Another Company to IC Choice Thread

Before you say blah, another one....

I am not your typical company driver who sees dollar signs or fortune and fame. I have been in the industry for 18 years. In that time I have owned two trucks and was successful with both of them. Around 2001 I was forced to make a decision to keep my trucks or to sell them and have custody of my daughter. The choice was easy for me to make and I did the responsible thing. It has been rewarding to be a part of my child's life and to be a parent. I have been with the company for a number of years and have had a successful career as a company employee. I worked on a small dedicated account pulling over weight sea containers for a ship line. While there I also served as a training engineer. I found great rewards in training new drivers and giving them the tools they needed to be successful in this industry. I still keep in touch with many of my former students. Eventually, I was asked if I would move to Charlotte and accept a position as an in-house Instructor. I accepted and enjoyed all of the time I spent teaching the basic skills needed to move forward in the training program. While inside I was also crossed trained as an OSR (Operations Support Representative) as a driver, this is the top of the totem pole. As a OSR I enjoyed counselling drivers and helping them to see the errors in their ways. I help quite a few drivers who had issues on the roads become safer drivers. I took great pride in wearing a distinctive uniform and being among the elite in the company. Eventually, I was burned out and made a move to the intermodal account in Charlotte. Running local and being home every day has been nice, but honestly the reward is not worth the effort. Running to the exact same place every night has become a mundane task, and there is no challenge to the job.

About two months ago, I applied for a new job with a ltl company. Was quickly called for an interview, and once it was over, the interviewing manager stated he had only called me in to shut one of my friends up. After feeling that I had wasted my time with that interview I started looking at the Choice program. My wife and I talked about it quite a bit and after considering the risk vs. reward we decided to explore the options. We started by looking at my old settlement sheets. I then started examining some used equipment from PACCAR. They have a lot of used equipment in Spartanburg, but none of that equipment matched what I had decided that I was interested in and would suit my needs. While researching loans from banks and other financial institutions I realized that my previous experience with commercial loans would not be considered when attempting to finance a truck. This meant that I would be paying a hefty interest rate. I made a call to Schneider Finance to explore their equipment and financing.

My assigned account rep was very attentive when I explained to her what equipment I was interested in and quickly sent me a list of equipment that matched what I had said. The list was small and was quickly reduced to two trucks. Truck 1 was a 2012 587 Pete, 485 ISX 1850 torque rating, 18 Speed, 3.55 rears. I asked that the truck be held pending inspection, oil analysis, and a ECM download. It took about two weeks to get the ECM and oil analysis sent to me and once I reviewed that I decided the risk with that particular truck was not worth the asking price of 90K. Truck 2 was a 2012 KW T-700, 450 ISX 1650 torque, 13 speed, 3.36 rears. I again asked for the ECM and oil analysis. I got those within a day and decided that this truck was acceptable. Looking at the asking price for the truck (95K) and comparing it to listings in the truck paper, I found that with the mileage 206K that this truck was under priced, compared to those listings which ranged from 120k to 112K with more miles on them. In the last 3 weeks, I have asked that several things on the truck be addressed prior to my arrival in Green Bay. Although I had to argue and threaten to back out, SFI has managed to comply with every request I have made.

In my decision making process, I have had help along the way with questions being answered and with access to the load board from a couple of people. A former student gave me access to his load board for a couple of weeks. When he locked me out DFO was very generous and gave me access to his. Thank You Very Much DFO! In addition to the load board access we shared a few long phone calls to discuss other things that came up along the way.

So onto now, today March 7, was to be my last night working in Intermodal, however the limited amount of freight and lack of empty trailers forced me to end my time on intermodal on Wednesday, March 5. The original plan was to work the whole week so I did not miss any income during the transition. My manager in intermodal has been very accommodating, and was very happy to keep me working throughout my 30 day notice. So everything is all set. All of my gear is packed, transportation to Green Bay is confirmed. I will be heading out tomorrow for the 15 hour drive to Green Bay. I hope to make the drive straight through with stops along the way to stretch and get gas. i will be in Green Bay on Sunday ready to start this new adventure on Monday. While it is frightening to make the transition to being a owner after all this time, I know that with my previous experience and with all of the research I have done that I will be successful in this new venture. Until next time.

Stay Tuned...

 

Thanks Guys. I am sure you can understand the apprehension. It is always a little nerve racking to start something new. I am sure I will be just fine once it all gets rolling. So i went and picked up my rental car. LOL, I got a Prius...not my first choice by far but the fuel mileage and it has a hatchback...I really needed a hatchback so I could fit my big Pelican case in the back. Should be able to really save some fuel with the hybrid. Anyhow, last night home with the wife and kids, got a steak cooking and a couple bottles of wine. Will post up some pics of the truck once I get to Green Bay.

 

Thanks 91B20H8...I am still gonna post pics up in DFO's thread