Double Yellow's Company Driver to Independent Thread

Well start writing him up and start looking for another driver! Stupid drivers. Lol

 

I think my dispatcher (me) doesn't look at load details and only looks at the revenue. Booking 4 tarp loads back to back is quite exhausting.

 

Yes, I know exactly what you mean. We already get priority on loads here and we're used to elds. We run out of pay week before we run out of hours.

It will really be hard to run out of hours running less miles as flatdeck supersolo. We use 34 hr resets as our "weekend" since we're out so long.

 

after 40 years of owning businesses I will never be a good business man
the over riding thing to me was never be a slave to the business
If you want to go to Oregon but going to Texas pays more
who is the boss the business or the owner

 

The thing is, I know my numbers here, but all the variables will change when I leave and go somewhere else, my fixed cost will go down, miles per yeat will go down, and revenue will go up. So I will have to refigure everything after I make the move.

Same with lanes, I know quite a bit of what ships out of where and where our hot spots are for freight. however that exists at least partially in this carriers' bubble and is not necessarily indicative of spot market freight, plus this is van freight, not open deck... so likely not even close to indicative. I Will have to relearn alot, just as I did when I came here, however with increased revenue and higher earning potential, as well as the ability to make my own destiny.... I loom forward to it.

The quick and dirty here is:

I make 1.12 a mile, all miles. I don't figure FSC, because here it is a joke. (Currently less than 2cpm)

Figured at 200,000 miles a year, my fixed costs are 29.8 cpm. And fuel varies based on weight of load, terrain, etc. Anywhere from 44-51 cpm. Less after fuel surcharge, west coast fuel surcharge if I pick up a load over there, and 6 cents off at the pump for "cash price" the comdata rebate isn't passed onto us by the carrier.

I put 15 cpm in maintenance, then we split what's left... 36 cpm on bad weeks...45 cpm on good weeks.

Not great money, but we're not starving or hurting for anything. We've got good savings already and very few bills.

The truck gets washed every week and I take alot of pride in being one of the most well kept trucks in a fleet where drivers run their trucks into the ground chasing miles.

I get my oil changed at speedco, I use baldwin filters and shell Rotella because I hate the delo and fleet guard stuff my carrier buys in bulk...

 

Yeah, my night driver tends to lollygag sometimes if we don't have a really tight deadline.

You mentioned in your earlier post that a small carrier like yourself needs something to set themselves apart for brokers, etc.

I'm hoping that mine is the ability to expedite, as well as "save" loads that brokers could not get covered until it was too late for a solo to load it and get it there. (for a nominal fee of course).

 

Take a flat to Oregon and that buck a mile or buck twenty if your lucky going back east teaches you real quick that the business is the boss, not the owner/driver

 

i think you miss the point are you working to live or living to work
i get motels and pay for reserve parking for my convenience
there is a balance in everything making more enjoying it less isn't it. most of the time i do things just because some one said I couldn't or shouldn't

in the 90's they told me there were no monkfish on Jefferies Bank in the Gulf of Maine but i went anyway
came home 5 days later with $25000 of monkfish in the hold

of course yesterday i explored the backroads of OH thinking I was Lewis and Clarke looking for a new better plan
the wife just shakes her head and says you know there is a reason you haven't seen a truck in an hour