Yearly Profit After Expenses...

For what it's worth, I'll throw this out there. I'm not normally one to talk about someone virtually right in front of them, but here goes (since it's good LOL).

I got a chance to meet John (aka jmcclelland2004) today. He and his clearly better half were passing thru ATL and had time to grab some lunch. I'll say this: I was impressed. If he keeps his nose down sticking to his plan (and she keeps her boot on the back of his head LOL) he's gonna do fine. He got a #### fine rig for the money he put out.

He's working through the same "getting a new to you truck back in service" blues everyone would have to, and in a sensible way. In a few months he's gonna be a real threat to the van market. I think he's already off to a better start than we did. Just seeing him show up out here in GA with paid freight in the wagon earns him a "young and knows everything" pass or two with me LOL.

I wish the both of them the best of luck getting their new business off the ground!

 

Well I will be darned I get a gold star today. Anyway we made it to SC with no problems, red I took you advice and just stayed at 55 in that right lane and seemed to do better on fuel. I did learn a valuable lesson today, never try Sharp turned with 35+klbs in the backend. I went thw wrong way and cut intonation parking lot and when I went to turn around in the lot it was way sharp. Lucky for me I always watchy trailer when doing cutting really sharp so I saw it before it happened and was able to correct it but I watched as one of my trailer tires started to try and come off the rim. But we got out good and went to a Walmart in greenville about 10 miles from the receiver so we will be staying the night here and going there at about 7am lol

 

Congratulations on your first load.

 

After reading my last post I realize that my phone makes me sound a little special lol. Thanks for the congrats but this is actually our third load. We started hauling last wednesday had a short run that went overnight then took a long run (900 miles) that went over the weekend. Now we have another short run that is an overnighter again should be delivering sometime between 0700-0730 (realized it was a cutoff of 2 instead of 4 so i couldnt deliver tonight) and then we will be go for number 4. On a side note our first payment should come in tomorrow so that will help get cash flow started. Waiting on the $1800 check from that 900 mile load, that will put my mind at ease a little bit.

 

Haha I must have missed something somewhere then if this is your third load. Anyhow your a few steps ahead of me in the O/O game and its inspiring to hear good things coming your way, and your looking like you got a hand on things. Im over here rooting for you in SoCal!

 

I remember a couple of years or so ago California was having trouble finding enough reefers after they started enforcing their older reefer unit laws. They decided that in order to move their produce they would need to relax their rules, at least long enough to get the produce to market. It did work for them.

I make my views known to my congressional representatives. There is an old saying, "The squeaky wheel gets the grease." As a group, we do a lot of complaining to one another, but most probably don't bother to call or write their representatives at the state or federal level. Most probably don't even bother to vote. The only people these representatives hear from are those who have an interest in specific legislation. I have never believed that trucks pollute any more than 4 wheelers. They would probably do more for the state and pollution if they spent all that time they legislate against the trucking industry to planting trees. Trees will clean the air and reduce the possibility of landslides and forest fires by holding in moisture. Planting trees could have much more of a positive impact on the state than all this legislation which does little but put money in the pockets of special interest groups who have a financial interest in this type of legislation.

It would help to regularly write to newspapers, radio and TV stations. Pick an issue that is important to you and this industry and present the facts to those who can make a difference. Make sure you present your case matter of factly and use actual cases that support your point of view. It has already come out that the so called science on which the CARB legislation was based was false, yet they move ahead with more and more rules and regulations which further cripple this industry.

They will respond if they see that they could have difficulty getting their products to market. If there is enough public support they could change their minds. Rallying against trucks is a huge revenue generator for the state of California as well as some other states.

I might start a letter writing campaign to your state legislators. See if you can get others to join your cause. The internet is a valuable tool to stay in touch and convey ideas to large groups of people. You might even put your own website together for the purpose of finding a way to change anti truck legislation in your state. Your legislators need to know how these CARB rules are affecting your business and income. If your income goes down then you cannot pay as much in taxes. That effects their revenue and gets their attention. One other thing you can do is to vote those who propose and vote for this anti truck legislation out of office. Find and support candidates who are pro truck and are willing to go to bat for issues which affect your business. This would be a great time to get started with the elections just getting cranked up. Find out who is running and give them a call. Attend rallies and get to know them and have them know you.

 

Ok I was just offered a load moving from greer SC to greentown PA 700 miles for 1600 considering thia is the first broker to ever offer me a rate like this around 2.05-2.10 I am kind of worried that I am missing something. I am going to figure a route out and figure tolls but is there something else I really need to account for?

 

My progress is posted in this thread however I will warn you that the posts are random. That ahoild show you how much running there is in that first month or so.

 

There should not be any tolls along that route. According to mapquest the miles are 703 which gives you a rate of about $2.28/mile. When I look at rates, I always consider the difficulty in getting a good load and rates coming out of an area. If I know that it is a bad area going in then I always want a better rate going into the area so that I can afford to deadhead, if necessary.

 

Don't know about the van market there, but I'd have to get $3+ to send our reefer up there. Not much good going W or S out of there and we don't have NYS numbers to worsen the DH out, going N or E.