Can I ride before I sign?

I sit corrected. Cant say stand cause I wont fit to the keyboard , LOL

 

Now you guys just cut it out. I make all kinds of money trucking..... dimes, nickles, quarters but mostly pennies.

 

Like I said before, $.15...just a nickle and dime operation here!

 

I used to let people ride on my night runs in and out of the city but got tired of hearing them scream and poop their pants. Cars running two feet away on both sides for an hour at a time is aggravating but smacking mirrors with big trucks is a little nerve racking until you get used to it. (I actually zigzag around the no drivers who can't stay in there lane unless I have someone in the passenger seat then I scream "Arrghh he's going to hit us.. lookout)
So yes, I think finding a good experienced driver who is bored to death most of the time will give you a good look at the rolling sweat shop industry.

 

I don't know if what you feel about this scenario but hauling campers/boats is really easy to start with in your transition to the trucking industry. Thats how I got started, by hauling FEMA campers from ELkhart, Indiana. Its just so happens that now is the right time to get back into that since the GOVT. just sold 100,000 or so of them to the general public so Herizon has a contract to haul them and are paying $.87/mile one way, which is too cheap but since they're in the south you may be able to get loaded from Elkhart going south and then get a FEMA camper going north. It would be to your advantage to also have your Passport since those loads pay upwards of $1.15/mile. What I liked best about hauling campers is the really small load, they're relatively easy to park, back in, and it gives you exposure using log books, and you generally get paid within a week. And sometimes they pay about 25-50% up front when you load onto your truck. You techically only have to pull into weigh stations when you're hauling a camper instead of every time you get to one since you're just a 3/4 or 1 ton truck. You can also, since you're an O/O you can bring along someone for the ride, which helps when backing. Unofficially you can bring a big blanket and sleep in the camper, though the dealer that you're dropping the trailer off at better not hear you did THAT. The easiest way to start is to go with a commercially tagged 3/4 or 1 ton, 2000 or so yr. truck, preferably a diesel, which get better fuel mileage while pulling (about 8-11MPG) and 15-20MPG unloaded. Heck, you can get a truck at a buy here pay here if you're lucky, probably with under a $2000 down payment. I'm going four steps further and plan to get back into it hauling a camper on top a flatbed and one behind. That should theoretically pay double but in reality pays about 1.6 times normal. Still huge. You could email me if you want at buildr42 at aol if you want to talk about it. I hope that's not breaking any rules...

 

Plan on getting your logbook checked when pulling a trailer . Summary of Safety Evaluation Areas (SEAs)
Deficient
SEAs
are those
( >= 75 )

I'd like to see something verify the sales and the contract . Even if it was true there's a lot of nonsense in your post .
Get loaded from Elkhart going south ? Two problems with that . One is Horizon won't have 100,000 trailers going south . The other is those trailers would be delivered all over the country , not to Elkhart . There would be no backhaul in most cases .
The third problem is I doubt there are 100,000 people stupid enough to buy trailers that were banned from use due to toxic fumes .
Let's see you come up with some kind of verification on all this .

 

I had looked into this at one time.
Most of these rv moves are based on delivering a trailer and dead heading back empty.
As for your fue economy numbers I myself own a 2005 F-350 with single rear wheel as opposed to dualies.
Your 8-11 mpg loaded numbers are farly accurate but it doesnt get much better when empty.
When I load my trailer with a bobcat, small backhoe, or a couple of sleds I am down at around 8 mpg.
Empty i'm at around 11-12 mpg and maybe a little more on the highway.
This is with the 6.0 turbo engine and tires that aren't all that aggresive or wide.
These trucks are not for anyone with economy on their mind although I am very happy with the truck. It is aso not my first f-350.

 

I stand corrected. Thankyou Rick. Greenlawn Mobile Homes in Columbus, Ohio where I was born and raised paid $27.5 million for 3719 new mobile homes that were being stored at the FEMA lot in Hope, Ark. That 3719 was part of a lot that included 11,277 new and used FEMA campers (which is what they were commonly referred to as, though they were actually a travel trailer with no holding tanks and thus had to be hard plumbed, hard wired and thus were "properly labeled" 'portable emergency mobile homes'. Since they were bought from the website ' GSAauctions.gov ' and you can verify that sale by going to the website and accessing the >browse auctions< box, then going to closed auctions, then typing travel trailers in search field, then sort assending price and at the top you'll see the sale date 1-29-10. With just a little more research you'll see that in fact 88,000 T.T.'s were auctioned in the past 90days and it takes the Attorney General to approve the sales. And I would also take this oppurtunity to say it would in fact be highly unlikely that there will be even 11,000 campers dispatched out of elkhart (and with horizon) in the time table that they want those FEMA's going north (or wherever) though all predictions are that there will be a 30&#37;increase in sales this yr compared to last yr.according to this report >> http://www.rvbusiness.com/2010/02/r...l&utm_campaign=Feed:+RvBusiness+(RV+Business) So I stand corrected on this point, but I believe all the other points are correct and I "DO" believe camper transport is the easiest and most affordable way to get into trucking. Are you disagreeing with anything stated here this time? I've done my Due Diligence. I'd also like to add that Gulfstream Corporation, the largest manufacturer of the FEMA trailers were exonerated in the lawsuit about the formaldihyde scare. The same panels are used every day in the manufacture of "ALL" travel trailers even to this day. It was simply the fact that they were used in the moist environs of a hot climate that the problem exxacerbated some people. And the trailers were meant for Temporary Use, not a new home. In my own opinion they should be stripped of the panels and have U.S. made gypsum board installed. I'm also mentioning that 500 of them have been scheduled to go to the northern part of Minn. possibly to a campground. So on some major points I think I would agree with Rick, that these 'potential' health threat trailers will undoubtedly be used unimproved from their current state of questionable craftsmenship, but they aren't trash by any means. And at only $.87/mile and no backhaul you could make around $150/day after fuel.

 

Swisschris, sorry to hear about your trucks' MPG. I drove a 93 chevy 6.5 turbodiesel and got 19-22 MPG empty and loaded I was regularly over 8 and sometimes 11 MPG's pulling a aerodynamic trlr when my overdrive would stay locked in, and the Dodge's would always get more than mine. Must be a Ford thing. Thats what you get for all that H.P.