Hello and Happy New Year from New Jersey

Hey everyone,

I'm a 37 yr old guy from NJ that is currently driving LTL for one of the main carriers. I have only been in a trailer relatively recently, just about 2 years but I grew up in a family that ran an ice and fuel oil company so I was driving old 2 speed rear straight tankers since I was a kid and hauling ice blocks back when I was on my grandfather's lap. As I got older I did a bunch of work in dumps. (There seems to be a lot of that in NJ. Leaf routes, salting, site work etc). I drove a tandem for Exide battery for awhile and when they filed Chapter 11 I got in at my current job as a B driver (got whopped daily doing that!) and finally upgraded to my A and run around northern NJ for a good 10 hrs a day. Anything from 53's-doubles and whatever else.

I decided to come here for a few reasons and honestly I've been lurking for a little while. While I'm VERY grateful to be employed and getting benefits I have wanted to do my own thing for sometime now. Actually I came close to purchasing an older R Model Mack with a dump and starting that way years ago but unfortunately I got hurt, had to have shoulder surgery and during that time the economy wasn't all that great so I got healthy and decided not to rock the boat too much and just get back to working.

What I would "like" to do is pretty much the same thing I do now, run a day cab and just be a gun for hire. One thing I have going for me is that my uncle's fuel oil company is small but growing steadily. He is planning on purchasing 2 tanker trailers which will have to be run down to the port, filled and dropped at the yard. They'd be his trailers but he'll be on the road in his straight job doing service work and we figure running those will take a good 2-3x a week, Oct through about April. So if I had my own tractor I would take care of that and it's a "little" something to get me on the road.

I have just really started thinking about it again and I'm not going to do anything impulsive but I figure with the New Year, now is as good a time as any to start doing some homework. My biggest challenge is finding the work but I'm guessing asking questions throughout the day with people I deal with can shed some light on that.I see A LOT of receivers... How do you go about finding customers?? What kind of work is actually out there? I hear about guys running from rail yards up to lumber yards and things like that. I don't know ANYTHING about that kind of work but would like to learn about the various things that are out there--even if I don't pursue them, I'd like to have some knowledge.

I grew up in a family of small business owners and I'd like to begin working towards that. All the posts I read here sounded like a bunch of good people with good work ethics so I'll take any advice I can get. I'm also single, no kids, no crazy ex's and I keep my credit good. That should work in my favor!

Other than that, things about me personally? I genuinely dig talking about old trucks. Old Macks, Diamond REO and all those great old cabovers are good stuff! I race motorcycles and get on the track during the weekends in the summer (another reason I like LTL)...old muscle cars, Lionel trains. I guess I'm just a gear head. Very regular, family oriented guy, head to the gym after work and take care of my mom.

I'll be logging on a few times a week and hopefully I can make a few friends that can offer some advice regarding what I'm going to be doing soon...or if you just wanna talk old trucks, muscle cars, bikes and racing that's cool too. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and plan on a nice, Happy New Year. Be safe out there. Thanks for having me!

Jess

 

Thanks so much, yes I will..I guess I just got carried away in my hello!