Anyone Quitting??

Oil industry is too unstable. Prices go up, they pump. Prices go down, drivers get fired. Add, I'm not really hot about living in NE Colorado.

 

When my truck was hit I was in communication with that carrier. Its a mega and they are self insured. Their guy who handles that dept assured me that he would take care of everything. It was supposed to just be a 2 - 3 week in and out affair. I can weather 2- 3 weeks down time and still cover my bills easily. Things did not go that easily. They wanted me to sign a release that cleared the carrier of all wrong doing and then they would cut me a check for the repairs. I asked about my loss of revenue and they offered me a check for $750 for my down time. At that point I called my insurance company and had my truck repaired through them. I contacted an attorney who specialized in lost revenue cases and its still in court as we I type this. There is another hearing on Jan 6th. I do not have lost revenue coverage on my insurance. The 6 weeks I was down was not a crisis. The lost revenue hurt,.. but was not going to break me. It wasnt until I hurt my motor that it became serious.

As for sitting and waiting,.. I dont do that.
My carrier had some trucks sitting. I borrowed his 2010 Cascadia with 53' manac step deck that was set up similar to mine. I ran it for about a week and grew disgusted with the truck. 2010 and it and the trailer we beat to crap. Brought it back and took his 2012 Coronado SD 9 axle RGN setup for the remaining 6 weeks till my truck was ready.

I did not sit idle. I could not afford that,.. not with no income coming in,.. I would have been broke if I did. I have too many bills at home. I have another house on the market that I am trying to sell. Meanwhile the bank still wants that note, govt still wants the property taxes. I have a disabled brother living in the house who requires $1500 a month in nursing and daycare services. Then I have the house and property I am in now. I took out a loan to finish my driveway and got a foundation built for an 8500 sqft out building to be built, The plumbing and electric is in the ground. Just need to pay that off before I can afford to take out a loan to have the building built. Once all that is done I can bring my truck home and park it in the building.

I did not just sit home watching reruns all day. It wasnt like that at all. That RGN was a lot of work. Gave me a new found respect for the heavy haul guys. I stayed working the entire time.











Hurst

 

There is that too. Between my headache rack and whats under my bunk,.. not to mention my truck and trailer were in Mass while I was commuting between IL and FL did not make things easy.

Hurst

 

Why would you quit?

CDL school will never teach you everything you can know. When I signed up for school the guy opened my mind up and told me that I have a bright future, and to look around his office. Every single thing had to be TRANSPORTED. Transportation will always be the key into making money. Does that mean Elogs, Automated trucks? Whatever it means, as long as you got a hold in transportation, you will make money.

But let's get to this. Are guys quitting? Why? Maybe they should quit their companies if they aren't doing to well. If they're I/C maybe they should lease onto a good carrier since they can't make it happen themselves.

2014 Everyone went out an bought a truck thinking "oh man market has been going up, let's go buy more trucks!". Suddenly all these companies cry driver shortage. I remember a guy deadheading his company driver 700 miles every other load because "freight paid good". Suddenly that rates went down for WHATEVER reason it's time to quit?

Those that choose to quit, and then in Sept. 2016 let's say rates are paying $6,000 on 800 mile and fuel is only 1.23/gallon. You're not going to come back into the game acting like Mr Macho?

This a business and every business has it's ups and downs, and those that quit now, never have established anything prior to now, and won't establish anything after now.

 

@Hurst .... MUCH respect, man. TOTAL. OD is hard; do it on the downturn.
@Flipflops ... DITTO... tanks rock.

Y'ALL 2 just summed it up in the last two posts, thank you.

 

I was perfectly fine working, but my work has a PRICE. I'd better be getting enough runs to pull down at least $800/week or it's not worth it for me. I have goals in life which are related to how much I can save. Saving doesn't happen when you're getting $150-$330 for weeks at a time. I can stay home and make more than that.

Plus the Canada thing really pissed me off.

 

You can take a corner too slow 1,000 times but only once too fast.

 

I get paid by the hour, I'll do 30 all day long if I can when its snowing. On a side note have you ever drove an 6-8 axle empty sled on that perfectly plowed road? It's not fun

 

We down Graded to two drivers out of 6. Best decision we ever made.

 

New truck sales are down 37% from this time last year.
Truck dealers have over 50,000 new trucks on their hands that they can't sell.
Reason being that demand for goods is down, therefore the trucks that haul those goods are not needed.
Rates are affected as well.
Hoo boy, we're going on a little ride folks........