The journey begins - purchased a truck.

Yeah, but that's not your truck, so I'm not quite so irritated.

 

I'm getting there, slowly.

 

More mile markers

February 16 was the 1 year mark of being leased on to LS. I haven't bothered to intensely crunch numbers on a full year - they wouldn't be that impressive anyhow. Jan/Feb are clearly two of the slowest months - also a good time to gather tax information and visit the CPA. Good time to sit at home and stoke the fire too.

My strategy for the 2 months consisted of watching the weekly weather forecast nationally - then picking loads accordingly. I worked 28 days of the 2 months, and only got caught in bad weather a couple of times - and nothing too bad. Don't miss the ODFL days of "Run on schedule - Chain if needed". Don't care if I never see another 50 mile back up again.

Back at Square Uno on the "Learning the Agent" game - after 8 months of frames. I have a small number that I call and pester to see if they have anything going if things are looking really slim on the board. This time of year I feel like a pest though - just not a lot going on.

Learned one valuable lesson (again) last week. Do Not book a load with an agent you've never worked with before without being able to sit down and plot the miles. I took a phone call and was pre-occupied with my job, and then TRUSTED the agent to do the right thing. Wrong. Quoted 1020 miles on a 1250 mile 3 pick one drop. Wouldn't adjust the FSC - let alone rate (!) once I'd had a chance to sit and plan it - I should have shoved it back in their faces at the weekend (they aren't accessible on weekends) - but I stuck by my word and took the load.

Only agent I've ever had that wouldn't send a rate con aside from in the body of an email, and paid 'air miles" (My truck doesn't lift off the ground very often) - Congratulations ESL, you may join QLJ on the list of people not to trust or work with. Sadly LS backed their practices as acceptable. Thanks guys. I do a good job. I did a good job. I can say that now, because I'm confident that I get the job done and shippers and customers are happy. I loaded an extra piece of freight on - contacted all the stops myself, took care of the job. Would they take care of me ? - no. Oh well.

On to 3rd oversize load now. That's 2 long, and 1 wide. These have kept me very engaged in learning, not too stressful, but for them to fit in my "everything in my control and planning" realm, they need to be planned out. Getting a feel for what the price should be to make them worth their time. Dealt with about 9 states so far.

Truck is running pretty good this year. Maintenance less than 18 cpm right now. New batteries, and repair a cold water leak above thermostat housing, replace thermostats (2), top steering shaft knuckle. I've only just hit 10,000 miles from the cam follower gasket blow out, so there's plenty of oil and filters for everything from last year sitting on the shelf. Truck has 1,083,000 on it now.

I had an "obsolete part" issue in January. Low air buzzer locked on. Integrated into IC board on the back of instrument cluster. Faced with one from the wrecker yard that would have wrong mileage on it, I went the "Destroy buzzer" option, and wired in 2 buzzers to low air sensors on P & S systems. Fixed. DOT wants to hear the buzzy noise, you see.

@baha - your revolving amber light is now 'rigged' up the top behind the cab - and wired in to a switch on the dash. Not exactly a fancy chromed up light bar/wrecker kinda deal, more of a "it works" looking job.
@double yellow - all the flags and signs and the 4 'FoxFire' magnetic lights you kindly sent me have been in use too. Especially the regulation overview guide.

Looks like it's time to sharpen blades and drop some oil on the tractors and mower. Garden has been tilled, greenhouse cleaned, and wood for next year split and stacked.

Starting to enjoy this 'working for yourself' deal.