So it begins

Slowly, unfortunately. I'm currently waiting on the Colorado title to be processed and sent to my finance company so the Arkansas IRP office can request it, change it to an AR title and send it back. That's the last step in the process and we all know how quickly the DMV handles things.

I've secured a trailer to lease from a former employer who I'm still on great terms with; a 2015 Big Tex 28+5 I'm going to lease until I can get my own. I have insurance on truck and trailer and got a DOT inspection and stickers this past week. Pre employment drug test is done, lease agreement and assorted paperwork has been signed... Its just a waiting game now.

In the good news department, my sis and brother in law are letting me use their rig to make a few runs this week at a 25% cut of gross so I at least have some kind of income while I wait. I'm typing this from the Exxon truck stop in Smiths Give, KY. Loaded yesterday out of Arkansas delivering to Morgantown, WV Monday, then a short run from OH to IN delivering Tuesday and hopefully something routed back towards the house after that, as they have a trip booked for next Friday that they're running.

 

This thread isn't dead and neither am I!

After literal months of going round and round with the dealership, the Colorado dept of revenue, the credit union who financed my truck and the Arkansas IRP office, everything is FINALLY sorted out and I got plates on my truck yesterday. All the legal t's have been dotted and i's crossed and I can finally go trucking.

At what may be the worst possible time to jump into this business. Because I'm smart like that.

What I'm counting on to be my saving grace is lower operating costs and the contacts the company I'm leasing to has built up over the last year. Which isn't to say I'll be taking cheap freight. Just that I can afford to run less if the freight isn't there until (and if) the market picks back up a little.

 

I picked up my first load this afternoon, a forklift going from NLR, AR to Harviell, MO. Almost no miles to pickup, 188 miles loaded @ $2.39 TTT.

After dropping it, I dead headed over to Mountain Grove, where I'm loading in the morning going to Sioux Falls, SD. 590 miles @ $1.65 TTT. Drop Friday morning and no plans after that just yet. Hopefully I'll have a load to run over the weekend. If not, I may drop down to Nebraska and visit a friend. Either way, I'll keep ya updated!

 

Thanks! I took the back seat out a few weeks ago. Been debating on taking the passenger seat out but it wouldn't make a huge difference in available room and its good for holding stuff, so I've left it for now. My truck is an '04 dodge quad cab and not the fancy new super extended models, so I have more room side to side than I would front to back. Its no Hilton, but it'll do for now. I figure if it gets too bad, I'll break it up with a motel room now and then.

 

Well, I took a beating coming out of SD. My options were either spend the weekend there, since nothing was posting Friday, or do some Ushipping (I know, I know) back to AR and cover my fuel for a load going to Yuma Monday at $1.31 TTT. So I went with door number 2. Its relatively light too at 6k and I've been averaging 12 mpg today so I'm not mad about it.

In the good news department, we made a direct contact with a company in Missouri that we've hauled for multiple times. One less middleman is more money in my pocket.