Double Yellow's Company Driver to Independent Thread

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Geez man. Hopefully you're good to go for a while now with you not half assing anything and fixing it right. BTW, what in the hell cost 4500 on the apu?

 

DY,

I am starting out very much in the same manner that you did. Im a new driver with Conway, OTR. I like the company, it was exactly what I needed to start off in the industry. I am not a person to sit idle or stay in one situation for very long and am always thinking BIGGER. I pride myself on trying to make processes as efficient and effective as possible, but I do not have the well honed analytical mind that you have, Im a more "Dangerous end toward enemy" type of thinker.

I have looked at the Lease offers, not really for me, to much overhead with what essentially amounts to no income guarentee. I like the idea of a used truck, but with a budget of more around the $30,000 mark. Mostly for the creature comforts, and the ability to be 50 state legal right off the bat.

My thought on eventually becoming independent is to buy a truck at the end of my initial 1 year contract and then spend some time as an OO with the company and then go the independent route. Is there any reason that you didn't do it this way? If so would you care to share your reasons?

This is a great thread, extremely informative and well thought out. Big thanks for putting all of your cards on the table, please keep it up!

 

Yup seeing that just made up my mind once and for all. Going with a Honda generator and rooftop (maybe) AC

 

how much will rooftop ac affect fuel mileage

 

Thanks for the response DY. I agree on the Company job, not much room for growth or to reward ambition, the reward is on time/mileage, and there is nothing you can do to increase that curve other than be as efficient as possible and run as much as you can, thats the system I am using now. I don't know how much effect building good relationships is really making, but I consider it good practice for the future, that being said, I still don't like the feeling of sitting in someone else's truck and having the growth ceiling over my head. It a personal preference, nothing more.

I am not sure what trucks to look at as of yet, I just know the amount I am comfortable spending on an initial purchase. My thought was an older truck that had already gone through some of the major repairs/upgrades that you have experienced this past year. If I could find an older truck with a meticulous do it right style of owner, that would be right up my alley even if I had to pay a little more. I have a lot to learn about trucks and mpg, and motors......thats why I read almost 100 pages of posts in 2 days!

My original thought was a decent higher mileage volvo with an automatic. After reading posts on your thread I realize I should be making the most of becoming proficient at using the 13 speed I am currently driving.....it seems to be the standard as far as "versatility" is concerned for lack of a better word. Just an example of what I have to learn, there is a lot of information to sort through.

I have seen that a lot of the OO programs leave most of the money in the pocket of the company, even more so with the lease deals. My thought was that as a new driver I could still have the "protection" of a big company umbrella over my head while I took a year or so to experiment with running my business as efficiently as possible, before venturing into the independent world. There are a few reasons for this...1)I have a substantial amount of "Life Overhead", a house, a wife and kids and all of what it takes to support them, so I have to try and mitigate any giant hiccups in my income, 2) I have no idea how to run the boards, or what systems are out there to help me run a business, I think I will need the year or two to learn and sort all of that out in regards to what will work for me, 3) choosing the niche market on where I will focus the efforts of my business, and 4) if I can track my performance over this next year or two, I will have some substantiating evidence on my delivery record, mpg averages, and how efficiently I can run a truck, ect. ect. With reports pulled from my 730 or from ScanGauge (thanks for posting about that resource) I will be able to show something viable in my business plan. That will be good for me personally as it would reflect my own actual performance and not a hypothesis on what I think I can achieve....I tend to bite off more than I can chew most of the time!

I plan to keep reading and keep learning, this is a great forum with great contributions. I hope I can be a good addition.

 

there's more to consider than the fuel. you have hours on the engine #1. and #2 more and more we are finding that idling is just terrible on a big diesel. I'm not 100% certain why that is, but the dannythetrucker hypothesis is that when an engine is under load each joint, i.e. piston to rod, rod to crank, crank to cam, crank to trans. etc... has torque on it. When idling it is not forced tight and therefore free to wobble even the slightest gap is being oblonged and worn out over time. big engines want a load, and the other part is that all the engineering that goes into an engine is for it to perform at max. we want horsepower without generating too much heat, we want boost without more torque than can be handled. idling is an afterthought, leaving your engine to do it all night to run the A/C or heater is killing your engine. While I value my fuel savings at $30/night or so running my gen rather than idle, I think the saving in wear and tear on my engine is probably equal to that or greater.