shoulder. It is at 9/32 while the rest of it is at 15/32. The Centramatics have helped a lot. I don't notice the nice shine on it after a day of driving and wearing. The truck does pull right slightly but not all the time.

The Jersey loads I have been getting are really light and I lucked out with a light backhaul too. Start the month right with 1.40 a mile all miles and 9.9 MPG overall.

 

I like these guys and all but their reliance on brokers created problems. Been empty since yesterday morning and they can't find a load. Usually what loads they do get are dirt cheap. I have told the ops manager several times that stuff like that makes me seriously reconsider a future with them. I'm making money and all but it is very hit and miss and they don't express a willingness to obtain customers anywhere other than Arkansas. I expect more from a company that has been around for 20+ years and has 105 trucks running OTR.

 

105 company trucks and and I believe they 10 or 11 owner op/ lease guys. They don't own any trucks but lease all of them from the dealer.

Just got the reload and it pays me .74 cpm, 1.027 per mile to the carrier, to take 42 - 45k pounds to Birmingham. Really sucks. That will bring my RPM down to 1.34 all miles for the month. I'm still above 1.30 so I am doing alright but getting hit with these cheap broker loads really takes the wind out of my sails. These loads I am doing up here are really light and pay me 1.98 a mile. If I were doing regular freight up here and doing something that cheap out it would make for a really poor trip.

 

I would enjoy access to their board to do that but I highly doubt that will happen. If it were me I would run a shorter haul to a slightly better area and then work back to the AR, MO, OK area. They'll broker me again out of AL to AR.

I had a lead on one that would pay me 1.05 to MI and out of MI pay me 1.15 back to AR a few miles from the terminal but I couldn't get everyone to touch base in time to grab it. I think my company didn't appreciate me doing that. He told me he would get me a load and they don't want me bouncing around even though it would pay quite a bit more. Makes no sense if you ask me.

 

That 1.98 is my pay; actual rate is 2.75. I definitely want more but I am waiting to build up my experience and would consider other opportunities. In September I have 2 years experience and will open lots of doors.