Closing up shop, or thinking about it?

When I was doing food service I used to hit this place out on the island....it came out to 5$, you got a bacon egg and cheese bagel with 2 eggs, a heaping pile of bacon, oj and coffee for a 5er. And a fresh made bagel that morning, you could see em in the back making em.

 

Man I really don’t like those kinds of situations. My heart goes out to them.

 

Growing up in a trucking family dad never had a shop till I was grown and moved away. Most work done in stones. Orthopedic rocks he called them. Im lucky to have a shop i can get tractors in. Just not trailers. This was my weekend project on my concrete slab, 1/4 mile from the stone lot I layed in as a kid doing brake jobs. I guess I'm moving up in the world. No big deal, I might have 400 bucks in the whole job. Alot of cleaning. All but one wheel had not been off for 7 years. Doing your own repairs is a l arge reason I dont have to chase work. But ill admit I used to be faster at this kinda work, alot fast. Some shops might be faster than me now. But I know its done mostly correct when I do it. Anything goes wrong, I only have one person to be mad at.

 

Is that recent? You said you hadn't hauled a load in three years. I thought you had to haul a minimum eight loads interstate per year to maintain IRP, or something along those lines?

 

Cross into another state every other quarter…… I exercise the truck every six months….

my irp mileage was like less then 300 miles they asked I said the wife is sick I’m not working and that was the end of it.

 

I’ve been wanting to do what I’m doing since the fifth grade. I worked for four different companies in 20 years. I always moved up. Last year bought a truck and trailer. Not because things were great and there was big money in it. I flat out got tired of working for dispatchers that really don’t care about nothing but the next load you are on. I’ve got one truck and a flatbed. I plan on doing this until I retire. There really isn’t anything else that I’d rather be doing. Although I do almost quit trucking almost every other week. I really like doing this and being 100% independent is the best decision that I every made. Hopefully this downward trend don’t last until 2024 but if it dose I’ll be out here scraping by with the rest of the spot market guys.

 

Got my newest acquisition Landstarve Inspection today.

Sorry buying newer trucks. Won't happen again. Esteemed members say it's bad.

Going back to my dark corner now.

Bye.

 

Truer words were never spoken.
I learned my first 3 months in business, after 2 shops did simple repairs incorrectly causing me no end of grief, gee, I can break stuff just like they do and not have to pay anyone by the hour.
My success as an owner operator for 45 years was because I did almost all repairs myself.

 

Exactly!
But there are those on this forum who truly believe that running at $1 one way to grab $2-3 back makes sense
All they’re doing is F ing with my and many other guys business plan!!

I swear if I ever meet one of these $1 a mile guys in person we will both be on dateline
Not really but that dang banjo math has got to go