Give me the truth please...

I'll take your 36 hour 6 figure job and give you my truck. Don't do it is all I will say. You could buy a nice used truck and run local part time. Sounds like you can afford to truck for fun with your real job.

 

If you are really going to do this, start out small and get a used 26' box truck with a lift gate, etc...something to differentiate yourself from the herd. Talk to the suppliers of the hospital group you are at and see if you can get any of the local P&D work ( Pick-up and Delivery ) that they potentially sub-contract out. Insurance would be easier to get on a "local" box truck and you could "get your feet wet" for about $20,000. If you still like it after that, either sell the truck, and get a tractor trailer, or hire a guy for the local stuff and go a lil' more regional with the tractor / trailer combo. If the box truck doesnt work out then sell it for 10,000 and your out $10,000. Not a big loss in your case. Six figures for 36 hours must mean you are a CNA or something similar?

 

He don't wanna drive no wussy box truck.

 

Buddy let me just save you a whole lot of headaches and grief... Just give me the 100 grand and forget you ever had it saved.

There are a lot of good men and women out there, but they already have a job. Chances are that you will find yourself dealing with w temperamental adult child that will most likely trash your truck and leave it sitting on the side of the road with garbage in the fuel tanks... that's after he sells the new tires and the fuel out of it. Seen it with my own eyes... I thought about being a fleet owner, but though differently after seeing the misfits on the road, and its not getting any better either. Grown men acting like children... I'm not running the northeast... I don't run in the snow... I don't like it out west... I want to be home every weekend and God help you if they don't get their way. If someone tells you different, then they have been hiding under a rock or is new to trucking and still in their honeymoon stage and reality hasn't set in yet.

The trucking business is a dirty dog eating dog business and its all about keeping from getting screwed over cause there will always be someone willing to use you and leave you to file bankruptcy at the end of the day and move on to the next sucker.

Do you realize that you spend 125 grand on a truck that you depreciate annually and at the end of 5 yrs your left with a pc of equipment that is almost worthless ?

Do yourself a favor and invest it in a proven franchise like a subway or pizza hut, I'm being serious here. with all the money I have invested in trucking over the past 18 yrs and a O/O, I could have had a franchise with equity in it instead of equipment that is only worth 1/4 of my investment..

I realize I sound jaded, but I'm not really.... its just not like it used to be with all the new laws and restrictions and taxes and expenses. I love what I do, but hate that I've become the center of political attention with little regard of how it is effecting me economically and emotionally (stress).

Get ya a camper and travel for 2 weeks out of the yr... you'll enjoy life a lot better.

6 figures a yr ? I would sell my truck and trailer for a 50 grand a yr job with benefits and have a normal life again. I might even have time to go fishing or have a real vegetable garden...

 

you dno't sound jaded. you basically said the same thing i said. but you said it with a story. LOL.

and for the record. 3 years ago a pharmacist took up this very same dream. maybe you all could do a little research and reading his thread. instead of egging the op on to do the same thing.

not everyone wants to end up divorced and living under a bridge.

 

haulin gravel is what i do, just to let you know,people want their gravel when they want it not when you want to haul it. if you are not available on said day they find someone else, job over. good luck on your vision.

 

I'd stay a nurse my girlfriend is one and her pay is much better.

 

Many good answers here but you may want to double check that hours of service rule. Your nursing job has nothing to do with DOT hours. I work for the railroad as an engineer and also drive dump trailer for a guy part time on the side. I know for a fact those 2 jobs do not coincide as far as hours of service go. I verified this twice with a DOT man and the FRA guy myself.