Lepton1's transition from door swinger to flatbed

Dad taught all us kids to play, and he learned it in the Coast Guard. It's a wonderful game. I've yet to get a 29. That's like a hole-in-one.

 

The 5' bar is not a bad idea at all. I've made do with my winch bar, which moves even the heaviest of collars or motors if the deck is fairly level. Rocks or a piece of rag suit to hold them in place temporarily.

As far as the line jumpers that one day, I blame the forklift driver for going to the last truck in line to start the four truck caravan to the back of the pipe yard. However, if I were the last in line I'd politely inform the forklift driver to alert each truck along the way and start the parade with the first driver. As it turned out that was instant karma, the three trucks that got loaded on a local haul paying $500 to the truck and having to sit on it overnight got exactly that. I got $375 to the truck for "No Truck Needed" and then got $5000 TTT for a round trip to Pennsylvania.

One thing I've learned from my mother MSRIP is patience. She was a saint when it came to patience and ascribing the best of intentions to folks even when first impressions might have you jumping to conclusions otherwise.

 

Straps sure take a beating in this business. The truck owner is on vacation. When he gets back this week I'll need to review our straps and get at least six replacements.

 

With yhe bank account increasing, I'm planning when to take a week off to fly out and drive back with her. She has real difficulty with cold weather, so it may be she'll need to winter in California with our daughter. Time will tell.

 

This job does have some swings on revenue. I've calculated averages for the first 60 days on the job and it works out to about $1350/wk gross pay for me as a driver, or about $5400 TTT. Paid miles average $3.46/mile and all miles average $2.73/mile. This is during some of the slowest times in the industry.

I've made some connections with a couple of owners at the heavy haul terminal in OKC and will be continuing our discussions. There's a couple of trucks over there that need drivers, but I want to have more experience under my belt before tackling HWH.

Meanwhile I've been encouraged by the terminal manager/owner and some of the other O/O's to go ahead and buy my own truck and become an O/O myself. My brother will be laid up at least until the end of this year, recovering from surgery, and he's pretty serious about giving me a great deal on his '03 KW T2000.

What I don't want to do is get into a truck without any reserve. However, several of the current O/O's and the terminal owner note that many of the successful O/O's started out with nothing in reserve.

Might be time to start seriously crunching the numbers and build a business plan.

I've become comfortable with the variety of loads on the deck, knowing right away where I want dunnage to go for most efficient loading of "mixed" bottom tools, how to secure heavier pieces, build a sub box, etc. While I've dealt with floods and heavy rains, the one thing I haven't done yet is work through a winter. I may want to get a winter under my belt before taking on becoming an O/O.

Decisions... decisions....