The journey begins - purchased a truck.

Old Man · May 29, 2016

Stripers and trout, the kids had fun.

blairandgretchen · May 29, 2016

Yep - to mess with all the freight hauling, that's fun right there. I'm being dragged off to the Monett speedway tonight by the neighbor - get my behind out of the house.

Skate-Board · May 30, 2016

Old Man said: ↑

Stripers and trout, the kids had fun. View attachment 140605 View attachment 140606
Click to expand...

I'll take a few of those trout. Oh, and would you mind cleaning them, scaling them and making them into fillets and wrapped up in that paper like at the fish counter?

blairandgretchen · May 30, 2016

Yeah - me too, I feel an entitlement urge coming on - me deserves some cleaned up fishies!!

Old Man · May 30, 2016

The trout were quite tasty, sorry we forgot to share.

kduvall · May 30, 2016

Gr1zzly said: ↑

@blairandgretchen
Thank you for this thread mate. I read all 160 pages of it and have to admit, I'm looking forward to getting back into driving in the US.

I've wanted to own my own truck for a long time, since I was a kid being taught to drive a twin stick Mack.

Had a play around with Direct Freight Services Load Boards today, and decided to have a go at trying to calculate how much, based on just the advertised payrates (I'm guessing those are to the truck, if there is another cut in there, it really is going to throw out my calculation) I could earn a week in my own truck.

After 1 week, Monday to Friday, the results was as follows:

Monday: Silver Creek, MS - Halletsville, TX (549 miles Total DH+Loaded) $1300 TTT ($2.36 p/m)
Tuesday: Houston, TX - Augusta, GA (1067 miles Total DH+Loaded) $1500 TTT ($1.40 p/m - seriously, Old Man is right, don't go to TX...that was the best load I could find coming out)
Wednesday: Allendale, GA - Cove City, NC (392 mile Total DH+Loaded) $825 TTT ($2.15 p/m)
Thursday: Phillly, PA - Montdale, PA (174 miles Total, sure you get the rest) $550 TTT (3.16 p/m)
Thursday: New Haven, CT - Haverhill, MA (340 miles total) $650 TTT ($1.91 p/m)
Friday: Palmer, MA - Bradford, VT (252 miles total) $450 TTT ($1.78 p/m)

End of week, hit the reset.

Totals: 3221 miles $6375 TTT (avg $1.91 p/m)

Noticed a couple of things:
1) Stay the h3ll out of Texas unless you know people...really, really good people.
2) Get too far north and the rates start dropping again (unless you know people, I would imagine?)
3) Not a single one of the 'brokers' was rated above 100. I'm guessing that is not a good thing?

I would think a triangle would have been better, but with the limited information I have available on hand here, I think I might be able to work it out when I get there and get a few miles of US soil back under my belt driving, I may finally have a go at this O / O stuff, since it got put on hiatus when I married an Aussie.

Lots of fantastic advice and insights in this thread, and I'd like to acknowledge everyone who contributed, but especially for Blair putting himself out there, Old Man for giving sound advice and DY (that thread is next).

This is a fantastic forum. Can only wish we had something like this back in the 90's when I was running. Would have been great.

Keep up the good work Blair. Best of luck to your S-I-L, prayers and thoughts with all of you. Hope the CFO is doing better with the feet.
Click to expand...

Nice week, thanks for sharing. Is that with a flat? 48 or 53?

kduvall · May 30, 2016

Old Man said: ↑

My turn to give some advice, take or leave it, it won't cost me anything. I do have some experience with LS, 22+years.

1. Insurance try First Guard, out of Florida, they will give you instant quote online, I think they give LS a discount and the are good with claims. First hand knowledge from storm damage

2. The cpp insurance is you best protection if you get hurt, buy the high limit. Better than workers comp, you can use the best Dr's and hospitals, plus get a weekly check while you are off.

3. You have never pulled flatbed so work orientation so you can go to securement school at the same time, (you don't have to take your truck to orientation)

4. When getting flatbed equipt don't forget to get corner protectors, pads for chains(used carpet) and padding for tarps or you will ruin new tarps quickly. I like pieces of old tarp or furniture pads. Start with easy loads to tarp like steel or boxes, don't try uncrated machinery till you get exp.
You can buy from Tri City Canvas in Granite City, LS discount and no tax http://www.everythingforyourflatbed.com/ Collect a good supply of dunnage, it will save you time and trouble. (get hard wood)

5.You spent all that time cleaning up the truck don't put their cheap signs and number on it, have some cut to match your truck. Put them on the doors, don't be fancy, it will help at the scales. Don't even bother putting you new LLC name on it. (LLC is a waste of time and money, but that is my opinion)

6. Let LS get you tag and permits, buy fuel on the card and no IFTA worries. Open all you mail from LS and put permits in the truck and you will never have problems with being legal.

7. Don't over analyze every load, set you call alert high enough to keep from getting overloaded with cheap loads, have them sent to Email and phone. You have to make fast decision, the good stuff will go fast. It is not go where you want when you want, it is go where the money is when it is offered.

8. Don't waste 2-3 days waiting for that perfect load, before you know it it blew a whole week, don't be afraid to deadhead 5 hours to get to a good load is better than waiting several days hoping one comes to you. No one pushing you to go is the biggest reason for failure at LS, other than some people are just stupid.

More later,
Click to expand...

Old Man said: ↑

My turn to give some advice, take or leave it, it won't cost me anything. I do have some experience with LS, 22+years.

1. Insurance try First Guard, out of Florida, they will give you instant quote online, I think they give LS a discount and the are good with claims. First hand knowledge from storm damage

2. The cpp insurance is you best protection if you get hurt, buy the high limit. Better than workers comp, you can use the best Dr's and hospitals, plus get a weekly check while you are off.

3. You have never pulled flatbed so work orientation so you can go to securement school at the same time, (you don't have to take your truck to orientation)

4. When getting flatbed equipt don't forget to get corner protectors, pads for chains(used carpet) and padding for tarps or you will ruin new tarps quickly. I like pieces of old tarp or furniture pads. Start with easy loads to tarp like steel or boxes, don't try uncrated machinery till you get exp.
You can buy from Tri City Canvas in Granite City, LS discount and no tax http://www.everythingforyourflatbed.com/ Collect a good supply of dunnage, it will save you time and trouble. (get hard wood)

5.You spent all that time cleaning up the truck don't put their cheap signs and number on it, have some cut to match your truck. Put them on the doors, don't be fancy, it will help at the scales. Don't even bother putting you new LLC name on it. (LLC is a waste of time and money, but that is my opinion)

6. Let LS get you tag and permits, buy fuel on the card and no IFTA worries. Open all you mail from LS and put permits in the truck and you will never have problems with being legal.

7. Don't over analyze every load, set you call alert high enough to keep from getting overloaded with cheap loads, have them sent to Email and phone. You have to make fast decision, the good stuff will go fast. It is not go where you want when you want, it is go where the money is when it is offered.

8. Don't waste 2-3 days waiting for that perfect load, before you know it it blew a whole week, don't be afraid to deadhead 5 hours to get to a good load is better than waiting several days hoping one comes to you. No one pushing you to go is the biggest reason for failure at LS, other than some people are just stupid.

More later,
Click to expand...

Great stuff, thanks for sharing!

Gr1zzly · May 31, 2016

kduvall said: ↑

Nice week, thanks for sharing. Is that with a flat? 48 or 53?
Click to expand...

That was an estimated run using only a public load board on a 48' skateboard and trying to keep in mind avg miles per day running through different states, limiting unload and reload times to 1 hour. I'd say Landstar has access to better paying loads, but essentially it was a dry run to see if an O/O could make it in the current economic climate.

I'd say it is possible, but a few factors play in to that, such as truck payments, trailer payments, bills at home, etc and so on.

Blair seems to doing quite well at Landstar...At least I think so and it gives me hopes of getting back over there and in to a truck of my own in the future. Still enjoying keeping up with this thread

blairandgretchen · Jun 1, 2016

Well - had a chance to total up the numbers for last month. This is one of those starry alignments where settlements are up to date with the truck - translation - I haven't moved in 9 days.

I spent a few minutes looking at month to month expenses, revenue etc, but it all averages out to the following -

Quite a shift from last year - the % of revenue that we're keeping - last year was a mirror image, 57% expense, 43% profit.

This is driven by a much reduced maintenance cost, and reduced fuel. Last year maintenance ran .34 cpm - fuel .31.

'Supplies' had the v-twin pressure washer motor included , as I wash the truck with it, and the generator. So it's a little inflated, but not a lot.

$1.63 remains the all miles figure. Slightly less than last year if I remember rightly. My deadhead doesn't help - I see no point in spending a night or weekend out on the road if home is within 400 miles. I don't care, I've got a perfectly good house and nobody to tell me I can't go home.

dngrous_dime · Jun 1, 2016

Uniforms???? Your boss must be really picky about appearance....

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