Are you making money after ALL expenses… or just think you are?

I know I am behind where I would be if I would have stayed at my last company, had 9 months off for injury (big one) had long term disability at my old job, took 2 weeks off for my dad's bypass surgery to help my mom, just took most of this week off to help out after a car accident which my dad is still in the hospital and waiting on another bypass surgery on his neck now after having a couple seizures and what they think was a mini stroke. Now I am hauling a load to the black hills that really don't pay enough to, well it does but not what I would normally want to go here, so I can take a couple days off after tomorrow, see some buffalo and maybe some dead presidents, then bounce 600 miles home to take next week off and help my parents with my dad's surgery. Nobody pays me a #### thing for the time off to help family, there is no vacation but I would have probably already used all my vacation at my old job and still need this time off and have to fight for approval for it. Overall I am happier working this way, I am in charge of all of my decisions and only have myself to blame when crap goes wrong

 

What I’ve realized with age is that the “amount of money I make” is irrelevant.

My net worth has increased 10 fold during my 10 years driving my own truck, compared to over 20 years I spent working for someone else. My AGI is poverty level and I’ve never been happier…

Every second of every day is consumed with trucking, most if not all my friends are all in the business as well as my wife. I break bread, vacation and “party” with customers, suppliers, vendors and peers in the industry.

Do I make enough money to justify my time driving the truck? Yes I do….

Do make enough money to justify the time I spend working on / with this industry? Nope…. But that was never really the point of the experience for me.

 

I also believe in paying myself first. So every morning the first thing I do is buy a six pack and a jar of pickled eggs. Do this first!!! Once that is done everything else will fall into place.

 

Its a trucker forum on the internet. 95% are never going to show you or tell you the real numbers they're bringing in. And why would they? I've been in this industry since the early 90's and learnt one important lesson early tons of fabricator, liars b.s'ers etc. In the entire Logistics Industry especially trucking. Belligerence is the middle attitude for most when telling most. Now with another war & one with the States being involved with a country that supplies the world with 20% of oil. How good can most be doing? For the pretentious ones who saying they're doing the best ever in their career, however they will never ever post the government name, company or show all the paperwork involved including MC#/DOT#. You can drink the kool-aid and believe them & there is a possibility that they're being honest. But again, with diesel costing more than a $1 plus average on a gallon compared to a month ago. Times are harder then ever to turn over a weekly profit.

 

Dont worry, theres plenty that will tell you war is good for the economy and all the nonsense this country has been put thru in the past year, and still tell you times are great, while they cant barely afford anything

 

Very true statement but it is entirely possible for some to be thriving while others may be struggling. The last 10 years were the best for me personally regarding income and wealth building. During the Covid times occasionally a load of toilet paper was paying more than my contracted rate for hauling brand new cars, but I was in it for the long haul. When that load of toilet paper was barely paying guys fuel money I was still getting my contract rate. I recently sold out and retired not because I wasn’t making good money, but because I no longer needed to work and decided not to.
Now I routinely figure what my extra fuel costs would be if I still were in the game. I chose to haul freight that had a fuel surcharge that didn’t keep up with the fuel costs dollar for dollar because the rate was excellent and so was the freight. My weekly costs would currently be up about $600 and my fuel surcharge likely would only be up $150. Some freight that I had access to haul you actually netted more money the higher fuel went, but the freight didn’t pay as well and it was more difficult. In my case there was still enough meat on the bone to absorb the $450 weekly loss.
The real problem I see now is that high diesel fuel affects everyone and everything. If we have high fuel long enough it is going to slow the economy and eventually cause a recession. Will we have a recession, nobody knows for sure but it is definitely a possibility. Regardless of whether anyone believes I am telling the truth about my experiences it’s irrelevant to their success or failure.
One thing you can bet on is the market is going to go up and it is going to go down. Some people are going to succeed while others will fail with the exact same opportunities. Life is not always fair but if someone has common sense and a good work ethic they can succeed long term. There are definitely going to be rainy days so we better save for them. It is definitely raining currently and who knows when it stops.

 

If you can pay yourself in road sodas why worry about the other stuff.

 

I know O/O’s still financing a truck after 30 years in the business. Life’s like that, a few bad breaks can put guys behind the 8 ball where as the next guys truck runs on kindness
My experience the last 15 years was seeing many guys bail due to constant breakdowns beyond their control, as well the fact warranty won’t cover the tow bill to drag ya 300 miles to the nearest dealer

 

Don’t blame me. I didn’t vote for any of them.

 

Maybe open a learing center. I hear they pay good