Opinions please. New Husband/Wife team.

What if [God forbid] perhaps your wife's health took a turn for the worse for whatever reason and had to stay home or could no longer be cleared medically to drive? Would that potentially be a problem? Find another driver or sell the truck? Or could you remain solvent running solo with a passenger? At least you shouldn't ever be upside down on the note.

I'm wired to anticipate and consider potential problems and develop alternative workarounds, so forgive me.

 

Landstar has their crap together and has ALL SORTS of freight options, anywhere, anytime. Awesome the way they've built up their devoted customer base and kept it, and kept their esteemed reputation among contractors, as well over the years.

 

All the Landstar drivers I've talked to are doing rather well. But all of the Landstar flatbed loads on DAT in my area have rates that are a bit underwhelming.

 

Well if I was in your shoes and looking for a new truck with 180k to spend I would definitely find someone to build me a glider kit truck using a factory pre-emission reman Cat engine, cause I am a cat guy. Nothing holds up like a cat. The new trucks and engines just wont hold up to that kind of abuse maybe but you may also go broke in the process. Just my two cents.

 

If you've been driving for two decades you know better than anyone that having a set schedule like 8-4 or whatever only works in theory, even then conflicts could arise. I'd imagine there are way too many variables to say you'll have a daily gross income of $1,200.

 

Definitely would be a glider no question. And must have a pre 1999 engine regardless of the manufacturer but my preference is the Detroit.

 

I have been teaming with and without my own authority and it is hard to maintain over 5k miles weekly on live loads. If you want the miles, you may want to join a company with mostly drop and hook. Cross country runs pays very little per mile and teaming will put alot of strain on the truck. You will kill the truck before paying it off doing team at $1.50 per mile.

Looking at your calculations, you forgot to add down time for breakdown and maintenance. Lets say your truck have emission error codes which is under warranty if you take it to the dealership. Most dealership will put you in line and take days or weeks to get to you. They usually take care of their bread and butter accounts before getting to you. Also warranty work doesnt pay well so the dealership will put you last in line.

In the last 10 years, my downtime had cost just as much as my repair bills if not more.