Running with JCT

Trafficcontrolxl · Sep 8, 2013

Soule_Man said: ↑

Well today was another good running day. A roller coaster ride up and down from Santa Rosa NM to Phoenix AZ. I ended up running 596 miles in 9 hr and 12 minutes. Not too bad but I did get my fuel mileage up to 7.3mpg . That is running at an average of 65 or so mph and I am weighing out at 76000 lbs. So I am definitely starting to get used to how it drives. I will drop in the morning at 5am and then hopefully get a big run.
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Those are some great numbers. I'm at 7.1 on 1200 miles since putting the beast back on the road. I fueled up last night in Cheyenne and made it'd to Mccamon Id at 7.3 with the normal variety of Wyoming winds. As for weight well when I topped off I was sitting at 80580 knowing I would burn enough fuel to be legal when I cross Inkom in the morning.

Soule_Man · Sep 8, 2013

I saw the beast in the yard the other day when I was leaving. Them are some awesome numbers for that truck and that weight. It sure did look good in the yard too.

Trafficcontrolxl · Sep 8, 2013

Thanks !!!!

luvtotruck · Sep 8, 2013

Soule_Man said: ↑

Well today was another good running day. A roller coaster ride up and down from Santa Rosa NM to Phoenix AZ. I ended up running 596 miles in 9 hr and 12 minutes. Not too bad but I did get my fuel mileage up to 7.3mpg . That is running at an average of 65 or so mph and I am weighing out at 76000 lbs. So I am definitely starting to get used to how it drives. I will drop in the morning at 5am and then hopefully get a big run.
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That is AWESOME! You sound like you are running good, I hope you go way way east! Not wishing anyone goes NE! But East East is good!

vikingswen said: ↑

Is anyone of you guys at the TA in Ontario East? I saw a couple of JCT trucks when I got in a little while ago.
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800+ Trucks I bet they are not even on this forum! But I certainly hope they join up! They could Hi-Jack Sharpps Thread like the rest of us!

Sharpp said: ↑

Another big day today. Jamestown, NM to Tehachapi, CA for 641 miles and, get this, 9.3 mpg! I was shooting for 8.5 with all the downhill, but this load (barely 12k lbs) feels like an empty trailer. That brings my total for the week up to 2811 miles at 7.8 mpg on the Qualcomm with a day and a half left. I'm less than 100 miles to my drop and hook in the morning. The question on everybody's mind (well, on MY mind!) is where to next?

Porterville puts me in the neighborhood of a couple of good valley shippers. There's Leprino over in Lemoore and a couple of carrot shippers near Bakersfield. Leprino cheese has some big miles available. I ran from there to Dover, Florida at 2,600 miles in July. I'm always happy to be on one of the coasts. Those big loads can't start anywhere else!

I'm back on track for my 13,500 mile month. Well, at least temporarily! My logbook is a mass of burning rubble right now with all kinds of weird hours on the recap. I'll start tomorrow with 12.9 hrs, then pick up 3.8, 7.9, and 9.9 through Thursday. That juicy Dover load usually has some time built into it so maybe I can swing by the house and sit for a day.

Cash Flow

On my settlement for last Thursday, I got paid for only 1,640 miles. I just missed the deadline to get my Salinas to Ochelata load (1,813 miles) on that settlement. Durable readers may recall that after my 10 days off in August, I had two weeks of negative settlements ending up $5 in the hole, but a lot of fuel in the tanks at the end. That fuel helped make last week's short settlement total $793. The variable lease program is the bomb!

This week, I'll get paid for 3,758 miles. The Excel spreadsheet suggests that I earned about $1,665 on that at 7.2 mpg, but it depends on where the fuel gets paid for the actual amount. If I get a long trip and don't make the deadline for this week's settlement, then this week will be about 3,300 miles (I never saw the total miles for that Ft. Worth swap, I'm figuring about 1,730 miles with the d/h). At about 7.8 mpg that would be $1,550 for the week or $.47/mile profit! I LOVE MPGs! At 7.2 mpg my pay would have dropped to about $1,415, or $.43/mile.

Enough math for tonight. I'm going inside to watch the end of the game.
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The team that was supposed to win didn't win at least in my calculations!

This is very good information, But with the Settlements it all works out in the end!

I was thinking the other day, I wonder how difficult it would be to get JCT to give you 2 freebies a year? Or stretch out the payments to where the driver has 2 weeks a year for vacation, with kids still young enough I would like to continue my 2 weeks a year where we go and do things. I would still like to do that if I came to JCT!.

S_M Sorry I didn't get to come see the new truck and meet you tonight, My wife disappeared on me. Thanks.

Joker85 · Sep 8, 2013

I live by Apache Junction

Sharpp · Sep 9, 2013

luvtotruck said: ↑

I was thinking the other day, I wonder how difficult it would be to get JCT to give you 2 freebies a year? Or stretch out the payments to where the driver has 2 weeks a year for vacation, with kids still young enough I would like to continue my 2 weeks a year where we go and do things. I would still like to do that if I came to JCT!.
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That's the beauty of this new variable lease program. My fixed costs are now just $377/week. Soule_Man's are even lower on his 2014 because his APU is figured into his variable costs. I used to figure that I would use the quarterly safety bonus ($700, more or less) to justify taking time off. With my old lease payment my fixed costs were around $1,000. It killed me to sit at home figuring I was losing $150/day. With my new break-even figure of about 700 miles/week, I'm seeing a lot less negative settlements too.

There are some lease companies out there that have an interesting idea for vacations. Their lease is written so that there are 48 payments per year. In months with 5 Mondays, for instance, one of them would be a freebie. I think that's a great idea for the old lease, but the new lease makes it unnecessary, IMO.

Finally, I try not to look at JCT as an employer, but as my customer. I do them a service and they compensate me (however meagerly, lol). If I run my business well enough to make the money, then I can take some time off. It's important to you and your family to take time off together. I think that JCT has made it easier for all of us to do so.

Runnin · Sep 9, 2013

Sharpp said: ↑

That's the beauty of this new variable lease program. My fixed costs are now just $377/week. Soule_Man's are even lower on his 2014 because his APU is figured into his variable costs. I used to figure that I would use the quarterly safety bonus ($700, more or less) to justify taking time off. With my old lease payment my fixed costs were around $1,000. It killed me to sit at home figuring I was losing $150/day. With my new break-even figure of about 700 miles/week, I'm seeing a lot less negative settlements too.

There are some lease companies out there that have an interesting idea for vacations. Their lease is written so that there are 48 payments per year. In months with 5 Mondays, for instance, one of them would be a freebie. I think that's a great idea for the old lease, but the new lease makes it unnecessary, IMO.

Finally, I try not to look at JCT as an employer, but as my customer. I do them a service and they compensate me (however meagerly, lol). If I run my business well enough to make the money, then I can take some time off. It's important to you and your family to take time off together. I think that JCT has made it easier for all of us to do so.
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Very well put ! JCT is not your employer - a point of view that will set you up for a much greater shot at success. That should be a point presented at orientation, would be a new idea to many I bet.

luvtotruck · Sep 9, 2013

Sharpp, That is a very good thought, I would certainly be able to run like you guys do but when it is time to take the family to whatever I want to be able to!. I appreciate this. I'm leaning that way! I really appreciate this information.

TYSONDRIVER1 · Sep 9, 2013

Just wanted tell you guys thanks for all the info. Made me finally get off the fence. Orientation is set for 9/24.

TrukTuff · Sep 9, 2013

Howdy y'all. I just made my deliveries in Riverside, CA. It was awfully nice of JCT to dispatch me a load out of Sapulpa that picked up in Noel, MO> and had 2 deliveries here in Riverside, CA. (both at the same location). So I get the extra $40 for the extra stop and never had to move my truck. I'm sorry I missed everyone who was at the terminal last week (that includes you Terry... I saw your truck parked by the wash bay building). I arrived at the terminal on 09/03 and left on 09/06, after getting almost $2400 in service (including my built in refrigerator install). Now, I'm at Thermo King - Fontana, CA. because my APU is blowing nothing but hot air. I'm going to see if I can hold JCT responsible for the repairs as they just completed servicing my APU, and it was working fine before the service. I'm sure we'll get it all worked out in a satisfactory manner. BTW Sharpp, I had the shop reset the parameters on my truck when they did the 300k mile service, and I'm still getting the mid to high 6s for mileage. So I'm expecting it to get better after what you told me your experience was. Anyway, if any of you are out here in Southern California, let me know

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