Another Alaska post.....

Hi there I live in Alaska. Winters over. Snow can happen any month except june-September. Crazy Place. I haul fuel local but really want to get back OTR someday. I fish in Summers drive in Winters

 

@vikingswen runs Alaska for a living and can answer your questions. He has a good thread on here under refrigerated trucking.

 

Good friend & codriver my first year or two lives up in there in AK. He & his father run AK to WA/OR & back.

Will see if I can talk him into joining up here. May be going up to see him next month & see what's up up there.

Like @Chinatown said.....check out @vikingswen thread & other posts. Lot of good info & chronicle of his experiences up there.

 

"Good paying loads" to Alaska can be a trap. You may end up deadheading back. Before accepting a load to Alaska look first to see whether you can line up a backhaul.

Many a driver gets all starry eyed when they see a load paying $10K to Alaska. They look at the miles and figure it's easy money, not figuring it will take longer than you are used to, with higher fuel costs. Then they FINALLY deliver and discover there aren't any loads back to the lower 48. Now that big payday has been cut in half on time plus fuel getting back.

Last December I turned down a $25K team load from OKC to Prudhoe Bay. Neither my truck nor my brother's truck were ready for that kind of abuse. If we got skunked on a backhaul we figured a minimum of three weeks round trip and suddenly that $25K split two ways wasn't so attractive anymore. We made more running our trucks local in that three week span.

 

Winter is over, but now construction and tourist season will start. You'll wish for snow and ice.
Alaska usually pays good since your NB load has to pay coming back empty. Going North everything is harder and more expensive. Most people will make more money running lower 48 than running to Alaska.

The country will destroy your equipment. Plan on buying at least one set of tires for truck and trailer per year. Fuel is high about$3.20 per gallon US for Yukon and BC. I'm at 60cpm on fuel cost so far this year. Long winter has killed my fuel economy.

You will get a nice surprise on your IRP renewal after you ran in BC for a year. My BC part is about $4300.00 for ten month of working. In the Yukon you will need to buy a plate and fuel bond or trip permit each trip. Yukon plate is around a $1000.00 and if you have a fuel bond you have to report quarterly like IFTA. Alaska will sell you a trip permit for the same cost than a year of licensing your truck and trailer. Which costs you about $400.00 per year.

I pay about $6000.00 for plates
$10000.00 for insurance (I am a motor carrier)
$57000.00 for fuel in 2016 (120,000mls)

Custom transponder, fuel bonds, custom bonds and the list keeps going and going.
Maintenance costs will go through the roof on your equipment. I have tons of wiring issues already on a two year old truck. Wires are just rotting off. I just spent half a day fixing marker light wiring on my trailer. Some of the wires are less than six month old. I use hit shrink connectors and heat shrink tubing over the heat shrink connectors and still have trouble.

I would say I almost average a day in the shop for every ten day round trip between basic maintenance and fixing broken stuff. Things just keep falling off and brackets break.
I had rocks hit my windshield so hard that I was showered in broken glass, I have dents in A-pillars, air cleaners, fuel tanks and even the horn covers on top of the sleeper.

It helps to have a real moose bumper not a bambi pusher. It will pay for itself the first time you hit a moose at 60mph. Been there done that. This winter I hit three cariboo for example.

The positives are the people are nice, the further North the less people and traffic, Moose are big and stupid plan on hitting one, the scenery cannot be explained one has to see it. I rather deal with all the headaches, struggles and just pure frustrations where you want to burn your stuff to the ground and tie your spare around your neck and jump into a deep lake than going back to California for a produce load.

 

So, in other words. It's not worth going to alaska.

 

I would go.











For $75,000.

 

I believe if I would buy a light truck and do a tri haul in the lower 48 to start out in Washington and end up in Washington I could make more money and spend a lot less on maintenance. I have been looking at new trucks lately and doing some thinking about changing my operation. If I do buy a new truck I wouldn't go back to Alaska in the truck.
My Western Star is absolutely trashed from the roads and conditions. I would have to repaint half the cab and sleeper to fix all the rock chip damage, spent about $1500.00 to get aluminum polished and have the frame sandblasted and repainted to make it look like two year old truck again.