Need major help

Speaking of kids, I was talked into letting a couple drivers take their families on the road with them. I usually stick to my policies to the letter but I slipped this time.

This past weekend one of my trucks was in a horrific accident that was caused by another driver who … let’s say wasn’t all there because of drugs.

This is a truck where one of two drivers had their families with them.

The driver is on life support as I was tole because he is in a medically induced coma (I get two different stories), the kid was in the passenger seat and is really messed up. The wife was in the sleeper and has a broken arm and bruises on her face like someone beat her.

I went against my better judgement of no kids in any of my trucks, my own kids included.

This changed over the week end, the other driver was told about the accident and now is having his wife and kids flying home this morning at my expense.

This is a dangerous job, people get killed often and to put a kid in harms way makes no sense.

 

Ive never run any thing other than produce or dry box. But I have wanted to. I agree with your statement thou

 

Can not tell you all the stories of people on this site that have failed. Double yellow, wonder boy and many others. You could drive for a company like Tyson out of Altana or many others and have a balance of life that a child needs not inside a truck! Having been an owner operator there is nothing easy about it or getting rich. You have to earn very dime. I had more time off and paid vacations driving company trucks.

There is no paid time off owning a truck only lost of revenue. See you have a set cost per day to let that truck sit. There is no taxes, no social security, no worker comp, no unemployment, no health insurance, no retirement fund owning a truck. Then take out truck insurance 20k cargo insurance, CPA fees, ifta, IRP plate, truck payment, trailer payment, and then you get the left over for wages and will have to pay tax on income. Then there is fuel cost 1000 to 1400 a week. Food on the road 200 a week. Toll roads and oil changes, tires, brakes, normal wear items. DOT inspections, physicals, ELD fee's, load broad fee's.

You see owning a truck will take three times the amount time compared to just driving. You are office person, banking, billing, taxes reporting, ifta reporting, accounts receivable, IRP, ELD filing, maintenance person and of course driver. Then getting loads and set appointment times always watching load broads. Then upkeep on truck and breakdowns on the road. Oh now you have to drive 500 miles a day to pay for all this and the load just canceled.

Then there is repairs the one thing that will kill you because it will happen. Let say you need a clutch job 3k to get done but the truck is down a week. You just lost 5k in revenue for the week. For a total lost of 8k for the week. Next week the radiator goes out 1k for radiator but no one has one so it take two weeks to get back on the road 11k in lost revenue for the two weeks . The following week you blow a head gasket 6k repair off two weeks total lost 16k. This is real stuff and it will happen and most never make.

I work almost every weekend and most holidays. Also do 95% of all repairs including tires. Do you budget cause your fixed cost is going to be around 300 to 400 a day without wages. This not easy and most fail.

Listen to Ridgeline he been doing this long time.

 

That is horrible. I’m so sorry for the family and yourself. Hope they all pull through and make it.

 

No argument there.

Nope, getting doxxed once is quite enough for me, thanks.

Most of the "infrastructure" was actual infrastructure until this year, according to all the most stable geniuses. But as usual, all prior stances get disappeared down the memory hole once a new stance is found to be more clickable.

Anyway, this is all the subject of another thread, so I'll just leave it at that.

 

Thanks.

stop that, there isn’t.