Rates are crashing and fuel to the moon!

He said for 292k. He would do it for 50k miles. Which is crazy

 

Things are dead around Detroit. So many Companies set up here trying to get a slice of the Automotive. Plenty of Independents with Authority too. Rates typically aren’t good going out, coming in, too close to Chicago. Terrible area to be based from. I delivered a Load of tires on Tuesday. Looked all week for a decent Load. Finally booked 3 Loads. Picking up now, ( if they can get me the correct p/u # $2.26 loaded on 1017 miles. Terrible. Next Load is $2.54 on 944 miles. 3rd Load is $4.00 on 500 miles. Empty Thurs afternoon in a crappy part of Pa. Probably won’t have time to P/U on Thursday. So the week will be $6700 on 2461 miles. $2.72 Loaded. Including DH, ( mainly from home ) $2.55 all miles @ 2629 total miles. Fuel math is easy. $ 1.00 pm cost. So Net is $1.55 after fuel on 2629 miles. Guess I’ll have to be happy to get it right now. It is what it is, as they say. And if this Moron doesn’t get Me my p/u # soon all will be cancelled. 2 days of my time wasted.

 

No baby food loads out of Sturgis, Michigan? Sounds like that's the new toliet paper shortage...

 

That's what I don't understand about people who do the whole drop a box of receipts off to the accountant once a year at tax time. You have no idea what is going on with your business in real time. Everyone should have a plan in place. There are preplanned numbers that if they get hit, everything is getting sold and the emergency fund that hasn't been touched in 10 years will get used to start another career debt free and not in a bind with my roof still over my head.

Came close a couple times due to medical problems. I've withstood 3 months off for surgeries 3 times so far, but the last one got real close. I plan on being out within the next year. I have a feeling another one is coming and I'm already on surgery #17 in life. I'm tired of trying to ride this stuff out time after time and clearly my body won't be letting me do this into old age. I have no problem riding out terrible economies and fuel, that's easy stuff.

 

I hate to hear that for you. Do you just plan to retire or something along those lines? One thing that is nice about trucking. No matter how bad things get you can always drive a truck and make a decent living, even if it means swallowing pride and going back to driving for a company.

 

I don't understand it either but I see a lot of it. All of a sudden a guy is out of business and he honestly can't tell you why. He worked his butt off and now he's broke. Nobody ever told him and he never asked about keeping track of his costs.
I was lucky. I was raised around small businessmen...crop dusters, ranchers, truckers, and commercial fishermen...and they all preached the same gospel. To them, knowing their costs, tracking their income, and making good buying decisions was just a part of doing business.
The thing I saw was that it was ongoing. None of this "drop a box of receipts on the desk" stuff.
You ask some of the guys on here what their expenses are and the answers will break your heart. Beyond fuel, tires, and maintenance, they don't have any idea of what they're spending. No set asides, no special accounts, no charted cost tracking. They don't understand depreciation. Some of them can't even figure the difference between gross income and net. They're hard workers, they're good drivers, they take care of their equipment, and that should be enough, right? I wish it worked that way.
Driving the truck is the easy part.
They figure they're making money because they still have some money left at the end of the month. This month anyway.

 

I plan on switching over to programming. It's something I've done for 25 years on my own so it shouldn't be much of a problem. My pay will get cut by more than half and take about two years to get back up there which is why I haven't done it already. I've finally reached a point financially that I can absorb that blow.

My problem is getting in and out of the truck and going down the road hurts more than throwing chains 4-5 times a day like I do now. 16 years ago a lady ran me over on my motorcycle and I've been in pain ever since and battling my body. I'm tired of doing a job that makes it worse. I'm tired of doing a job where I spend my weekends recovering rather than enjoying life. That's not to mention all the other stuff about trucking that sucks for us all.

 

Good that you have programming skills that could provide you with job opportunities when you leave trucking. Most people after 20- 30 years of trucking are too rusty to try anything else even if they came to this profession from other backgrounds that on paper should look quite lucrative but coming back to such professions is next to impossible. That's because of technological and industrial changes over the years. I guess there are different types of programming and different craft trades that don't change too much. For instance, once a carpenter, always a carpenter, once a bricklayer, always a bricklayer perhaps except for physical strength and stamina - which after 50 deteriorates exponentially unless you do something about it.

However,
with paid for equipment and established MC# (a few years) the fixed costs - costs of sitting at home while your MC is active (insurance, parking, IRP, drug consortium, UCR, HVUT - 2290, load board) can be quite bearable - in my case $1350 - 1400 (depending on load board subscription to DAT and Truckstop.com - the latter I may cancel entirely), but in my Chicago area locations, the parking rent may be quite high compared to other regions - I pay over $300. I think that even with that set up, it may not be such a bad part time while retired. Just working some days or every other week or even picking only most lucrative freight, if it happens to come your way. Still better - on the financial level - than working part times at grocery stores or Home Depot to supplement SS checks or not depleting your retirement funds too quickly. I am not there yet... at least 11 - 16 more years and I've lost heart for this profession to some degree too, but lately those thoughts about how to retire comfortably get on my mind more frequently.

 

48 degrees out this morning in Wytheville, VA as I'm walking to take a shower at about 0200, just couldn't help but notice that 80% or so of the trucks are just idling away...

Highest fuel prices in history....
Sinking freight volumes...
Parts shortage...

I'll bet lots of money half those guys are already crying that they're "barley making it"...
And they wonder why...

I know everyone needs to be comfortable but that's perfect truck off sleeping weather, no need to blow through $50 in fuel for nothing...


Maybe I'm wrong?