BIG RED FREIGHT SYSTEMS

After moving around from one company to another, I think I've finally found the right company for me. They are small with 40 or so trucks and 3 dispatchers. I signed on as a lease driver. 72% of the load and 100% of the fsc. Which I'm impressed with the fsc here. Other carriers I worked for would only give you 25 cpm to maybe 30 cpm. Mine has been 60cpm or higher. I was told I could make $2-$4k a week once all the reserve accounts have met the minimum requirements. So for the first 4-5 weeks my pay range was in $1k-$1550. Which was a little rough for because my at home expenses needed me to be in the 2k or above range a week.

I did almost quit to return to my previous company because of this. However the week I reapplied was the week I received my first check over 2400. And the following week over 3k. What I was told by the manager came out to be true. And so far I'm glad I've stayed.

From what I can tell the company is set up to be ran more like a dedicated regional runs. Which is so much better for me. I run out to the west coast and back. So I usually pick up out of Oklahoma or Kansas which are drop and hooks. Run to California live unloads and reload. My back haul typically goes to AWG in Oklahoma City and that is a drop. Then I repeat the process. All the customers I have been to have me in and out within 2hrs. I only had to request for detention once. And only had to pay for a lumper once. Trucks are mostly volvos and petes governed at 73 and don't have any of the nanny systems or cameras on them.

I find that I'm not as stress here knowing my week is pretty much the same week after week. As time goes on will try to continue log my progress.

 

Well yesterday was a little interesting when I delivered in Vernon, CA. When I originally picked up in Guymon, OK I was over gross 80,880. So I had them take freight off. Which in that process they loaded an extra pallet that the customer didn't order, nor did I have bills for it. At first the customer refused to take it. After about 2hrs I guess seaboard worked out a deal for them to accept that extra pallet. Once done ran up to white ridge to get a washout and fuel. Holy moly the price of diesel almost gave me a heart attack. Once I did everything I needed to I high tailed it up to my next pick up in marina.

 

I'm still rolling with Big Red. Don't have anything bad to say about them. January was my best month as far as revenue goes. April has been my worst. Truck was down a total of 9 days. So that hit me hard. But that's the risk you take when leasing. When things are running smoothly I stay within the range of money I want to make.

Yesterday I upgraded from a 2018 volvo to a 2022 peterbilt. And so far I'm loving it. There is one issue on it already though. Whenever I use the turn signal the fog lights come on. Hopefully it don't turn out to be anything major. In a few weeks will have to come back to the yard in Amarillo so they can install the apu as well. Not having a apu on is a killer because they won't install a inverter without it. The truck can idle if need be. But looking over the manual it's recommended not to do so over a long period of time.