Double Yellow's Company Driver to Independent Thread

I used the followme app

 

As for why -- it mainly comes down to being burnt out on trucking in general. It doesn't help that after 5 years of poker followed by 5 years of dry van OTR, I'm now in the shape of a marshmallow peep.

Why June 2016? Because insurance, plates, hvut, etc is all coming due.


What next? Aside from joining a gym, I'll put more time as well as capital into real estate. And I'll be putting a lot more time into stock picking (thanks to buying DNR @ $0.98, I've made more this year in stocks than trucking).

And who knows maybe I'll also write a "how to be an owner operator" book for dummies (because failing at something makes you uniquely qualified to write about how others should do it). Plus I still have a few ideas I'd like to patent.

 

Aside from suicidal 4-wheelers throughout memorial day weekend, this was also a final straw (remember I have no physical damage insurance):


Just outside Sidney, NE on Monday:



3 funnel clouds:


1 developed into a tornado that touched down ~ 1/2 mile away:







At this point I took shelter inside a brick rest area. 10 minutes later I came out to find it had dissipated:




Black Swans:
Rare, generally catestrophic events that are not present in predictions/models. Named because it was once assumed that there were no black swans (there are).


Example: Long Term Capital Management was crushing the market until Russia defaulted on its bonds in 1998. LTCM just couldn't fathom a super power failing to honor its obligations, so they had no protection against default. The result:


Nassim Taleb, the author who popularized the idea, believes black swans are unpredictable and only obvious in hindsight. Dr. Michael Burry, the neurologist hedge fund manager who made a fortune predicting the housing crash, obviously disagrees (he sent the following photo to his investors in 2008):



I'm in camp Burry, and I think trucking has lots of black swans that folks ignore as long as everything is going OK. Aside from the potential for extreme weather events, other black swans might be:

• blown engine (kinda tame, but I've seen it put people over the edge)
• slip & fall -- permanent disability? Even with insurance, you'll never be made 'whole'
• accident & subsequent lawsuits (the more you have, the more you stand to lose)
• imprisonment (a Con-Way driver got 6 months in jail for parking & asking for directions, not noticing the trailer was obstructing a rail road as a train came)
• Illness (skin cancer, lung cancer, etc)

These are rare events, but they do occur. Are you being adequately compensated for ALL the risks you take on the road? Trucking is the 8th deadliest job in America (and the 2nd most injury-prone).

 

@skateboardman yup, just make sure the risks are reflected in the rewards.

@sawmill thanks, I'll stick around -- lots of good reading here (your thread and blairs stand out)