Taking the plunge. My journey as an O/O.

After the first 1.5 years I'm in the black but it's nothing exciting. I have had several rather expensive repairs, and lost a full month fighting the aftermarket warrantee company on several stages of a engine diagnosis and repair cycle that led to an engine rebuild.

If I were not single with no debt other than the truck note, things might have gotten a bit rough at one point.

I am definitely not making what a company driver would make, but it was the first year of owning my own business. I'd have to be an idiot to expect to make a lot of money in the first year.

The truck note has about 27k principle remaining. I have 5k in the maintenance account, 7k in my personal accounts, and 20k of untouched credit available.

 

Most of what has been offered here as advice has been advice that was not bad. However, some of that advice comes burdened with the expectation that I follow the same business model as the advice givers, and know what they know. Sure I drive a truck, and so do they. However, there are a great number of differences between trucks, load acquisition methods, income expectations, mechanical knowledge, electrical knowledge, etc, etc. etc.

That said, it definitely does not hurt me to hear what they say, I learn something even from the ones that are telling me I should be doing something that is completely out of the question for me.

 

Update.

Bugs.

I normally don't have issues with bugs, but the last couple days have got me annoyed.

Problem #1. My personal vehicle has been sitting at the terminal for a while because I do not trust it to make long trips, and I've been going home from Atlanta every home time. So, I drove by to put a new registration card in it, and the spare insurance card from this six-month period.

I park next to the truck with my rental, get out, and notice a wasp that was interested in me, so I was moving slowly and carefully when I opened the door of the truck.

There was a palm-sized wasp nest inside the door of the truck and they were NOT happy to be disturbed. I ran off like a little girl, and only got stung once. If I hadn't been cautious because of the one I did see, I probably would have been nailed many times. I'd guess there were 20 on the nest when I opened the door.

So, I could not get to my truck because of the nest, and I could not get to my rental because of the nest.

Fortunately I was at the terminal. I left the rental running, keys in my pocket, and locked. I left my truck's door open, because nobody was gonna be messing around in it with 20 pissed-off wasps guarding it. Then I went into the shop, got a company loaner car, and went to the store for a broom, wasp spray, and bounce sheets (they seem to deter wasps in garages, hopefully they will do the same in the truck in the future.

Two hours after I pulled up, the nest was dead, the paperwork was in the truck with a bunch of bounce sheets, and I was on my way to the hotel.

BUT WE'RE NOT DONE WITH BUGS YET, OH NO.

This morning I go to collect my truck from the shop where it had work done, and before I do anything at all, I start a PM to be sure there's no issue I need to address instantly. I am very glad I did. The truck had been parked on a fire ant nest. Not a big mound type, one of the ones in concrete cracks. I noticed the little buggers when I was checking my brake shoes on the driver side steer. A fat line of ants going up the tire, across the brake chamber air line, and into the body of the truck. A quick look inside verified they they were all over in the cab. My truck isn't a cesspool by any means, but after several years, there was more than a few crumbs here and there in cracks and crevices for the ants to take home.

So, I went back inside and advised the shop that I would be leaving the truck in their lot for at least 2 days more while I bait-kill the ants with Amdro. Apparently my truck wasn't the first one to get infested because they told me that they were having an extermination service come out to do their lot in the next few days.

I do not want to fog the ants and kill them in place, because I live in that truck, and don't want to breathe that ####. I also don't want them dying in my electronics (I also turned off the electrical disconnect for the truck to be sure the ants don't complete any live circuits with their bodies while crawling around in the dash.

Rolled to a nearby Home Depot, grabbed some fast-kill Amdro, and spread it in the grass and on the cracks around the truck. I also put a couple small piles in places where the ants seem to be traveling inside the cab. I'll vacuum out what the ants don't carry off.

So, I will be checking in on the truck on Wednesday to see if the infestation is done.

Also note, these are fire ants. You absolutely, positively do NOT want to drive with these little buggers gnawing on you.

I sincerely hope that no queen made it into the truck and started a nest. The line of ants did leave the truck and go to a nest, so I think I'm safe from that, but fire ant nests can have multiple queens. If a queen took up residence, it likely did so in electronics somewhere, as they seem to be attracted to electronics in vehicles for some reason. Yes, I've had ants in cars before.

So, yay, excitement. My home time just got extended a few days.

Rather be making money right now, but I'll take a couple more days to relax and not feel too bad about it.

 

Update.

Ant nests are dead, and the infestation in the truck appears to be gone.

Bad news is that the truck no longer has A/C. No obvious, quick solutions. Nothing was disconnected or disabled for the overhead work.

Personally, I suspect the ants might have gotten into the control relays, but I hope not. It's also possible that the unit might have simply lost a seal and the refrigerant evaporated out over the last few days.

No odd noises or smells, so whatever it is, I hope it's relatively simple.