Yearly Profit After Expenses...

Well I know its been awhile but I figured I would post a quick update for anyone who is interested. A quick timeline of our events, we flew out on wednesday june 15 with a little over 40k in hand and started looking for trucks that saturday. After looking at a couple large dealers I came across an 01 freightliner fld120 with a 70" condo double bunk sleeper. After having my mechanic look it over he could not find anything major wrong with it. The things wrong were the passenger door would not open(dealer fixed before pickup) passenger side taillight not working (dealer also fixed) driver side convex mirror missing (purchased for $8 self installed) and the serpentine belt was a little to worn for my taste(passed dot though and purchased for $26 and self installed). After getting the truck out on the second night I noticed that one of my clearance lights above the cab was not working so bought the stuff to fix it for about $10 and installed it. The total cost for the truck was $11,589 before buying those few things.The truck came with road triangles and a fire extinguisher so i saved a buck there but also came with an almost empty fuel guage so I had the joy of filling up both 100gal tanks. After getting the truck I called and got my insurance which was qouted at 1300 down and 1100 per month paid the down payment and had the legal minimum put on it to start and will up it when we start hauling. recently I got a letter from progressive and my due to the large down payment will actually cost me around 800 per month (qouted 970 when I up it to 1M and 100k cargo). It took me about 2 hours to get used to the truck and about 2 days to really get the shifting down. Upshifting was easy but downshifting took a little bit. By the way the specs for the truck are, 12.7L detroit series 60, super 10spd eaton fuller trans, 3.70 rear ends and 22.5" tires. the rubber on the back was very good 4 tires look almost new and the other 4 are not very old either however one of the steer tires needed replaced (still passed dot but not by much) and my mechanic said it is better to just replace them both at the same time. So he called around for me and got a good price so I paid 884 for two tires and installation and kept the one good tire as a spare in case I need it. once we had the truck and those small things finished I filed for my DOT number and went down to get my apportioned plates. Was charged 1337 for 35 states (we left off everything that borders canada, new york, and everything north of NY). After getting plates and what not I decided to go ahead and start looking for a trailer. Found one in the paper for 3850 that didnt look to be in horrible shape needed a couple small patches in the floor. My girlfriend talked me into looking into another one we had seen sitting with a bunch of other trailers on a peice of property off the highway it was in great shape and looked to be an 07 or so. I called the guy on it after looking at it and found out it is actually an 89 but everything on it has been replaced and he was not really looking to sale it. After talking to him a bit we agreed on 5500 for the trailer free and clear. I went to the bank got a cashiers check and picked it up. When hooking up I looked inside and saw two loadlocks in there and the guy said to just keep them. at this point we have filed everything except our 2290 and IFTA (will be doing those today) and my authority should be entering the 10 day protest period soon. we already have all the lettering done on the truck (cost around $60) and have power inverters hooked up (cost around $400) with a small microwave fridge and george foreman grill (cost around $200) we are hoping to be picking up our first load sometime around july 15-20 but will update again when we do.

 

Congratulations. Sounds like your definitely headed in the right direction. Best of luck in your endeavors.

 

YEP! Good that you stayed away from those $1,500 month payments (OUCH!).

Being an O/O with full combination that is yours is a GREAT feeling. Hope you can throw your chest out and breath with comfort that your/more money stays in YOUR pocket.

Remember to pay yourself first after you get re-stablished with the money balance, after couple of months or so.

Oh yes, HOLD ON!
Don't give in to low rates, only aids the bad trucking economy and your bank account in the red and mine also!

Costs less to wait it out for a day than to go home and barely pay the fuel there with what some brokers pay, I cannot see how some drivers do that and not see the circumstance(s).

Congrats!

 

So what are you going to haul ?

 

Sounds like you're off like the crazy man. Thanks for the update and good luck with your new business!

 

Thanks to everyone that gives me best wishes,

Bikeprof-As far as low rates go I am in a fortunate position in which we are going to live in the truck and I do not have hardly any personal expenses and no truck/trailer payments as a result I can afford to sit for around $200 per day (that includes fuel for idleing the truck for around 10hours per day). Therefore It is in my best interest to sit as opposed to taking a cheap rate. I have decided my absolute bare minimum is going to be around 1.90/M (my operating costs are around 1.70 after paying myself) and anything lower than 2.05 I will be asking for more.

jbat- Honestly I will haul whatever they will put in the trailer for the right price.

Red- I would like to hope I am off like the smart man not crazy the crazy man. On a side note thanks for all the info you have given here it has helped more than you know.
On a side note the funny thing about the clearence light was I went out to install it and as soon as I cut the old connecter off it starts to poor down rain, so not wanting to leave the bare wires hanging out I am standing on the hood wiring up the new connecter and replacing the bulb and right after I finish it up and get inside it quits raining. While I am ringing out my shirt in the bathroom sink I could not help but think of that sig I saw on here from someone that says "just as the whole day is planned out trucking happens" lol gotta love this texas weather.

 

Best of luck.

 

It sounds like you are off and running. I am curious as to how you were able to get your baseplates without having your authority or paying your 2290?

 

I was thinking the same thing G/MAN. Seeing how he stuffed about 3 weeks of activity into one really long paragraph I just figured he might have confused the 2290 with something else. During that first couple of weeks it seems like you're writing checks everywhere.

 

I thought he probably got confused about the chain of events, but I needed to ask. It does seem like all you do is spend money when you first start out, RedForeman. And it doesn't stop. There is always something that needs to be repaired or paid. Rather than dragging things out he decided on a plan of attack and worked his plan.