THE ADVENTURES CONTINUE - DFO gets a truck and hops on Schneider's IC Choice Program

That sounds good on the $3600. I may have missed something,was thinking $1.39/mile for some reason.What about insurance? I have heard some real horror stories with the O'care.

 

Being that I am making the transition next week, I know I am losing my company coverage. I got on the marketplace and was able to find coverage that is comparable to what we have from SNI for roughly the same cost after the tax credits. I did not have any problems with the website or the process to sign up. I did have to wait for the IRS to verify my income to see the tax credit I will receive. If i remember correctly I was eligible for a credit of 630 a month based on my income as a company driver last year.

 

whats this now? Chickenwing Brokerage Services?

 

Schneider has health insurance for ICs provided by TrueNorth. Runs $35 weekly for basic plan for single person. The plan is not currently compliant with Obamacare requirements, but the rep told me that the government recently postponed the insurance requirements for another year (but they didn't bother telling everyone that, big surprise). They said the plan will be compliant by the time it all goes into effect in 2015.

 

Lol it could be. Haha

 

There's definitely good freight out there, but you have to be patient and pay attention. I metaphorically hit the lottery yesterday with the load plan I got into place. 3 loads for the next week, 3100 miles, gross income over $5400, $1.74 per mile average, all three loads under 15,000 lbs, and that's including a 389 mile deadhead on one of them. Wish I could pull that off EVERY week LOL!

 

You guys don't get paid deadhead, correct?

 

No, not on the Choice program. Deadhead doesn't bother me as much though with the newer Evolution truck, because I get over 10 mpg empty and over 14 mpg bobtailing. So it's not too bad... although normally I'd NEVER deadhead 389 miles, but this string of loads was unique enough to do it.

 

I have a similar situation going on this week. They do appreciate a heads up when you know things are gonna go screwy for a week.

My original plan this week was to take Monday off and then get rolling Tuesday. I check the load board Monday night and Tuesday morning, and can't find anything worth taking. The loads going out of town were all paying less than $1.30 per mile and were all over 40,000. There were tons of local area loads, paying $2, $3, $4, and in some cases more (one short run paid $13.93 per mile, about 30 miles), but the problem with these is the schedule. That nice shiny one paying $13.93 per mile was 30 miles loaded.. and didn't deliver until the next evening. 36 hours for 30 miles. Same case with the other local loads... every single one of them would take at least a full day, all under 200 miles. At that rate, I'd be bringing in less than $300 a day, and would be out of business in a week. If they would schedule these local loads with open appointments so I could drop and hook 3 or 4 in a day, I'd do it regularly. But 36 hours from pickup to delivery for 30 miles? Seriously???

I kept sitting for the next couple days trying to find a decent load plan, and finally hit on my decent one yesterday. Looks great, but this week's pay period will only have about $700 on it. Had to get $225 in fuel to run this load, plus $1000 in fixed expenses, gonna leave me $500 in the hole next Friday. Called SFI and told them what was up, and that next week I had $4600 of loads lined up. They said it was fine, cash advance would be available if I needed it, and there would be about a $30 late fee. Works for me.

It's not always a bed of roses... but I do enjoy the challenge, and the self satisfaction of knowing that I managed to somewhat get myself out of a jam without completely going out of business.