Finally got my own truck

Put some pressure on my boss today. If you hadn't been reading, I emptied in MD last night. This morning it took my boss 50 calls to find anything decent. Load paying $1100 to WI, I said nah. Load paying $600 to Columbus, 44k lbs, I passed. Then I asked him to expand his search radius, to include Frederick and Hagerstown. I was north of Baltimore and didn't mind deadheading an hour or two for the right load. I also asked him to search for FL if it paid $2/mi or better.

So finally he comes back Hagerstown, MD to somewhere close to Ft. Lauderdale, FL.
44k lbs, 1,085 miles, pays just over $2/mi. 40k lbs of paper. So I deadhead almost two hours to Hagerstown, get to this little hole in the wall paper mill, I was one of 2 trucks there, so quick load.
Ended up being, much to my delight, 20,000 lbs of Kleenex. Del in south FL Friday morning at some grocery warehouse that has some very, very bad reviews. I hate those places. I'll get there Thursday evening and sit there and wait all night if I have to. Appt isn't until 5:30am but the earlier the better. Getting 7.2mpg so far on this load, with traffic jams in D.C. area and then going 65-70mph much of the way. Sitting somewhere in South Carolina now.

Wasn't thrilled about having to go THAT far south into FL...and as soon as I get unloaded, I'll probably just start deadheading back towards Jacksonville for anything going back to Chicago area where all the freight is. Last time I was in FL, years ago, like 10 years ago, took PAM 2 days to get me out.

Now I know FL is a dead hole, but so is MD. But so far, $5,000 gross on 1,926 miles loaded and empty isn't bad. We'll see if I can get unloaded Friday and get something else to wrap up the week.

 

Boss is getting me a dat board username so I can hop on there and check it out. I just hope I can get unloaded in time to get anything at all. Maybe see about Atlanta and idk what pays anything from there.

 

Sitting at customer in Pompano Beach, FL. One truck ahead of me, and they took my phone # to call me in the morning, told me to sleep where I sit. I avg 7.5mpg on this loaded trip. 143 gallons.

IF I get unloaded at a somewhat decent time, I have a load booked to Indy to del Monday morning, $1/mi. It will put me at $6,200 on 3,200 all miles for the week. Not bad to start my first week, especially considering I went to MD and FL. The load into MD is what made the week great.

I wonder what next week will bring?

 

Yeah it's about right I think. 3200 miles loaded and empty, and I paid $193 in tolls because I took the FL turnpike to get back toward Atlanta, and that was $34.50 but it was worth it.

On fuel I spend about $1275, and my expenses are $1400/week with truck, trailer, insurance, and maintenance fund of $200/week. The fixed expenses I add them all up and divide by 46 weeks.

So the $6200 I gross, I get 88% so like $5,450, minus $1400 and then minus $1275 and $193, I made $2,580.

I'm setting my goal every week to net above $2,500. Maybe some weeks will be better and probably some weeks will be worse. Maybe I just had a really good 1st week out. We'll see what next week brings.

 

The rates are out there. I have a feeling there's a lot of independent owner ops who are just complacent about making a little bit of money, they have their old truck and trailer paid off, and they just keep afloat, not trying to make a gold mine, just making a living, and so they don't take full advantage of what's possible - but if they did, then rates would go up.

I also have a feeling that a decent chunk of these guys, and others, who may not be O/Os, may just in fact decide to call it a life toward the end of this year when E-Log mandate hits, and hang their keys up for good.

I had only been to Florida once before, maybe 10 years ago with PAM, went somewhere near Orlando and it took them 2 days to get me the heck outta there.

This trip I went all the way down close to Miami. Pfffff...no thank you. The place I picked up at, in Miami Lakes, the shipper didn't even speak English - none of them did. Not a single one. I signed for a load where they had to rely on hand signals and my intelligence to communicate with me. Licensia, placa, sure I know a handful of Spanish words, but not anywhere near being able to either have or understand a conversation.

And also, I had never realized Florida was so #### LONG! 621 miles from shipper didn't even get me to Atlanta tonight. Have another 600 to go tomorrow to get to Whitestown, IN. Then Sunday I rest. I'll go back to Florida, and I told my boss I'll go back there, but not all the way down to Miami. And not for $2/mi even from Baltimore. $3/mi is my bottom dollar from anywhere.

And one other thing, I have been on some flat, straight stretches of highway, but nothing like I95. It's like when they made that highway, they used a 300 mile long ruler and drew a big line.

US 77 going toward Brownsville, TX is flat and straight too, but there was always a lot of wind coming off the gulf eating up your fuel. I didn't experience much wind down in FL the past couple days. A little wind earlier on the way out of Miami but nothing more than somewhat annoying.

And also about the tolls, the FL turnpike was $34.50 and the other $158 was through OH and PA. Those tolls are expensive. Sheesh! Thinking about getting an EZ Pass to save 30%. In fact, I will get it sooner rather than later.