Finally got my own truck

Yeah I booked kinda early. Only showing 320 loads within 100 miles, but while I was loading at the shipper, that load count went up to just over 400. I might have gotten something better but I booked early.

$1.50/mi to southeast South Dakota. Lawn Mowers, 12,000 lbs.
I averaged 8mpg today.

So I'll end up with $17,500 gross for the 3 weeks I've been out, and I'll have driven 10,370 miles when I finish this load.

If I don't count the first week, and just last week and this week, I'll have grossed $12,300 on 6862 all miles. A lot of driving.

I got $50 detention on one load, so all in all II think I'll have profited $6,950 in 3 weeks. Not bad. A lot better than before. But I've been driving hard. Putting a lot of wear and tear on not only the truck, but me.

I have a bad steer tire. The sidewall has a slice in it and it's been fine for a few weeks, not leaking air, but last couple of days it's been leaking air. I'm parked right next to this Pilot Goodyear shop. In the morning I'll have to shell out a bunch of money for a new steer tire. I can't risk just running with it any longer and having it blow out. Not sure what they charge for installation, but the tire will probably be $610. I have BF Goodrich but I think they only do Goodyear tires here at a Goodyear shop. Oh well.

Since I put away money every week for expenses like this, it won't hurt but it will still be money going out

In June I'll have to renew my plates and 2290 since I only got temporaries. Plus I'm going to have to send the government some tax money. I didn't technically show a profit in the 1st quarter so I didn't send anything. I'll probably be spending $3,000 for all of this, plus another PM soon. Also, Lone Mountain charges 10 cents per mile over 66,000 miles per 6 months, which will come in June also, but that will go toward paying off my lease. So that's not an extra expense, it's just money going out sooner rather than later.

Also my IFTA bill for the 1st quarter is like $79. Not as much as I thought it would be.

All the hard running I've been doing these past 3 weeks and all that profit, half of it will be spent. So it's not like I'm getting rich.



Anyways I'm tired. I've been tired. Goodnight.

 

I got a new steer tire to replace the one that was about to blow out.

$724. Included balancing the new one and the other one I have, and then put the new one on the opposite side and the other one rotated to the other side. They didn't charge for rotating since they had to take them off anyway to balance them.

What a difference! My truck had been pulling to the right and I thought it was just due to bad alignment but now it's going straight down the road. I guess the tire was in worse shape than I thought. Idk what I did to it...Lol. And I feel ashamed that I drove on that tire for as long as I did. It could have blown out at any time and killed someone.

I got another Bridgestone that pretty much matches the other.

Glad I put money away for these things. I'll be even more glad when I got to shell out 4x that for something else or other some time down the road.

I'm currently sitting at a restaurant watching a family have supper together. Husband, wife, 2 boys and 1 girl, and Gramma. I hope nobody sees me staring and think I'm a creep! I just wish I had my own family one day.

If I make it and succeed doing this, and make enough money to justify being home, get lucky and find a couple of good drivers to put in a couple of trucks, then it's a possibility.

 

Everything we do is brokered loads. I have to fight for every dollar and they all want the cheapest truck unless they are desperate and even then it's a game of who figures out first who is more desperate.

I have to drive my *** off to make good money, and a month or two ago when it was slower than it is now, I had to run just as hard to make just okay money.

I have to stay out every week and only go home once every 6 weeks. So if you think you're gonna do what I'm doing, be prepared to make this job your entire life or you'll probably fail. No going home or spending money or having fun. I pay myself $400/week. Everything else goes back into the business. I'm not out here to make what a company driver makes, and even then I'll probably only still make just a little more than a company driver after taxes. But we'll see.