Hopper, Dump O/O's & Drivers

Pharm give us an update on how you are doing.

M.Enterprises have you tried other brokers? I have some names and numbers if your interested.

 

Got all my flatbed stuff off the truck, headache rack, chains, binders, straps, tarps etc.... and all the misc. stuff I have picked up over the last couple of years and did a spring cleaning, you can gather a bunch of crap in your truck over time that you don't even need. I then went and weighted it at the Coop and I can't believe my truck weighs bobtail full of fuel with my rig master generator #21,200. I have 300 gallon tanks and I am going to install my wet kit and that will be another 500lbs, so I guess I am lucky I will get paid my the mile. In the future I may be looking at a lighter truck.

 

Must be nice. Mine is nearly 32,000 with quarter tanks. Granted that's pulling a drop deck with all the gear on but it seems pretty heavy to me.

 

I will also run with one tank but I have plans in the future to shorten the wheel base to 250" and install a 48" bunk unless I trade it off for a lighter truck in the future. I think my longer wheel base with an extra carrier bearing adds up.

 

I am not the under-cutting type, although I have been guilty of supporting broker's habit of at least offering low paying freight.

The real harsh reality is I should have never jumped into this business trusting that my dad knew how to run a company because he drove for 25 years. Every last bit of trouble has been my fault, although I have had some tremendous bad luck along the way. Even by a pessimist's standards, my experiences have flat out SUCKED!

I've gotten to the point that I can't go a day without thinking how many laughs have been at my expense once that phone is turned off. I really was like the village idiot that just won the lotto. I am just metaphorically dusting my pants off, ready to kick some ##### for the first time in a long time. I just refuse to lie down, after all this abuse. I can't fly all over the country and kick every pencil-necked broker's ### for doing what he was supposed to. I also can't sit here and wallow in the pain of "where am I going to sleep in 2 weeks?" land. I am only going to get up and do the only thing I know....fight. I'm going to do absolutely everything I possibly can to reshape what this has become, even if it means I ruined my FICO score in the process.

Everyone I know at least pretends like I can stand on my own two feet for one reason or another. Once in a while, it would do me some good to get a helping hand. This forum seems to offer a little bit of that, although I get the feeling I am asking for too much. At any rate, I'll get by. And I am going to get by without slashing rates.

 

The only option I think I really have is dry van. Although that is suicide as I am as unprepared for breakdowns as a person can be. I am looking to Eclipse to save me from easy to handle level of danger that normal rates could buffer against. This is a familiar feeling. CHRobinson got me in this rut, too. I need better rates, but I can't leave to get them because I can't afford the risk. The first load I take would need to be able to cover 2 or 3 tires, on top of my past due payments on everything else, and then the only bill that is being paid on time- the driver. That will slip, too...if I don't figure anything out by Monday.

 

I'd appreciate that.

lol