Can anyone sum up how it all works?

look for the dvd, course of action. by kevin ruthaford. i think it might be on letstruck.com.
its a good start

 

When you understand as a company driver you are providing a service and not just driving a truck. You'll understand what you're doing a bit better and be ready to start making that jump.

You'll track every little thing you do everyday and start taking notes on expenses and tracking them. You'll follow your driving/sitting times and have it recorded to understand over time how much you average in a day and what your fuel costs are for a week. Not from guessing, but from actual real world numbers.

But until that lightbulb clicks. A company gig isn't a bad job to have.

 

Hi New Nash Guy, being a ex-business owner does help you in the fact that you understand the concepts of a EIN number, State Tax Number, Payroll taxes, and etc. that is involved with running a business. I would suggest that you remain a company driver for a while until you understand all of the ins and outs. I have worked in the trucking industry, but on the other side in the office. When dealing with broker loads from a companies perspective, we used the DAT system to get our broker loads. If you contracted with a broker to take a load, and had never run for them before then they made us send them our liability, cargo, and umbrella insurance to them, and in return they had to send us their Surety Bond information. The reason for that is because if they didn't pay, then we could file a claim under their Surety Bond. The DAT board is also at the truck stops, where you can look for loads on the screen. Yes, you could hire someone with no understanding or experience to do it, but there is alot more to it then excepting loads. You have to figure the amount of miles that you are going to travel, just to see if you are going to break even or lose money. Save your self a lot of headaches, and if you want to go o/o eventually, then get a truck and run under another companies authority who have people to get those loads for you.

 

There's a reason most drivers in a situation where they are dispatched prefer to have someone with some actual time behind the wheel of a truck doing the dispatching. That doesn't always guarantee a great dispatcher but it will go a long ways in that they do have an understanding of freight in general. A good one will know exactly what kinds of loads to look for - what's profitable, what's a waste of time and effort, what might appear to be profitable on the surface but really isn't, specific important questions to ask about any given load, things that sound or look like red flags about a load before calling, etc, etc you're just not going to pay some Joe Blow 7 bucks an hour to book loads and get any sort of consistency or profitability out of that. If it was that easy everybody be doing it, getting rich, with no-one ever complaining about how competetive it is. They (college grad for $7 hr) don't know what they don't know and neither do you without experience.

 

Plus my own truck will have all kinds of upgrades like a bike rack, big TV mount, no passenger seat, nice stereo, solar panels, no governed speed, etc. things company drivers cannot have.

You do realize that for every POUND OF WEIGHT that your TOYS add to your truck is less REVENUE GENERATING weight you can haul .

 

Getting fuel with a bank card can be sketchy at some fuel stops. Also keep in mind you would be buying anywhere from $300+ in fuel, I usually spend around $500 when I fuel. Also I would check out the cash back fine print on those cards often there is a limit or exclusions for commercial purchases which fuel would be since you have to provide your dot number to purchase it. With a fuel card through ooida or nastc you do all this at the pump and I know the nastc fuel card gives very good fuel discounts.

As mentioned there is a lot more to booking loads than calling a broker. I'm slowly learning all the ins and outs and the pitfalls so I can teach my fiancee to book my loads for me.

 

I haven't had a problem using the Visa debit / credit card at any fuel stops, except for one that would only let me pump $75 when paying at the pump. But going inside solved that.

What kind of issues can I expect to see at these sketchy fuel stops, and how do I figure out which ones are sketchy in advance?

 

Ok, lets correct some of your wrong thinking right from the get go here. There is a market full of guys willing to buy a truck and run it for nothing just so they can get home every night or every other night. Not that there is anything wrong with wanting to be home often. I want that too. No-one in their right mind actually choose to stay out on the road for weeks on end if they had an alternative. The thing is if you zero in on that (home time only) forgetting about the BUSINESS entirely you will fall into the trap of thinking cheap $1.40 pulling containers from ports is "just the way it is". look, I was very close to a $3 mile average on 20,400 total miles driven, that was to my truck after a percentage came out, and if not home every night I was at least home every other night for the ENTIRE 2nd quarter and part of the 1st quarter as well.


Because I put some thought into this and did not accept the cheap status quo, because I put some effort and work into it.. ..there's just too many guys out there that only want to "drive and own" their own truck without all the "hassles of getting their own tags, or dealing with a little extra paperwork", or making a few phone calls or getting them all hours of the day or night these small things really take very little effort... That is such a small minded approach and these guys will leave so much money on the table because they don't think in terms of BUSINESS. And the last thing we need is another wannabe coming into this buying into the old myths and getting himself into a deadend lease somewhere where he'll never make a single red cent's worth of profit... That's what's wrong with the whole cheap scene with spot market and lease agreements of a buck a mile plus surcharge right now... It is the drivers' faults for accepting such and being lazy. Some driver in another thread was whining about drivers havent seen a wage increase adjusted for inflation in years - my question to that driver would be "just what have you done to remedy that situation and how has whining about it been working for you?"..