Anderson Trucking Service, Inc. - St. Cloud, Mn.

Now that right there is funny, l don't care whatcha say.

 

I'm taking a look at ATS. Any advice or good things to say about the company? Can money be made at Anderson Trucking Service?

Thank you.

 

Yeah.. what a sorry way to call out a man that may not had gotten the luck of sharing the same kind of education..

 

To think for a second you own a truck under a lease with ats was a good idea makes me relived to know I couldnt get in cause I live outside their hiri g area. Very good recall of events and hurts to see the kinda stuffs we put up with. Geez its 1 to grow on. Tyvm!

 

It doesn't matter if you lease with high weekly payments or if someone just hands you a problem free truck free and clear with no obligation and operating capitol (hypothetically). You can still go broke and/or bankrupt if your not wise about your spending habits, carelessness and not wise to how to pick loads. Now not saying a lease is good because either way with a lease your gonna get screwed. Its just the nature of the business or should I say more so any leasing company big or small. You have to work smarter, not harder. Running illegal as hell running 4-5K miles a week and running everything the truck can do will just wear you out, burn up your fuel and you'll still be left broke. Owning or leasing, you have to figure out your fixed and variable expenses. Figure out what your bottom line minimum is for you and the truck to break even and try and stay above that by calculating what a load will bring to the truck. Being in a bad area you may have to take a crappy load but being smart about where it is going without hurting yourself to bad could get you to an area with much better paying loads in which could make up the lost profit from breaking even or even lost profit but you have to be smart about making that judgment call weather it would be better to sit for a day and loose a whole day or weekend or deadhead somewhere to pickup something even though it doesn't pay crap but sitting around for days on end waiting for that good load to pop up is gonna cost you more than deadheading a couple hundred miles or so. Someone may correct me if I am wrong but in my eyes, I see this as the number one problem why most people fail as a business owner because many are not business savvy and think that truck has to turn an extensively #### load of miles putting more wear and tear on the truck than necessary, burning more fuel and potentially getting yourself in hot water by DOT finding a mistake on your logs from running illegally when you get audited because you were finally burnt yourself out from running so hard which in turn could be very costly in the end and by then what ever money you did make just went towards paying steep fines.


It does get much more detailed for those who don't know or have already learned because they didn't research and do their homework, but it is the basic fundamentals of why most fail even at leasing. As I said, you will get screwed leasing no matter how you go about it but you can stay above out of the negative and turn a good check if you run your truck right. I'm not saying you have to run 55 like Prime and some others here do but you don't have to wind it up and run 70 either. I find that when I get a new truck I allow a week or two to find that sweet spot. Some have been up in around 62 others up in around 67-68 for optimal fuel mileage. No one truck is the same. Also while I'm on the topic, if your having to run excessively hard then not only do you need to be more wise on picking your loads but you also need to better manage your time. There are guys making a killin' on their net bring home after all other expenses are paid and running less in the neighborhood of 2500 miles a week or even less because they pick and choose their loads carefully and manage their time wisely.

 

How you are you guys doing at ATS either on the Company side or L/P side. Trying to decide between ATS or Lone Star as a Company driver. Any info will be helpful....pay, miles and home time???

 

that's a very good question for someone that has suffered, I mean; gone through either one of these (i've heard good and bad or each). IMHO I'd recommend you look at Melton (terminal in laredo) I see your location, I work for a small company out of Saginaw but we're home-d in sealy. so both are close to you. if you're looking at the pay and time home weekly I highly recommend it. if you're more concerned about new equipment and benefits, i e; health benefits and others you're better off with a mega carrier.
like I said I'd look at Melton, Prime, System.
best advice I can give you is don't lease.

 

Thanks for the recommendations, but I have not really heard good things about any of the 3 you recommended. Everyone I have talked to about Melton say - low miles and they tarp everything! My vote for right now is Lone Star - Specialized FB/OD/HH.

 

You all have bad luck I grossed ocer 208.000.00 last year and make great money at ATS maybe you should not take cheep frieght I get stupid load offers and trun them down and then take a 2.63 a mile load going 2200 miles some will never be more than a company driver