Good Night From II

oxnard ca. 2 trips today. dropped first mt here at p&g and went back to miller brewery in irwindale for the 2nd only for security to say they have none. so was sent down to otay mesafor one and del back here to p&g. had 10 min on my 11 and 25 on 14. asked a worker where the subay was and he said few miles and it has truck parking(also a gas station). very little parking, so i parked off the street in the dirt. hit alot of traffic today. took most of 4.5 hrs to get here from otay mesa. oh well..did it legally lol....btw, got pulled into the scales south of camirillo on 101 for a level 1. passed of course

 

Got you and Steve beat ... Other than the 2 weeks training that Swift had me do, I've never been in a company truck.

 

I'm in upstate NY after dropping a load at Target.

Tomorrow's load is picking up 17 miles from here (Friday, mid-morning) and delivering Monday morning at 0700 - 700 miles away in NC.
Well, at least it is a load for the weekend...

I really wish I'd had a better reason than 'too much time on the load' to turn it down. But who knows if anything else would have come along up here?
I also thought that they need the load moved, but drivers may be scarce. So I took it.

As it is, around 9,000 pounds (nice for all those hills...) - and I'll just take a 34 in the meantime to get full hours back.

I bobtailed out of Target because the corner truck stop was full. I'm just hoping that I can get the right mt in the morning from Target.
It has to be a newer trailer because I'm picking up medical supplies, and they demand clean and newer trailers.

 

And one more thing ... this is fundamental reason people fail at business ... your cash flow is not your paycheck ... it is the revenue to your business ... your business pays you.

I never miss a paycheck. As a matter a fact - unlike a company driver - I get paid every payday regardless of whether or not the truck generated any revenue that week ... And I pay myself a bonus when I go on home time.

For the record I can shut my truck down for over 2 weeks and still be cash flow positive the first week I put the truck back on the road.

 

I nearly 4 years I've never had a level 1.

I got pulled in for one in AZ once. They just got started and then sent me out because they HAD to inspect another truck that just came in.
I was sent away with a clean level 3 report.

Another time I was pulling a hazmat load and got pulled over off the highway for an inspection.
I was led to an off ramp, and then to a side road for the inspection.
The officer had just begun when he was stung by a bee. He started to feel bad, and cut me loose.

 

Well, some of us have it... and some don't.

In the end it all boils down to, can you effectively run and manage a business.
And that takes some talent, and a lot of knowledge and education.


I think what Jamie was trying to point out was that it takes a lot more than desire to successfully succeed in a lease/op.
She didn't know the OP or his experience, but was just trying to help with any new driver.

 

My apologies. You are correct. For some reason, I had picked up the impression that you had little to no experience.

Are you actually saying that you have never put so much as a scratch on your truck in years of driving? Never bumped a trailer, never touched a guard rail, never had a passing truck throw a piece of "gator" at your bumper? The chances of that being the case for any given person is remote, so please forgive my skepticism.

The odds of a brand new driver damaging their truck in the first year is nearly - but not quite - 100%.

Yes, I damaged plastic in my first year. I had been driving about six months. I was doing a blind driver's side back around the corner of the building. One open space, right against the wall. No lighting in the dock area. Access is via a single lane road, cutting across the dock area at about a 45 degree angle. I had gotten out to visually check my location several times during the back. When I went to straighten the rig, I bumped the guard rail. Nothing broken, but scratched through the paint on the corner of the bumper. I found out later that that particular guard rail has removed several bumpers.

Training had very little to do with my accident. The biggest factor was (lack of) experience.

 

Well,got my trucks swapped out got a smoke gray metallic t680.....unfortunately I did my first load and stopped at the albuquerque yard coz it was late and had a heart attack,yep a real heart attack on Friday night was able to walk over to the office here and they got an ambulance here pronto.....hustled over to the ER AT UNM nearby coz I was in the midst of a STEMI heart attack immediately to the cath lab for a stent in my heart....oh my that's the only thing that made that horrible chest pain go away morphine nope....fentanyl.....nope ,versed...nope.stent in the old ticker tho that was the ticket to paradise.roger that hehe,lol....lord that was a close one....whew,thanks god....,kept me there four days....nice nurses except they beat me there I have huge bruises to prove it,haha or maybe it was all the blood draws and ivs....out late Monday and sit in the truck figuring out how I was going to save my bacon...but swift came thru and put a hold on all my payments on this truck until I come back...flying to Ontario ca and rehab there...honestly I don't feel any different then before except little tired and my hip gets sore when I walk wtf? I'm only 47 and not really fat,but I ate that crap in the ts a lot and smoke....so take care of your health there brothers and sister truckers it could be u next!.....fr8monkey out but I'll be checking in.....yeehaw

 

I don't know if I'd call it "preaching", but your point is well taken. Yes, I do have strong feelings about the subject. A lot of new drivers are of the opinion that being a lease op is just like being a company driver, except you get to go faster, and you get paid more. My posts are intended to get people to realize that there's more to leasing than that.

For the first year, new drivers have their hands full learning the trucking side of their career choice. Adding in a business component is overwhelming to a lot of people. Of all the drivers who sign a lease their first year of driving, very few complete that lease.

Exactly.

That depends on your definition of "equity". I use the common dictionary definition where the equity of an item is the value above any amount owed. An operational truck has value; it's what someone will pay for it. What you term the "salvage value". If you complete a lease on a truck, the percentage of the value of that truck - the equity - that belongs to you is exactly zero. If you complete a purchase agreement, then the entire market value of that truck belongs to you. The fact that you paid 20x more than what the truck is currently worth doesn't factor into it.

 

Man oh man, that's no way to spend a few days away from the truck. Glad you are felling better and heading to a rehab. Don't harrass the nurses too much!