Double Yellow's Company Driver to Independent Thread

C'mon there has to be somebody like JP Morgan or Brooks who monitors this industry on behalf of corporate clients and I think that information would be nice to have before you begin a negotiation with a broker

 

double yellow is all about facts and figures
so in the interest of accuracy
you can't support him past 100%

 

No one has accurate figures, most big companies don't pass out that info. I tell no one what my loads pay, best way to get undercut.

 

awesome thread!!! subscribed......

 

119 pages later, I'm here.

fantastic thread DY. Took me days of reading on breaks and before bed.

I'm glad to see you're doing well after watching my father fail at fixing an older truck and running a business for various reasons.

1. He bought a truck ready for the junk yard.

2. He cannot manage money, and spends the trucks money like it's his.

He now has a red kw yard ornament and hauls grain for a company driving their truck.

My plan is to do things slightly different than both him and you. Because like everyone, my situation is not the same.

I am currently in a lease with a mega. We run as a full team (couple).
My current plan is to finance the buyout of my truck with a ~15k down payment next year.

The truck will have ~250,000 miles on it and I will be financing around 95k after down payment.

However, I've had the truck since 70k. I've been personally responsible for its maintenance (160k now). And have changed oil every 30k and gotten oil samples every oil change.

Cummins uses extended life filters and recommends 50k intervals, but I know what to look for in oil... once it starts getting thin I can see my pressure at idle drop 3-4 lbs at temperature, generally right around 30k miles, and this is where ive become comfortable changing it at.

The engine doesn't use any oil or coolant to speak of and I keep my idle time extremely low because we don't sit for 10 hour breaks every night. So the dpf filter and emission systems don't see as much soot.

By the time I go to buy the truck I will have had a year to "test drive" it and be sure it's not a problem truck.

I have Bridgestone m710 ecopia tires on drives along with crossfires to keep my pressures regulated.

Bridgestone steers are ecopias but don't remember the model. Truck does 8.0- 8.5 regularly unless grossed out in the mountains.

We run alot of expedited freight so we cannot run 55 in direct. However, my sweet spot for top gear on my 13 speed seems to be 66 @ 1325 rpms.

My plan is to lease onto a company that pays percentage as I'm not quite ready to get my own authority. (Although my cousin already has his when I get ready to do so). Probably pulling a 53" flat, I have a plan for a supersolo operation pulling flat freight that I think can do pretty well.

I feel like if I can pay two drivers on 1.12 a mile and put 15 cpm in maintenance every week on team miles, I can do really well on 1.80 - 2.00+ all miles freight.

Anyway, I'm rambling...I feel like I know you personally after reading all this and just wanted to share. You're helping alot of people here, and I really appreciate the invaluable information. I'd also appreciate any candor you have on my plans.

 

@spectacle13 you should look for posts from @NoCoCraig or check out their blog. Husband and wife team that did and are doing pretty much what you're considering. I don't see Craig posting on TTR much any more, but I'd expect him to respond via a contact link on the blog. I've followed their posts for years and had the opportunity to meet them in person a couple of times. Great people to know and a ton of information in their posts.

 

Welcome to the thread @spectacle13. Where is your home base?

 

I'm actually from florida, my fiance/co-driver is from GA and I have family in both.

We give a GA address for hiring purposes and I bobtail south to visit family on hometime. I also have people I visit a couple times a year that I Consider family in east tennessee.

We pretty much live in the truck, all our stuff is in a storage unit in GA except my motorcycle, which is in my grandpa's garage in fl.

 

The south in general is a good area to work as a carrier.

I would encourage you to learn your numbers as you drive under contract to this carrier and learn as much as you can about shipping lanes and rates, Including where the dead freight spots are in the areas you will typically run.