So, I fell victim to a stupid broker trick...

I have a BIG brothers all-in-one printer that I used to have in my house. Does all the same stuff just takes up more room.....but it was free so I just shoved it in the cabinet in the sleeper. Sure does save on printing out permits as well compared to the $2 a page the truckstops charge !!!!

 

You can get an all in one printer, fax, scanner, copier at any office supply store (Office Depot, Staples, etc., ) or Walmart. You can often find them for less than $100. I paid more for mine a number of years ago. The prices have come down considerable since then.

If you plan on receiving or sending any faxes or bills over the internet you need a all in one printer. Some truck stops charge as much as $3 for the first page and then $1-2 for each additional page. Before I bought mine I have spent over $40 to receive and send a contract from a new broker. It is also a good idea to make copies of any paperwork sent to your carrier, if you happen to lease to someone. You can easily spend $0.50/page to copy bills. It is also a convience. You can do everything from your truck and anywhere you happen to be sitting. You can deliver your load and then upload your paperwork to the company so that you can get the process working to get your money. Some carriers will even allow you to transflow from your truck. With Landstar and a few others you can scan your bills and then upload them directly into their system. You no longer need to wait until you get to a truck stop that has Transflow or Trip Pak, providing your carrier offers that service. The thing that I like about scanning bills and paperwork is that it gets to the company in a matter of minutes and you know for sure that it has been received. Should something happen in their system, you still have your original paperwork so that you can resend it, if needed. More and more carriers and brokers are going paperless.

 

I have a cheap HP printer/scanner for $50 at wally world. For faxes, sign up for an online fax service. I use MetroFax that costs $8/mo for the first 500 pages (in or out) and I believe $0.03/page after that. It works like email, for instance if the # you want to fax is 1-800-000-0000, you would just email from your 'associated email address' 18000000000@metrofax.com and include the PDF file as an attachment and it is faxed. You also receive your faxes via a PDF file emailed to you.

 

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...62-printer-scanner-for-truck-suggestions.html


Let's not derail a good thread everyone!

 

"Nobody would know", except say...

GOOGLE MAPS, the 6 GPS applications I have running on my dash/iphone/ipad/laptop...

I mean, jeeze - even a zip code to zip code can vary by 10-20 miles (depending on if it's far side to far side of the zone) - but a 25% increase in mileage?

FRIKKIN AMAZING...

Rick

 

Good advice. Be careful out there.

 

You shoulda known better fella!

 

Just don't do business with TQL - what else needs to be said. Too many bad apples there to waste precious time trying to find any that are worth working with. And not only is it just outright dishonest of them to do that (actual load differing from the posting) the fact that it is so widespread of a practice speaks volumns to what they think of your typical independant or small company that calls up... ...they think we are all idiots and will just haul the load... ...and it's quiet possible that some do, so TQL figures if they can get away with it, why not?...