Question for O/O

Yea some stuff is ridiculous. Luckily I live about 30 miles from the BMW plant in SC and they have a lot of manufacturers making their parts in the area so in a lot of cases the brokers don’t have time to wait on trying to screw drivers on the wait because if BMW line shuts down I’ve heard it costs 10k per minute. I had a buddy that was pulling a 5,000 pound load 80 miles for $800 on Friday nights but usually you can do that for about $400. Just depends on the time of year. And we also have the dummies that will haul the same load for $250 which messes up the market around here.

 

Insurance rates are one reason. When did you start? I was quoted between $30-40 thousand for insurace this year when I called progressive for insurance on a new MC.. Meanwhile I've read some guys getting it for 12k from the same place...

It's simply too much money for me at the start. I started all this woth about $600 in the bank.. I didn't have my cdl, so I went to a mega that trains to get the cdl. Needed to do a year to cover the cdl but planned to stay until this winter due to timing so Id be there a bit over a year/half. Started as company but went lease with in a month after I saw the difference in pay. Ran hard to make the most of it.

I checked into the MC but between buying a truck having some money for what-ifs and then the costs of insurance ect.. it's just too much all at once.. so best option is to get the truck lease it on somewhere and go from there.

 

You are counting 1.75 hrs for p/u dilevery... ummm I don't do that..

First load in MD I was at the shipper, I didn't start my clock until I started driving. I did my reset there before my load was ready. I did my on duty loading time when I got to the shipper the day before when I checked to see if it would be ready early. I also did my on duty pti . (I do off duty pti before I start each day marked on the logs with commits then on duty when I stop for the day)


When I dropped that load it was at our terminal. The load was going to Cali so it was a relay load..I had my next load already given to me before I got to the terminal the OK load. Ie I dropped one load picked up the next and left the termial.. I delivered the OK load same day I picked it up to a Wal-Mart if I recall.. I can't remember 100% but I believe it was a d/h.

I drove back to Joslin the same day.. If I remember correctly I did my reset at the Petro there and picked up the load to AZ the next morning. It was also a d/h.

AZ was a live unload if I recall. I think It was a Wal-Mart but can't recall. I then went to The other AZ load a Sam's load, it was a D/H but I need to do a reset outside the facility because I was early. Once ready I ran that load to the store. I got there before the appt camped out behind the store.

Turns out they should have let me do a D/H but there were no recievers there so the people there told me I had to wait for the appt. I did a reset by the time recievers got there.

I don't do 1.75hrs on duty for pick up and delivery.. I said at start I do 10 mins on duty on average.. I might vary the time a bit between 8mins to 15.. fueling I do roughly 8-10 mins on duty. (Lot of people are stuck on 15 min for everything because paper logs everything was 15 min segments. Elogs dont need 15min blocks, no reason to give up that time for nothing)

One grey area trick I do that saves at least 30/mins a week is to stop my clock when I hit the off ramp if Im going to a truck stop thats right there.

What I mean in the Qualcommn has a 2 mile activation range before it automatically switches you to on duty driving. If you are exiting a highway to go to a truck stop for example the truck stop will always be with-in .05 mile in almost all cases..

You usually come to a complete stop comming off a off ramp. The moment I stop I switch to off duty. Now I can drive into the truck stop go park or wait on people backing up or whatever with out burning my on duty time..

It's a little cheat, but it's kinda like a white lie as far as I'm concerned.. No way to get caught on it and it easily will save you 30 mins a week. Vs if you left yourself on duty driving until you stopped the truck in a parking spot.

I figure its fair play considering I usually lose far more than that sitting in my sleeper burning my 14hrs at shippers and recievers and losing my actual drive time to thev14hr clock while being in the sleeper....

The problem is a lot of people give up 5 mins here, 5 mins there ect..ect and it adds up at the end of the week.. Now you have 5hrs on your 70 but you need 5:20..

For the record in roughly 1.5 years I've only ever violated my clock once and that was going into Chicago I went 15mins over my 14hr clock but not my actual drive hrs.. (Ie was stuck at a shipper 5 hrs). I run a lot of tight loads down to the wire Ive pulled into parking lots with a minute of clock time before but only once have I ever actually went over.

I'm very good with my time and protecting my clock. I dont give up a minute I don't have to because that clock is the only time I have to get paid.

 

Depends on different factors. The state you operate out of, projected miles, credit rating, driving record, etc, are all considerations, obviously.

I obtained my own authority out of Oregon in December 2015. Progressive covered me (still does) with a 2016 Truck & 2016 Van, with 1mil Commercial Liability/1 mil Auto Liability/100k cargo for under 8k a year when paid in full upfront.

That number has been consistent for 3 renewal periods now. I just paid forward the whole upcoming year, in full, on said equipment. $7,827.57.

 

Btw, my insurance broker always provides me with comparative quotes from at least 3 different underwriters at renewal. None of them come within even a thousand bucks a year to Progressive. Usually their coverage(s) are inferior as well.

 

But how long were you driving before getting that? I'm still under 2 years which from what I understand is a key number as well. Far as credit Im in the 800 range and driving record is good but I thinl FL might hurt me a bit on location.

 

I obtained my CDL in 2009. So, I had 6 years under my belt when I was first underwritten. However, I'm not sure how much that really factors in. Perhaps, I just got lucky At least comparative to some of these ridiculously high numbers I see thrown around on TTR for insurance.

24k to 30k a year for insurance for standard run of the mill coverage? That's insane, in my opinion, of course

 

The agent told me it might be as much as $40k.. From what I heard it might be because they are trying to lower the amount of policies so they are over charging new until they get to their desired risk level.

Meaning someone might check back later get a higher rate or even a lower but who knows if that's true or not.. Being Im under 2 years I didn't bother to shop around until I hit the 2 year mark.

 

Well, I guess you can try again shortly. However, there are plenty of leasing companies out there who are willing to allow you to run under their authority and give you a "killer" rate on insurance

 

Going back to Crocky's astronomical mph hours average. I downloaded my final logging (ELD) report for 2018 this morning. I'm done for the rest of the year, so the numbers are accurate. Btw Crocky, you could always ask compliance to send you the 7 day report for that 4300+ mile week you had and post it up