If emissions trucks are bad why are 90% on the road emissions trks

You seem to over simplify a few things.
Your time is more valuable than trying to fix something - sounds like your not good at fixing things, fair enough but I am.
Just to save a few hundred bucks- local rate here is $115 an hour, I have never had anything fixed in less than 2 hours not including the 2-3 day wait to get it in, mostly do to the newer trucks holding up the line do to emissions problem.

 

Your statement is true as well. But, just start adding trucks and you’ll quickly see what he means. With one truck and being good at working on them, yeah it’s a no brainer. More trucks = more problems. Now you got double, triple, quadruple, you get the point... of problems that pop up and if your running around working on trucks all day. You will make less then if your making sure your business is on point and on good loads. That outweighs the high hourly cost. And better yet find a shop that charges 65 to 80/hr and gets you right in.

 

65- 80 an hour? Look I'm no fool, I know that you get what you pay for. 65-80 will get you a good tire guy or a good brake guy or a good oil change and grease job. It won't get get you good technician though. Guys that work on are no different than guys that drive them. Need a load hauled and don't care when they show for pick and\or drop that any dummy can haul than $2 a mile. Need someone you can count on $4-5 a mile. I can do all my own tires, brakes, oil-grease and many more and I'm making $65-80 an hour doing it with no fuel, insurance, wear and tare. And I'm pretty good at it, I've been doing it since I was 12 years old. Do I want to do it all the time, no but thats why I don't mind either.

 

I think the actual question itself for this topic is easily answered. Non-emissions trucks are old, just by that alone, there are less of them. Emissions trucks have now been around for some time and are in production. It goes without saying that something older, that is no longer in production, will over time decrease in numbers in relation to currently produced products.

The more interesting statistic would be, what is the number of non-emissions trucks brought back to road worthy status each year? So, in a nutshell, How many pre-emission 379s are in the US. How many have stayed in continual operation? How many have been scrapped? How many have been PARKED and then brought back on the road?

 

I have 6 trucks on the road all older than 1996, and am in the process of rebuilding 3 more old trucks currently to put on the road. True I do also have 3 much newer Mack trucks with DEf, and even automatic transmissions, I can say all 3 of the Mack trucks have been flawless so far, but I still prefer the older trucks. Much easier to work on as well. So please do not lump anyone with more than a few trucks together, as we all only run newer trucks. Soon I'll have 9 old, and 3 new trucks on the road. Once the newer trucks get to be high maintenance or mileage, whichever comes first, they will be sold off, and replaced with even more old iron.

 

20 years from now yes I will still be hauling an e model cat, unless I retire at 40 which is highly unlikely. I know several other people who will probably be running them then too. I'll bet there's still early 80s trucks running around in 2040.

 

Sounds good my man. More power to you. What type of freight do you run and what radius of your home base? Do you also have someone who runs the operations for you or do you do all of it? What about billing and collecting?

I love the old trucks so don’t get me wrong. I’m just trying to run the most profitable and efficient business I can without bias to my personal feelings.

I started 10 yrs ago with a 91 T800 and actually leased/rented an old 74 Autocar for the first few months until I got the T8 going. So no hatin from me. Just talkin business from my perspective.

 

not likely

 

I get what you are saying, but you are oversimplifying as well. How much does having a shop and tools cost? How much time do you spend doing part runs? How much time is lost as you try and jump between running the trucks amd spinning the wrenches?

Every business owner must make choices about how to spend their resources - including time. From what I see, once you own more than 2 trucks you start facing diminishing returns on doing the work yourself.

 

I do simplify things for a reason, people want to become owners, they have to understand in some cases it is better just to let others do the work. Time is a valuable commodity that can't be replaced.

Very good at 'fixin' things, I used to and in a few cases still do turn a wrench on the personal cars, I am just limited to doing what I can because I am still recovering from an accident. BUT with more trucks on the road, I don't have time to mess around to fix any of them, my work is behind the scenes and making sure that the drivers are making money.

I get it, it is choices that people make but for those who are not inclined to understand the simplicity of say a HEIU on a older cat motor and they try their hand at fixin it, it may make things so bad that the truck needs to be put into a shop - you kind of see what I mean?