The adventures of 'Team Klingon'

Ohh... that's a hard one... for us - yes for the most part... however the truck was just in the shop and the cost of that (the lease payment still has to be made + no money being made) really put us in a hole... thankfully we had some money put aside for 'maintainance'. We also don't have any health insurance right now... COBRA only lasts so long... so its really quite different for everyone. Believe me though - its not FOR everyone!! There is a LOT of risk involved... risk financially... so think it over really carefully before you commit to a lease.

 

We leased a 'company spec' truck (read no frills there) for $569/wk... the 'O/O spec' truck was another $60/wk for a refrigerator, side windows in the sleeper, and a passager side jocky box door... not going to pay $60/week for a frig, don't use the windows because one of us sleeps during the day and the jocky box would have been nice, but there is still access to the area by lifting up the bed. Its a 2012 Cascadia... We wanted a 'new' truck because of the warantee AND then we knew how it was taken care of, because WE are the ones taking care of it. It has only been the last month that 'stuff' needed to be fixed, besides recall items and maintainance. So we did 'OK'... however, now with this new lane/fleet, we are hoping for more consistance STEADY miles - paying off debits and setting $$ aside so we can purchase a truck - maybe not this one (unfortunately because we have $7000 aside for excess milage) but maybe a new one... need to be able to run in CA since we live there - LOL! At least that's the long range plan right now... we will see how loud and long God laughs now that we have a PLAN...

 

My main advice... do your research and know what you want... there are several 'starter' companies out there... I'm glad we went with Central and for the most part they have been good to us. You get out of it what you put into it. They are in the business to make money - if you make money in the mean time, good on you. Stick it out a year or two with a clean record, and you can then pretty much CHOOSE where YOU want to go...

 

Cut and pasted from my BLOG...

ROAD BLOCKS...

No not literally, but boy have we stumbled across some recently!

First, on our FIRST load with the new fleet, our truck developed a really not so nice problem... Fluids were going where they didn't belong. Coolant in the fuel, and fuel in the coolant... Second, the nearest place is the same one that kept us with the power steering repair (which still isn't working quite right) and I swore that we would NEVER go back there... (never say never...sigh) So it takes them a week to fix it, and we are at the house... Finally pick up our truck, loading it with our food/clothes and stuff and notice some fuel in our coolant, and coolant in our fuel again!! We are HOT... We take the truck BACK in and they say that we will need to run the truck to clean out the coolant from the fuel, and the fuel we see in the coolant is just the 'flush'... GRRR... Ok ... We will 'trust' you... So we get our load and take off... Whew! Back on the road... Doing good!! Get to our delivery, and then we sit.... We are picking up in the same place, but because they took so long to unload us, we are now late for our pick up! Didn't get out of there until 8 hrs PASSED our pick up time... So needless to say we were going to be late to our delivery... Then to make us even later... We develope a fuel leak!! We were having to drain the fuel filters to clear them of the coolant (like they told us to do) and because of that one of the gaskets gave way... Didn't notice it until after three hours of driving I had to pee... Got out, smelled diesel but I stopped at a truck stop, thought nothing of it... Got back to the truck and there was a BIG ### PUDDLE of fuel dripping from the complete underside of the truck!! So needless to say, that needed to get fixed... So after a tow, part running and labor costs (about $900+) we lost a day running... N Ow we are in So. Cal and delivered and picking up at the same building... Then back up to Rocklin... So yeah... A few road blocks, but we jumped over them and are still going... I must admit, one of the nice things (so far) about this new run... No dead head miles for this loop!! Now to see how that looks on the statement

Now adding to this... I must give Central some pats on the back... They have worked with us re: the lease payment for last week, as well as some downtime pay... They didn't HAVE to, but they did... And it will help... THANK YOU CENTRAL!

 

And the adventure continues... Now our fuel gauge isn't working... Ask me how I know... Go on, ask... Because it says we have 3/4 full and they are bone dry!! We are sitting along the road waiting on a service truck for fuel and to prime it!! Sigh...