Instant O/O and Load boards

Hey thanks for your observation. I hope that is not really the case. I wil say a couple things I guess. Well it turns out that quite a bit of the griping about the trucking industry is rooted in truth. There's quite a bit that we put up with that we have no control over. We allow other people to set rates on our behalf, and based on a complete set of lies (PCMILER I'm looking at you). Last week I'm told there is a load, I'm 300 miles from it, and the trip is 800 miles. So even with 1100 miles I should do about $1.25 a mile.

Well anyway, there was no route from Helena, AR to Moore Haven, FL that was under 976 miles, and I was just under 400 miles away. So now it's a 1400 mile trip for under a dollar a mile. Then you realize that you are literally sitting for 5 hours staring out your windshield driving that no one knows about, no one cares, and you're not gettting paid for. Then you get to the receiver and it takes 6 hours to unload waiting in line that no one knows about, no one cares, and you're not getting paid for. Then the broker wants to know what the heck you were doing for 10 hours as if you spent it playing video games at a truck stop and don't really care about timeframes. yeah they'll tell you PCMiler is wrong and they empathize, yet there will be constant statements made that make you realize they really believe it's true and also base time-frames on it. Simply divide 80% of the actual miles by 70 and that's when we're there.

Ok so that is frustrating, and we are powerless to do anything about it.

The next thing, I have to admit that no one really expects or wants to "break even". In theory it sounds ok if it's something you really want to do and try. But after you've done all the research, spent countless hours putting it together, actually spend thousands of dollars, then work your butt off every day to stay ahead, well all that disappears. At this point, as a human being, you're really entitled to some sort of payoff. And even if you don't get it right away, you need to know and identify why you're only breaking even so you can justify that it will get better and such and such needs to happen then things will be just fine, even good. When that becomes difficult to see, it becomes disheartening. In the end, we only have each other. This is a cold business and no one is looking out for us. We sit and wait for market forces to do their thing, at the expense of other drivers, hoping silently that enough fail and drop out that the existing number of trucks raise the demand for us. And this is not sticking together either.

But, now that I've said all that, I want to make it clear that this is still one of the best jobs I've had from a lot of perspectives, and nothing has happened that makes me think I'm going to hang it up or stop doing it. I AM still having a good time out there, and I hope this comes through more often in the future.

Also keep in mind that I also have a somewhat complicated personal life, I'm separated, financially things could be better, and my weeks have their ups and downs that are not in any way related to trucking but may come through differently here from time to time. I apologize for this. I do wish to continue inspring people to take that next step and fulfill a dream. There is no substitute for ownership and working for yourself, and THAT is never going to change.