military veteran, recent college graduate in logistics, wants to get experience in trucking

IF sand moves as cement does, I wonder what in the world am I doing sitting on my over medicated butt here at home instead of there blowing off sand???

Or do they shove water in one end, open a valve on the other and wait?

 

Huh

 

The people that fail at leasing "get stars in their eyes" hearing the big numbers companies will quote them. Those big numbers are companies quoting gross revenue and drivers hearing after tax income. One of the biggest reasons Lease-Purchase fails is newbies "forget" they will have a tax bill, probably a bigger tax bill than they have ever imagined. They had no money saved to pay taxes. They were spending gross revenue as if it was an employee's net paycheck. They also fall in love with the idea of "being your own boss." Some/many/all Lease-Purchase plans are a lot closer to sharecropping than being your own boss. The fixed costs of operating a commercial truck can be so high that the only chance of not going bankrupt is to stay on the road almost every week. Any week not working can be a couple of thousand dollars out of your pocket for expenses that NEVER stop. If you want to own a truck save your money until you can buy a used truck. Lease-Purchase is about attracting people that have to have no credit check and no down payment. It's like rent-to-own furniture. IMO

 

Also your way of thinking changes to terms of cost as suggested by Tscottme. When i picked up my little kitty, I knew I had a few months in which to replace all 10 tires and make ready for the winter coming. At that time it was a 3000 dollar problem that would have been saved up out of the revenue among other things.

You are less inclined to do things that border on crazy on the road when you might tear out a tire or two and it's YOU that pays it. Not the shop with it's endless tires. There is a form of change that happens. Many people fail in the business becuse they do not pay off debt or save something against a future failure that is pretty certain such as grenading a engine. In those days there was not much in the way of computers running those engines, they were air breathers and if for some reason the turbo starves, it's going to turn your big engine it feeds into a runaway. You have two options at this point, choke the intake with fire extinguisher contents and gas it or... turn off the fuel tanks. (There is a valve at the far ends of these tanks, on each of the large rubber fuel line. Flip em shut and wait a minute or three, It will try to drain the filters first then the pump then the hoses and do it really horribly fast.) Don't try to stall her in top gear high range, it will have enough force to attempt to do one thing that is pretty awesome when you consider it carfully, Basically rotate the transmission case and it's contents and tear it all out of the frame. And YOU out of the cab once the floor fails.

 

There is another form of economics going on.

I got a older vehicle. Bought a mid 90's on purpose. A survivor of the government's failed effort to remove junker for cash program. It's fuel mileage is not that important to me. I don't care if I spent two gallons or 25 to get to where i need to go. For obvious reasons two will be better than 25.

Anyhow.

The technology needed to fix the oldie is in the tool box. I am literally throwing in a new rotor cap and rotor into it. It's 4 bolts all together, The coil is another two rivets and two more bolts, this time stack of 4 10 mm bolts, two risers and two regulars out comes the bad core, in goes the new one. Easy fix under the shade tree.

My ex's car cannot do this kind of tune up without communciating with master control computers in the shop at the dealership. Pay to communicate with the car then find out what's the boo boo, then order the parts to fix the expensive boo boo. Eventually whole car becomes a disposible boo boo and get another one like it real cheap.

Int he mean time retail insists on a stack of anti human technology, auto brake this auto that auto something else hands free this that and something other or so on.

Strip all that out and what do you have left? A car that cannot drive itself anymore. You need a human to actually sit down and drive the #### thing a hour to work. The problem is work is trying to climb into the car with you through your phone while youre occupied in driving to work.

That was one of the joys of trucking Im AT work and have all day to get across this gridlocked city. Only because I did not get out of this place after unloading early enough to escape. That's my fault. if I did my trip plan right, you will never see me sit in traffic. Its literally not my problem Want evidence? I point to either US 15 or US 301 east and west of DC itself. Peaceful running in the woods is way better than watching people slam each other stacking expensive cars in aggressive driving. I used to carry 4 fire bottles and use em all. Turn em into safety for replacements no questions asked. except one face expression that says 4 empty fire bottles? What did you do? Peeks at truck, truck is fine. The cars are not. Oh, Cars plural. what a waste.

 

The way veteran Owner-OP say to make money is with lower expenses for truck & trailer, direct customers, and after the truck is paid off. The appeal of new trucks is reliability & a warranty. The danger of used trucks is major or Continual maintenance. There are strategies to deal with both types of trucks but not by waiting. It's a high-risk game unless you know exactly what you're doing and have money for emergencies. Without emergency funds you make really bad decisions.