To become independant or not?

oh gosh yes don't forget the health insurance.....mine just jumped to 2800 per quarter! one of the big factors for going under is an unforsen medical emergency........my husband has landed in the hospital 3 times in the last 10 years and it is not cheep besides being off workk for at least a week you still have the bill to contend with........the scary thing for us at our age is the risk of losing the health coverage if we work for someone else and lose that job!

 

I have a wife and young son and a big factor in what I can do is insurance availability. I'm young at 34 but i could be be in better shape, my wife is 44 and has things she should be getting taken care of that she's not because we don't have insurance right now and I don't even want to think about the extremely rambunxious 5yo son!

 

If you are getting 1.70 on average and have your rig paid and low bills, you should be licking your chops right now, thats not bad at all, considering the elements. Thats doing better than most by a long shot

 

he's not doing it right now. if he is then it's super short runs. I know what is on schneiders board and they are hurting like everyone else right now. Although it's not that far off

 

Schneider is hurting. I'm on their Choice program and man the load board looks like brokers got ahold of it in my area. The rates have dropped like a rockin the past 4 weeks.

I still can't understand poeples thinking about running for .80 or .90 cents a mile. Even if you through in a hefty fuel surcharge it doesn't equal out. I guess thats why we have so many repos in the industry right now. I have personally ran into guys on this Choice program that still run their trucks as if they are running for mileage. Many of them last about 2 months then are broke...if not sooner.

My break even point is 1.30 a mile. That includes everything. There are to many things that people don't expect to pay for. Like scales, faxes, IFTA, and many others that were named before, and these unaccounted for expenses do many guys in. Mostly cause they just want to break even on a load.

 

I am doing around that 1.70, but I am having a real problem over here at Schneider. They give you to much time to deliver these loads. A run that would take me say a day and a half, they want you to do it in 3 or 4. That is a problem. I am finding that I am making decent per mile money, but if I only get one or two runs a week in, that ain't good.

Too much sitting in a truck stop waiting to deliver, when I could have delivered and been on to my next load. I figure just running regional, I should at a minimum get 3 loads a week without killing myself and doing it all legally.

Looking at going back to the flat bed, things are picking up a little, and I mean just a little. We have some Big3 plants closing and retooling in the next few weeks. And I have been offered work as I have the needed equipment. Seriously thinking about it.

I hate jumping companies like this. But like everyone here, I am in this to make money.

Mike

 

Just remember if you do hop, Schneider probably won't take you back on the Choice. They froze hiring for the Choice till at least after the first of the year. I thought about going back to flatbed, but I just see temporary increase in freight. "The broke 3", as I call them, are only trying to save themselves and their freight isn't going to last or be paying as high as it used to be or should be.

 

I know. That is the problem, as are the sinking rates on Schneider's choice program, along with the wait times to deliver. Everyday it seems to be something else.

Like I said, I hate jumping companies, but there seems to be a tad bit more flat work out there every week. My buddy did $4700 clear last week on two runs, and another $2700 clear the previous week. That was more than I cleared in a month at Schneider. See my problem?

I know the guy he works for, and he wants me on board. What to do, what to do????

And, another buddy followed me to Schneider too. He just quit, dragging out his flat and going back to Jones. To much time sitting in truck stops waiting to deliver. I honestly cannot blame him, as I am having the same problems. I thought Schneider would be a good deal, having some serious second thoughts.

Mike

 

that has always been schneiders problem. they act like there trucks are still governed at 55mph. actually i see it with allot of freight. I don't know how many loads I've had to get the delivery appts reschedualed. the load I got to get home for Christmass was PA to AR, I think it was 950miles and it loaded 9am saturday and had a 8am tuesday aointment at wallmart. Luckily I got that reschedualed. It seems like since the companies got slow they are extending the delivery times so they don't have to get as many loads for there drivers and the drivers "feel" like they have been getting loads. plus the industry is full of monkeys right now who think 2500 miles is a HUGE week. I laughed at a schneider driver a few weeks back when we were talking. he was telling me how busy he has been and how sni is running him to death and then he told me he had 2600 miles that week

 

If I do over 2000 miles in a week I get upset. The good loads are out there it just takes alot of patientence and work to put them together. They are scheduling the loads long for two reasons. One of them is like MedicineMan said and the other is because guys were goofing off and not making the appointments and then Schneider got fined or lost some future freight. I personally think a three strike rule should be in effect. You miss three appointments in a row (depending on circumstances) in a set time and your fired, plain and simple.

I don't blame you for thinking the switch over. I see alot of guys thinking it over . That was one of the reasons the bottom fell out of the flatbed market. Many guys seen what we were making and bailed out of others trying to make a quick buck. All they did was flood the market.