Fueling for the load vs. filling up??

Discussion in 'Ask An Owner Operator' started by F4T6UY, Mar 22, 2020.

  1. TripleSix

    TripleSix God of Roads

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    In my line of work, not only do you fuel up, you fuel up where you stop. Either at the beginning of the day or at the end of the day, and avoid fueling during the middle of your day as much as possible.

    A superload can be so big that you become severely limited on where you can even fuel. They will send you down some two lane road for hundreds of miles, and you may be forced to drop your trailer and bobtail 20-30 miles just to fuel and go back. Huge waste of time.

    On a high value load, there are 2 safe places for the load:
    1. Shipper
    2. Receiver
    You cannot get truck stop happy (meaning your trip planning consists of you mapping out your route by the truck stop availability) or truck stop brand happy (when you plan on ending your day at the closest Loves to your destination). Big money load, if you can’t make it to a receiver, you stop out a couple hundred miles away. And if you don’t have the hours, don’t attempt to pull that load. You don’t want to grab a $14mil load and do a 34. Your customers will call down evil upon you.
     
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  3. F4T6UY

    F4T6UY Medium Load Member

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    Now that’s the level of complication/compensation I want to graduate to one day.
     
  4. PE_T

    PE_T Road Train Member

    I know there can be a 10 min wait time to fuel at Love’s and Pilot/FJ. I don’t fuel there, so I rarely have to wait to fuel.

    Some regions in the US will have a big difference in fuel prices just going from one state to another. So adding another stop can easily save you $10. I shop for my own fuel using NASTC, and I commonly see these big differences in fuel prices.
     
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  5. uncleal13

    uncleal13 Road Train Member

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    I get paid by weight, but from the assigned targeted weight I only get 1 cent per kilogram extra.
    So if I can carry an extra 200 kilos, it’s only $2.00 a load difference, three loads a day, $6.00. It cost more than that to go out of my way for an extra fuel up.
     
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  6. adayrider

    adayrider Road Train Member

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    Ummm, nobody was talking about that situation. It has absolutely nothing to do with the question. LOL
     
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  7. PE_T

    PE_T Road Train Member

    Don’t mess with him. He’s a “god.” :)
     
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  8. MrEd

    MrEd Road Train Member

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    I only fuel for the load if the load is heavy enough that topping off will put me too far over gross to risk it. It can happen.
     
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  9. LumbraX

    LumbraX Medium Load Member

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    Same
     
  10. abyliks

    abyliks Road Train Member

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    cheaper to pay for a shower at a small place then pay the over inflated prices of the chain stops? Even though I usually still get a shower with XX amount of gallons
     
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  11. jinxutoo

    jinxutoo Light Load Member

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    I keep my tanks full, it all averages out at the end of the year.
     
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