Hopper, Dump O/O's & Drivers

I'm pretty sure that all brokers have to have "Broker Authority" which means that they have a dot number of sorts,...Which would also mean tha there has to be a physical address on file,....I would think you could look for his location that way,...

Or not,....Hell I don't know,...

 

They had room for 25 or so trucks when they start the day. Threw out the day they grind about 30 to 40 loads into flour. So you know how it goes wheathauler they dump a few reject a few lol, it all evens out to a big lovely day. It sucks everyones on edge and all im trying to do is get a loaded or empty weight and some reason those fine drivers think im cutting in line. If i am that sure is a funny looking hopper im pulling lol. All though i have back haulled a load of white wheat out of idaho in my bulk tanker lol.

 

Wheathauler, to your private messege nope no extra parking you have to cram in behind the bins, and when thats full they park them all around the scales. Makes for no fun getting in or out. Then it was a mess at horizon im not sure what went on but at one time there were almost 17midds trucks lined up. I talked to one of my friends that drives for sun valley and he was there almost 22 hours.YIKES LOL

 

Sure seen a lot of baby cows this week. There's an abandoned feed lot with a bunch of pasture land near where I have been loading wheat. There were no babies last Friday. Monday, I swear there were 30 babies on that same pasture. Cute lil critters. Its hard to believe how much they have grown in one week.

I made out pretty good today. Called around to a few tire shops today trying to locate a couple of good used drive tires. Found a matching set of 8. They have about 9/16 - 5/8" of tread on them for $135 a tire. Virgin Michelin XDN2's, so I snagged them up. I don't know who gets rid of a tire with that much meat left on it, but man oh man they have way more money than me.

 

H&M is Hansen and Mueller out of Omaha, NE. http://www.hm-tk.com/index.shtml I don't know much more than that about them.

My folks keep some of the new calves in the barn lot in front their house. Its entertaining during supper to see them running, bucking, racing all around. The calf Olympics we call it.

Congrats on the tire find Kansas.

 

The mechanic buddy I've got near home has a friend that's done big truck and trailer alignments for 15 years now, and he'd like to take a whack at straightening this trailer out. I think it's going to be more parts than adjustment, but if I keep this thing past the next trip - I'm getting it approved and having it done at my convenience (and contact) not theirs. So far, I can see the tire shoulders scalloping from it fighting itself down the road, and I've run across a couple more issues with the trailer. I just don't want to make a trip back to get a new trailer sometime this month from them, and I feel like I have a vampire on my neck with the deal.

I've been thinking about the rates myself for awhile now. They have no reason to disclose what they are making off the loads, and it's less they'd have to share. All along it's seemed like people would be making more off these loads at some level - even if it's double brokered. With what I've seen so far, who would bother with it? Let alone switching products and constantly washing the trailer out, and deadheading like a taxicab.

I've already told them I'm not interested in short runs at all - I just spend more time finding the place and the info, waiting to load and unload, than I do actually earning the per mile. And the per mile HAS to be much higher on short runs than it has been. Cheap product or not, that's alot of time thrown out the window (and fuel out the stacks). If I had a daycab with singles and an ultralight, that'd be one thing - but I'm lucky to get 25 tons on my truck - and short runs just make the check smaller as a whole. My first run out this week was a load of mids to "get me going" - and it was more than a bust. 21 Tons will never pay for a trip, and a 78" trailer just won't carry more. I wish I saw the guy 5MTF was joking about a few days ago at the same customer - he pulled up in a 60" side ag-hopper I'll bet he got at least 15 tons on there *hahahah* and made the biggest mess on the planet!

I hadn't planned to go dedicated with them past trying it for a few months and seeing if it was a good fit. If they have decent loads/rates past that I may pull one from time to time - once a week - or whatever. After the trouble this week, it seems like I won't even make the cash to cover my truck and get a trailer in line - so that's a problem I've got to address. If I have the trailer, there are brokers out there that will get good loads and assign a fuel card to get this thing going better than it is now.

As far as calling ahead, etc - I've always done that in the past. I slipped into a bad habit lately of taking care of the big stuff (service on the truck, any time off doing research and setting up bookkeeping, etc) and letting the small stuff slip through the cracks. Learned quite a few valuable (and costly) lessons in the past few weeks, and I don't usually make the same mistake twice. It's harder to make the calls when you have the load info sent to you toward the end of a business day while you're on the road trying to make an unload somewhere, so my wife has stepped up to help.

Thanks for the advice Walt, it's appreciated and I have a pattern of following helpful advice given to me.

 

The calf Olympics,thats a dandy name for it,they are fun to watch this time of year,watching them kick up their heels kinda makes you envious of all that extra energy,i'm happy anymore if i can just get one leg in front of the other

2.72 here in danville,ky.,yesterday,wheathauler,and going up,had a busy week though,corn going,soyhulls coming back. The corn was on the road going to Owensboro Grain ,Deadhead miles were from the beanscale across 2nd street to the soyhull dump.

I posted those deadhead miles for you,HwyPilot,hang in there and keep your head up,at least your out here trying to actually work for an honest living,there is someone out there looking for a good, honest,hard working o/o's everyday,you'll find 'em,if they don't find you first.


Hope Everybody has a good weekend and be safe