Choice program on the West Coast - from company driver to IC

moosc · Jun 2, 2014

Just went through this last week. Lost my grandmother then 2 days later lost my cousin from speeding. On top of that my dad was in a hospital for 3 weeks in Indy. Sni was truly amazing. Not only did they get me a rental from indy,to get to Northern wis but gave me 6 days off 3 where paid for funeral leave. Still in shock but life goes on.

TennMan said: ↑

On a serious note. My family lost 2 members 1 Friday night and 1 Saturday morning. My Uncle died due to Kidney Failure Friday. My great nephew ( my nieces son Alec ) died Saturday morning from we believe SIDS at the tender age of 2 month's old. I would Appreciate all Prayers for my family. We're a tough bunch and this is truly a test but I know we'll pull thru. Thank you all and God Bless you and yours. Kiss and Hug the ones you love as often as possible because you never know if tomorrow is coming.
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sadwar · Jun 2, 2014

220 miles today. Did my D/H, drove to the yard, turned my truck in for a powerlube, and headed to the house. Plan on being back out on Thursday. Think I can deal with one day of the road check crap..... We'll see!
Oh, and I won $260 on the LA Kings last night. Go Kings! Kinda funny, it's NY vs LA for the Stanley cup. Go figure!

TennMan · Jun 2, 2014

Thanks everyone for the prayers..............

sadwar · Jun 4, 2014

Back at it on Thursday. Heading up to Oregon, then back to So Cal, then over to Phoenix to finish up the week on Monday. Not sure after that, we'll see what turns up. Rates are really low out here compared to the NE.
Last week turned out to be my best week so far: $5815 in revenue, little over $3,000 coming my way on Friday.
Truck got an oil change and lube done while I've been at home.
Sigh......

knuckledragger · Jun 7, 2014

dieselfuelonly said: ↑

Glad to hear you had a good first few days Sadwar, sounds like besides the APU the truck is running good and getting good MPG. I'll be interested to see how it does when you have it near max gross, hopefully it stays high. What kinda of gears are in the rear ends of your truck?

Since everything looked hooked up on your APU you're probably gonna have to swing by Thermo-King, or possibly Freightliner, I don't know if they are equipped to work on the TriPacs though. I've never messed with any electronic diagnostics on the TriPac, but I would imagine they can hook a computer to the unit and see exactly what the codes are and what is failing. Based on what you told me the other day on the phone I still think its something related to the oil pressure sensor, whether the sensor itself or something electronic that reads from it having problems. The fact that it starts up, runs for 5 seconds, then shuts down every time, sounds exactly like a low-oil-pressure shutdown. If it was a fuel issue, I think it would have tried to start a few times, then just sat there and cranked for 20-30 seconds, then thrown a no-start fault code. Sounds to me like its starting just fine, waits max 5 seconds for oil pressure to build, computer gets a bad reading on oil pressure and says NOPE and shuts it down.

You could of course try calling DFS and see if they have any ideas, who knows. Make sure you get this looked at before your 30 days of splitting repairs with SFI 50/50 is up, because if its something expensive that could be a really big chunk that SFI would pay off.

I'm not sure if this was the manual you downloaded from SFI's website or not, but here is the TriPac maintenance manual - http://www.autoexpeditor.com/tripac/TriPac_MaintenanceManual.pdf - even if you don't want to work on it yourself it has some very good information.
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I know that this is an old post but wanted to ask you a question. If the APU never functioned correctly to begin with, shouldn't the seller cover the entire cost of repair? Just curious for future reference for when I purchase a truck.

knuckledragger · Jun 7, 2014

sadwar said: ↑

Sitting here at the Pilot off of exit 6 on I-84 right outside of Newburgh, NY. Taking today off to recoup from running so hard the last two days. Way too many miles going way too fast. I'll take 34 hours off, but not sure I'll count it as a 34. Still have 22 hours I can run on my 70.

Tomorrow, Sunday, I have a load to pickup in Breinigsville, PA that I am taking to Wintersvile, Oh. 120 miles DH to Breinigsville and then 310 miles to Wintersville. Load is 42,000 lbs, which I would normally not take. Also does not pay a lot, $386.72 revenue, or about $.87 per mile. But I did it because........
On Monday I drive 65 miles DH to New Concord, OH to grab a load that is going 985 miles to Winter Haven, Fl. I really wanted this load because my kids live in Tampa, about 30 miles from Winter Haven. Haven't seen them in four months, will be nice. This load weighs 38,000 lbs but pays really well. Revenue of almost $2000 or about $1.97 per mile. Load picks up on the 10th and delivers on the 11th. Will probably take the 12th off to hang with the kids. So I might wait and take my 34 then.
Been busy today working on some stuff for ATBS. My rep called this week and we set up all my expenses and such for my profit and loss statement and for my profit plan. My break even point is .92 per mile. I actually look at NRPD, Net Revenue Per Day, when picking a load. It's all about NRPD, not the per mile rate. A load can pay over $2.00 per mile but if it takes 2 days to drive 700 miles to deliver it's usually better to pick other loads to make more per day. MY personal goal is to bring in $800 a day in revenue for every day that I work. I would like to make $4000 in revenue a week minimum. This week I will do $4600 in revenue to the truck working 6 total days driving. Monday's driving will go towards NEXT weeks check.
With flexible expenses of $1700 and fixed expenses of $1100 this week (first week with a truck payment) I should bring home $4600-$1700-$1100 = $1800 next Friday. Very happy with that number.
Hope this helps break some things down. I know a lot of you are looking at Choice and I know when I was looking I wished more people would put up numbers and settlement statements and such. As soon as I get some settlements that show everything I will put them up.
Again, these are my thoughts and comments. I choose to run my business this way. Everybody is different.

APU and truck have been running great (knock on wood).

Take care and stay safe.....
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EXACTLY the information I've been looking for. Thank you for taking the time to explain these things. I just signed up on this forum today. How would I go about 'following' you so I can keep on learning? Thanks again!

moosc · Jun 7, 2014

You just did

knuckledragger said: ↑

EXACTLY the information I've been looking for. Thank you for taking the time to explain these things. I just signed up on this forum today. How would I go about 'following' you so I can keep on learning? Thanks again!
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mickimause · Jun 7, 2014

knuckledragger said: ↑

EXACTLY the information I've been looking for. Thank you for taking the time to explain these things. I just signed up on this forum today. How would I go about 'following' you so I can keep on learning? Thanks again!
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What moosc said. Any thread you reply to is automatically subscribed.

Welcome!

harlycharly55 · Jun 7, 2014

sadwar said: ↑

Back at it on Thursday. Heading up to Oregon, then back to So Cal, then over to Phoenix to finish up the week on Monday. Not sure after that, we'll see what turns up. Rates are really low out here compared to the NE.
Last week turned out to be my best week so far: $5815 in revenue, little over $3,000 coming my way on Friday.
Truck got an oil change and lube done while I've been at home.
Sigh......
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Just started reading this tread, a lot to read but will get to it, just wanted to know are you running dry van and drop/hook only?

sadwar · Jun 7, 2014

harlycharly55 said: ↑

Just started reading this tread, a lot to read but will get to it, just wanted to know are you running dry van and drop/hook only?
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Dry van only. When we pick the load it says whether it is live load/unload or drop and hook. I do mainly d/h, but will do live if it pays enough.

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