How's intermodal going for everyone?

So honestly....sounds like I should keep hauling cars. I'm netting (not bragging btw) about $900/wk (gross=$1370) plus full benefits (every insurance imaginable) and 3 weeks vacation and only working 50 hours per week. If grossing $2500 minus all the benefits I'll buy and expenses, I'll do around $1100. I'm left wondering if $200 more a week is worth the headaches of running my own truck....however my worn out body says go for it. I think it would definitely be worth it if I knew I could do closer to $3k and still work 50-55 hours per week.

Comments appreciated...positive or negative. RERM...how many hours a week are you putting in to make your $2500? I think Chicago probably compares to KC if you time your runs around the traffic patterns.

 

It varies, but lately I've started running hazmat containers, mostly local stuff (60 miles or less, two runs a day) when I do a full week of this I work about 50 hours and my weekly gross is between $3500- $4200....keep in mind, running local like this, my weekly fuel is usually less than $600...

Running normally non hazmat...about 60 hours ...weekly gross is about $3200 to $3800 .... running regional is about 1600-1800 miles a week ..... fuel is about $800-$1000....

This year it really seems trucking in general has REALLY slowed down, I was told to expect two big rush seasons in Intermodal (early summer and Sept-Dec) none has materialized yet..the company I'm leased to has been frantic about getting dedicated clients and more shipping companies business so we've all been running and many, MANY times at the rail over the CB other companies drivers ask us if we've been running all week...

It hasn't been easy and your driver job sounds good, but I would not trade the ability to have home time when I want it, how I want it also, as an O/O there are many tax advantages simply not available to company drivers (most of our additional expenses are deductible) so.....I wouldn't trade it....

good luck and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

BEARS WIN!!!!!!!!!!!! BEARS WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Also, honestly if my truck didn't have so much delayed maintenance (I bought it used in Nov '14) I could easily be netting $1500 or more a week, but the bills keep on coming, once I pay one, dammed thing breaks something else....I honestly think I would rather have a new truck payment than get another used rig....in the end, the repairs, when added to my monthly payment, add up to $2500 to 3K a month...

 

I noticed a lot of guys are leasing trucks through Penske and other companies for that reason. It will cost you around $4k/mo, but zero maintenance, new truck and they take care of all your plates and taxes. I'm planning on buying a truck with less than 400k on it for around $45-50K. I'm hoping the maintenance costs won't out pace my the $500/mo I'll be putting into a maintenance account (starting with $3k). So my truck expenses should be in the less than $2K/mo range. I've been calculating fuel, at 2500 miles per week. With the miles your running, I would make $200 more a week and make around $500 more than I am now. I'm almost at a point where I want to just do it or wonder forever if I should have.

Curious..how much should I hold back for taxes? I've budgeted $700/mo and that seems too low at 10% of net. I'm going to need a CPA I think.

 

Hold about 26% for taxes after you take out expenses. Honestly a truck with 400k could still eat you for 10-20k+ in a year.

Buy the cheapest truck with the best sounding motor and never put looks ahead of reliability. I run around in a 9200 with a c12 and I don't think I'd get another truck as its held up very well.

 

here in nj I taxes and deductions are about 32%

 

2015 has been weird, it was busy early on, never really got slow, until probably July, then it slowed up a hair. Normally, August to Feb. we are super busy, holiday traffic, grain exports (beans, millet, sunflower, popcorn), and GF. Grain exports are sporadic at best, millet is a year round thing, but very little of that is our of town, it's all 90 minutes out, 90 minutes to load, 90 minutes back **YAWN**. Beans, Sunflower and Popcorn are longer, paid by percentage, and usually half a day allowing for another 4 or 5 hrs of hourly work.

Usually we're also getting a ton of Walmart/Sam's/Target holiday loads, nothing. I can't recall my last Walmart/Sam's, and haven't been to Target in probably 2 yrs (don't miss it either).

Last we heard on the grain stuff, was a clusterflock that happened last year. Seems a lot of bean stuff that wen to Spain and other places, when it got there, they refused the loads. Apparently there were record crops in So. Amer., prices were depressed, crops sold cheap, so the USA loads were refused. It's my understanding, several million lbs of beans were dumped outside of Houston and left to rot because of these loads being refused. Now, these companies are requiring 50% to 60% deposits on the loads so this doesn't happen. The result, exports are slow. Also not helping, truck freight prices have been low, so in some cases they are loading totes of beans, shipping it by truck to Houston and Miami, repacking it and shipping from there, same with boxcar loads, some are 100lb sacks some are 2,000 lb totes being shipped, repacked and exported.