Double Yellow's Company Driver to Independent Thread

I just caught up on your thread and looked at all the charts and graphs. I think I will have to get my tire spoon out to pry my eyes straight. I keep wondering about adding lift axles to my trailer and wonder if it would save enough to pay the investment. I was thinking of adding a lift kit on first and third axle. I know it should make a difference when dead heading home 2500 miles empty. Unfortunately, British Columbia has some requirements that make lift axles pretty expensive. Also the roads in Alaska and Yukon are pretty rough and I keep wondering how much tire flat spotting I would end up with the lifted tires hitting bumps at speed.

I did buy a brand new truck and so far I am doing okay after having run 3.5 month and close to 40,000mls. I had the ac fixed under warranty and my first service was about $480.00. That included all four fuel filters as well and 57qts of Delo. My maintenance and repairs are pretty high due to the bad roads, temperature extremes and heavy weights. I just got up North and weighed 88,380lbs. I am working on fuel mileage and have slowed now down an average of 5mph for the trip. I used to average about 56+ on the 2500mile trip and on this one I was at 51,7mph. I just got 5.0mpg on this North bound trip and this is a 0.5mpg after some ECM changes. Western Star is working on improvements and we will dyno the truck and see how the engine really performs.

 

It would be an interesting project, you could slap it on there pretty quick if you wanted or clean up and paint the frame and all new wiring, brake lines, fuel lines as needed, patch and paint any blemishes on the hood, etc... bushings or whatnot on suspension. But yah, assuming drivetrain in good shape I don't see why you couldn't make it into a finished product on par with a new glider for under $40,000 with that cab. You already got a rebuilt 12.7, you're on your way.

 

I would be all over a brand new Western Star cab like that for $10k!

 

Thanks DY! Just finished reading from the top. I gotta say I'm proud of you, jumping with both feet, with 2 years less under your belt than me!

I like baby steps, which I'm regretting at the moment. I bought a truck in Feb. and am leased to a container hauler. (What I was doing as a company driver.) The difference now is I'm not making any money!

Very interesting this rate vs time of day booked. I'm wondering the PU time of these afternoon bookings? Immediate? First thing tomorrow? Later tomorrow? I'm a late riser so I'm wondering how to use this to my advantage in a local operation.

 

I came up with my own approximate formula. Just wish I knew it beforehand. With my numbers since starting in Feb it comes out pretty close too. This probably only works if your revenue kinda sucks like mine. Take your gross, put 1/3 in your pocket, put 1/3 in the tank, and spend the other 1/3 keeping the truck legal and running. I think if I made some more it would still hold as I'd have the ability to invest more in the truck. Of course if you're doing well revenue wise a good goal is to put half in your pocket?

 

What I do is probably wrong but seems to work. I keep everything after fuel in my business account and transfer to my personal account only what we need to pay the bills, including a few once a month good sized checks to different retirement and growth accounts. As long as that business account had a nice strong balance, there is always money there to keep the truck running in good shape.