Andrew's Trucking Journey Continues

Heck yeah man, congrats! Good news for you is now you’re 100% vested in the profit sharing 401k. I was only at APNW for a year, so I got one disbursement but they took it all back. They didn’t mention that at orientation

Anyways I’m about 7 months in as an owner op and it’s been a mixed bag. I’ve been down because of mechanical issues a total of 8 (!) weeks this summer. The good news is, the vast majority of that work has been covered by Volvo warranty (good up until 600k/5 years), which is set to expire next week. The free work I’ve had done includes:
- rebuilt transmission
- water pump
- new injectors
- new turbo (reman)
- dpf clean
- egr cooler cleaned
- timing cover plate replaced

Conservatively, I’d estimate that’s about $40k of work. I’ve also spent about $10k of my own on some voluntary stuff like a clutch, rear main seal (while tranny was out), starter, coolant reservoir, belts, etc. Yeah, if you go to the dealer with one small complaint like “I’m losing half gallon of coolant a week,” your mouth just wrote a check for two grand, for starters.

Now on to the good part. The summer has been fun, worked a lot of events hauling flatbed stage setups. Did some music tour events including Metallica, Coldplay, Shakira, The Weeknd. Gotta say it was pretty fun, learned a lot. Lots of inner city driving and going into stadiums and stuff. Those gigs pay pretty well - plus they’re usually catered and sometimes if you stick around you can go see the shows. Other than that I’ve done some general freight, lots of state fair carnivals too. I’m finally making use of all my endorsements, lol. Hauled some doubles and tankers which was fun. I’m actually thinking about getting a pintle hook setup on the back of my truck and running air lines back there. Some of those loads pay big bucks.

Anyways, even with the down time I’m still well ahead of the game as a company driver; in 5 months of running I’ve made more than a full year at APNW. My best week was on one of the tours when I brought home $7k. Was it worth it? Too soon to tell. But my hand was forced with APNW shutting down. Just gotta keep on trucking I suppose. I feel like my truck is ready to roll for another 150-200k of relatively trouble free miles.

stay safe out there everyone!