Great company, Terrible equipment... Dont want to leave... What should I do?

I have been with the carrier I am driving for now about 8 months. The people are great, the pay is great, I go home when I want, stay out as long as I want, and get to go pretty much wherever I want when it comes to running areas the only problem is the truck I am driving and the trailer I am pulling aren't worth a ####. I did a lot of job hoping when I started my career 6 years ago and see how bad that is affecting me now. I don't want to leave this company but with the DOT the way they are I cant afford to let this truck screw up my CSA. What is the best course of action to take? Anyone have any ideas?

 

Already tried that. They do what they have to, to get by and thats it. It is a small carrier and we only have 3 company trucks that are made up of (mine) an old K&B Truck, a old Maverick Century, and another white Freightliner I think he bought from an auction along with about 23 - 26 O/O's. He owns all the trailers. We dont have a designated shop or management really. There is the owner, his son who handles the logs and safety stuff, and 2 dispatchers. Owners wife handles the payroll and the money. Ive told him what is wrong with the truck and only little tid bits get done here and there. I have had to get out there and do alot on my own or it will not get done. For all the money he has spent fixing this and that, the money he is going to end up spending in the end to fix it all he could go out and just buy another truck... I dont get it... I think im going to have to make another jump... I really want to just find a place where I can settle in...

 

There trucks get the job done. Thats about it. We have 2 guys that have very nice Freightliner Classics but they are both struggling because of fuel prices and freight. All the freight they run here is broker freight, flat rate #### with fuel included. All the owner op's know about there pay is that they will never make less than $1.30 on all the miles. They dont know how much they get per load or anything. They dont find out until the end of the week what there paycheck will be. Some loads he will pay a little more per mile on. I have thought about trying to get my own but I would not lease on here for mainly that reason. With the way I keep records, im a neat freak and very picky. I can tell you anything you want to know about anything I have done since I started working here because it is all documented and backed up on the external hard drive. I learned the hard way along time ago that if it isnt in black and white it dosent mean a hill of beans. As far as running for one of the owner operators that is deffinately out of the question. 1)They wont pay me what I make now 2)To much headache. I have a friend of mine that works here who started out working for one of the owner op's and man it was bad. I can even begin to explain the ######## he went through. Now he is in the same boat I am in. We both drive for the owner and everything would be great but the trucks are just worn out.

 

I could scan a couple of these and post them on here but to give you an example I have given my boss 4 different lists of things that are wrong with this truck each one being at least a page long (a full piece of notebook paper) Not just cosmetic things. Mechanical issues... ex. Both mufflers need to be replaced. Drivers side muffler is cracked all the way around the connection to the top stack. 4 different places where there are exhaust leaks in the system. Charge air cooler system has a leak in it somewhere. Rear spring bushings in the front springs need to be replaced. Alot of play in the fifth wheel. When going around a curve loaded or empty it feels like the rear end of the truck is swaying or drifting. Just to name a few.

 

Tell me about it. I really dont want to leave but I cant keep pushing these wheels. I really want my own and I think I know enough to make it work and be profitable but I dont think its gonna happen at $1.30 a mile.

As I said before too, I already did a bunch of jumping around when I first started driving (Swift, then Werner, then Covenant, ect.) I made my rounds and that is really hurting me right now when it comes to finding a place to go.