Finally got my own truck

All right it's been a while. Big update here. I'm going somewhere I've never been to.

Came back out from home time last Wednesday.

Picked up at a place half a mile from where i park the truck. A place that I had contacted about direct freight. It was a TQL load so that kinda told me they were looking for cheap options. $650 for 350 miles close to Louisville. Pffft. Whatever. I took it, ended up having a conversation with the manager. Didn't go all that well. Told me to keep his business card and bug him every once in a while.

Louisville to SC next day $925 on 380 miles?

SC Friday I held out. Wanted to make up for the short week. I was asking high rates. Wanted at least $3000 to somewhere. Ended up booking a load to dead central Texas, somewhere an hour west of Ft Worth and then 45 min south. 1080 miles, 6,000 lbs, $2725. So well over $2.50/mi. Great rate to TX when I see crap go for less than a buck fitty.

The great thing about the load was that it went to a town where I have friends that I've known online for years and just had never met them so I ended up hanging out with them Saturday night and Sunday. Stayed the night, ate good food, went to church in the morning, watched a movie, played a board game, and played with their 4 kids. Had a great time and felt welcomed. They roast and make their own coffee and baked me a loaf of bread to take with me. Hope to go back there again.

My dispatch guy was able to get me $2/mi back to AL picking up only 15 miles away. Delivered that Tuesday south of Montgomery. Posted my truck and all hell broke loose.

Continuing this when I get on my laptop in 5 mins.....

Ok I'm back.

So I posted my truck in Greenville, AL and it blew up. I wasn't sure what the market was going to be like. I had missed the DOT week festivities and was really wanted to try and see if I could still cash in.

I was getting calls from 100+ miles away, mostly south. I think it had to do with high load volume and the fact that this tropical storm was coming through.

So eventually CHR calls me about 1:30pm. I know when CHR calls me, I'm getting paid.
She had a load going to Washington state. lol. Told her slowly and hesitantly (because I knew there was a chance it could be lucrative and I didn't want to turn her off just in case) that I really don't go up there, and that I'm probably not interested, then she said it paid fat money.

So I says that I think I'd need as close to $3/mi as she could get. It's a 2800 mile run of 30,000 lbs or less. She said she could pay $6,000. I never see that kind of money. I've seen loads going up there for just over $5,000 posted, but I never consider them. I told her I really appreciate the offer, but I have to think about what I could get for the week just staying in this half of the country. She said she understood, and then upped her offer to $6,800.

That stopped me dead in my tracks. I had not even seriously considered the load until she came up to that amount. Once she offered that kind of money, I knew she was serious about me moving her load. So I got quiet for a minute, and then asked her if I could call my boss and discuss the matter with him, and she said of course. So I did, I called my boss, talked it over, he told me that all I could do was tell her what I really needed, and if she said no, no big deal, my phone was still blowing up.

So I got my calculator out, and determined that I'd need at minimum $7,450. Which is $2.66 per loaded mile. That would give me enough revenue for the week to justify going there and taking cheap back east, and still do better than what I could average for two weeks just staying southeast. And I had always wanted to go up there but the opportunity never arose, and this was my chance. So if she happened to meet that rate, then I'd oblige.

I called her back, and told her that it doesn't look like it's gonna work, I understand that's big money, and I appreciate the offer but it's not quite enough to go so far out of my running area.

"I completely understand. What do you need to make it work?"
"$7,450 is what I'd need, bottom dollar, if it's a possibility, and I'd do the run".
"Ok, can you give me 5 minutes to call the customer?"
"My phone has been blowing up, but I will hold my truck for you for 5 minutes."
She put me on hold, came back 2 minutes later, told me her customer agreed to pay her $7,300 and that she'd eat the other $150.

So I'm going to Seattle, WA area.

Load ended up being 15,000 lbs, very low to the ground.

Possibility of it unloading Saturday about noon is when I could comfortably get there, barring any kind of catastrophe. Tomorrow I'll ask CHR again about it, as I couldn't get ahold of the receiver on the phone. That does kinda make me nervous. If I could unload Saturday and get a reload, take my 34 on Sunday, and already be 300 miles on my way back east, that would be sweet. But Monday would work as well.

So I'm currently sitting in Alzada, MT right in the very southeastern corner of the state, and tomorrow I'll be driving all the way through Montana, ending up probably in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho which will put me about 300 miles from customer. I did 260 on Tuesday, 747 yesterday, 760 today, and 740 tomorrow.

I haven't been up here before and I'm excited as *. And a little nervous, too. I don't know what to expect from the terrain, it's new territory, so I'm a little apprehensive. Not a whole lot, since I'm loaded light and low, but still.

But hey, I've been waiting for a jackpot load. It's nice to be able to just DRIVE and not have to think about brokers and loads for a few days and still make great money. It's a long friggin drive, for sure, longest load I've ever done by far. But it was the right circumstances. I wouldn't have done it for less. I'll gross $9,150 this week and so next week I'd only need like $5.000 to have back to back good weeks.

I figured out on my week off that I need $150,000 gross for the rest of the year to end up with $100,000 net total for the year after all business expenses, not including taxes. This is for 24 weeks. So $6,250 per week not including last week, which I started on Wednesday, and grossed $4,300. So if I get $5,600 next week, I'll be $6,500 ahead of my goal.

We'll see how I do but for right now I just want to concentrate on getting this load delivered safely and getting the heck out of Washington. I hope I can get at least $1.40/mi but we'll see. I've seen loads going from there to MT for well over $2/mi but then of course it's still crap coming out of MT. Maybe I can hop skip and jump my way back east but that will take a while.

Anyways I need to sleep. Have a big day tomorrow exploring Montana. I'll take US212 to where it meets back up with I 90 and take that all the way in. This 212 shortcut takes like 72 miles off of I 90 and it's still a good road.