There is still $$$ to be made trucking

But you have to work for it...and work hard.

I've been back at Maverick for 6 months now...I've grossed $26,099.99 and took home $19,580.87.

Thats not bad considering the economy and all...and the fact that Maverick makes us run legal, and drive slow to get the MPG's, and all the other usual gripes.

Maybe not as good as it has been, but it beats the hell out of unemployment.

This is not meant as a brag (as its really nothing to brag about), its just to show that you can still make a living out here.

 

EXACTLY right...100%

wcc083, you my friend are gonna make it just fine in this industry (in my honest opinion, and its worth about what you paid for it )

 

I guess I should add....so nobody gets the wrong idea.

I got back in ahead of the pay cut...I'm at 40 cents p/mile. I think the new starting wage is 36 cents unless they raised it back up to 40...I don't know, I don't see Little Rock (or any other terminal) very often.

And I really don't work all that hard...Most of my 10 hour breaks are 12 hours long (I like to sleep and waste time on the computer).

But when it comes to loading and unloading I do "git-r-done"...once the freight is on the trailer I'm on it like white on rice getting it secured and tarped.

But I think the one thing that makes the biggest difference is this...once I start my day (the driving part), that left door stays closed. That ensures me a nice long break with the way Maverick dispatches us (plenty of time...usually). An example, the other day I got a load from the port in New Orleans, it was on Wednesday (the day they start playing travel agency) and I got the dispatch a little too late to make the pickup because I made a wrong turn (90 splits 3 ways...I should have gone straight, but thats life)...anyway, I called and told them I could still make the delivery if I could pick it up the next morning...they said OK. It had to be 900 miles away by 1500 on Friday.

I got in there at 0800, was loaded (2 coils) and rolling at 0930...made the delivery at 1030 the next day. Thats 900 miles in 25 hours, 100% legal and to Maverick specs right down to the fuel mileage (60 mph)...and they still got me home. They loaded me out of Gary going to York, SC and I got home Saturday instead of Friday.

They were going to have me swap the load if I had picked it up Wednesday and I would have gotten home Friday (I had been out 4 weeks)...I screwed it up by making a wrong turn, but I fixed it by making the delivery.

 

$10 for the steel tarps and $20 if you use both lumber tarps.

Its not enough for most people though...but we put too much emphasis on the importance of tarp pay, and not enough on the way we work (IMO).

It takes me about 30 minutes to secure and tarp a coil...and about an hour to do a load of lumber...thats $20 an hour either way you slice it.

You just have to work efficiently...smarter not harder (not that I'm all that smart or anything, just figured out how to do it without wasting any effort, thats all)

Also, having the right kind of tarps helps...Maverick does have the right kind of tarps.