You aint gonna believe this... Yet Another Ic Choice thread move over DFO!

Honestly, it takes about 6 months before you're good at it, and about a year before you're real good at it.

One thing to add (sorta) to the above, don't be afraid to book that $1.00 load if it gets you to a better place and it the miles are relatively short, (~300).
I routinely book loads out of Texas going to Florida that pay $1.65 on 1100 miles knowing the best I'll get is $1.05 out of Aubrndale going to Macon. But, it averages out to about $1.50 +/- for the whole trip. Recently took a $1.21 +/- load out of San Antonio 150 miles to Laredo to pick up a $1.61 load that ran 1900 miles to NJ.....paid nearly $3,000 for 3.5 days work and ran me over the weekend.

What you said about the weekends is spot on; remember, the same applies to the holidays.

Time management has come fairly easy for me and partly, or mostly, because it's the way I run. I don't like trying to find a place to park much after 5:30 or so. Therefore, I'm typically up at 5:30, roll at 6 and with a couple of short breaks and lunch thrown in, I'm running between 500 and 600 miles a day, using only about 10 hours of my clock, being real productive, and parking between 5 and 5:30. Next day, rinse and repeat. Almost every week I have hours to run on my 8th day......can't think of a time in the recent past when I didn't have at least 6-8 hours. Try it and see how it works for you.

Most of all, it's good to see that you're having fun at it. It truly is a great job and I love it.....I could NEVER be a company driver again. Keep after it, you'll be on the winning side in no time. Oh, and get the heck out of the Northeast.....I go in, and get out the next day....Ohio a good way to get out.

 

I am hoping to come into this with at least $20,000 in the bank and luckily for me, my wife's income more than covers all of our household expenses (very little debt). If that wasn't the case I would certainly want at least 6 months of living expenses covered before taking the leap.

I won't plan on seeing a profit immediately (if it happens GREAT) and I don't plan on taking a salary until I hit a comfort level. If after one year I can't make it, than I probably would never make it.

 

I really want to do IC but have no money saved yet. I want at least 5k saved before I jump in.

 

How long do they give before they start taking lease payments out of settlement?

 

Another tip might be no week long vacations when your first starting out, lol. I'm sure that didn't help.

 

EXCELLENT advice EW. Thank you for taking the time to spell this out.

 

I do that on a regular basis. I will go in, but I rarely stay lol