Crete Carrier - A Year In Review - Fall 2013 Going Forward

My goal is to be lazy, have time to smell the roses and average $2000 a week after fixed and fuel costs per week I'm out.

Here's my loads recently. The miles and rates are based on the systems loaded miles. My actual miles obviously is different.

Two weeks ago:

Aurora, Il to New Berlin, Wi 107 miles $4.77
Milwaukee, WI to Champaign, IL 221 miles $2.32
Frankfort, In to Evensville, In 195 miles $2.49
Also did a load out near Louisville going 24 miles that paid over $500.
Fairdale, Ky to Findlay, Oh 267 miles $1.88
Lima, Oh to Vandalia, Oh 63 miles $3.78 (did that load twice)
Vandalia, Oh to Bedford, Pa 331 miles $2.36
Bedford, Pa to Solon, Oh 211 miles at 2.36
Those are the loads I booked for the week, of course actual miles is different with deadhead and such.
13 drop and hooks 5 live load/unloads

9 loads in 7 days..

1941 all miles
Revenue will be $4,303 or $2.21 ALL miles

Fuel burnt looks to be about $700
Fixed costs are $1100
So revenue after fixed and fuel costs was about $2,500.

The week after that, last week was:

Shreve, OH to Hamburg, NY 242 miles $4.06
Buffalo, NY to Shippensburg, PA 294 miles $2.10
Mechanicsburg, PA to Bloomsburg, PA 84 miles $5.05
Breinigsville, PA to Bedford, PA 175 miles $1.88
Winchester, VA to Federalburg, MD 162 miles $6.01 (they must have entered the pay in wrong for this load but I still got paid what it said)

1293 all miles
Revenue was $3334
fixed costs off $1100, fuel burn was about $495
So last week I did $1739 or $2.57 all miles.

7 drop and hooks, 3 live load/unloads and 1 extra stop I did last week

So that puts my last two weeks at averaging 1600 miles and averaging earning after fuel and fixed costs is about $2100 a week.
You'll notice all my loads are short and I haven't been driving much. Still something I've been experimenting. So I've just been taking it easy, not working hard and just doing high paying short loads. You can run whatever way you want though, these are just my loads.

So far this week/pay period my loads have been

Seaford, DE to Pittston, PA 211 miles $2.27
Pittston, PA to Chambersburg, PA 164 miles $2.31
York, PA to Tannersville, PA 127 miles $3.93
Lancaster, PA to Tannersville, PA 104 miles $4.74

6 drop and hooks, 2 live load/unloads

838 all miles so far and revenue is $1879 or $2.24 all miles and I still have 4 days to get loads in this pay period. If you were to double those numbers and call it a week I'd expect around $2100 again.
However I'm planning on driving more miles at a lower rate just to GTFO of the Northeast already or at least that's the plan. At Shaffer I had to kill myself to make $1200 a week, so far I can work nearly half as hard for more money. I'm not looking to make the most money possible, if I wanted to I could run harder and make more.
Another thing to remember is learning the board and markets is key to everything, it takes time to learn. I didn't do this well in the beginning but I always did better than what I did as a company driver.
My goal is to make $2000 a week after fixed and fuel costs for every 7 day period I'm away from home. So if I can do that without having to drive that much why not? Sure these shorter loads means more shippers and receivers but whatever what is an extra drop and hook 30 min? no big deal to me. My day is all on me, I rarely speak to Schneider. I just book my loads on a cell phone or laptop and the info gets sent right to my truck.
To do well here it's important to be a good planner, good with numbers and follow the money.
If I drive where I enjoy driving I'll do a lot less money or have to work a lot harder for the same money etc etc.. that's just how it goes.
I'm barely working and making the most money of my entire life and I go and do whatever I want with mostly drop and hooks AND have terminals and drop lots everywhere to park at AND I'm driving a brand new Kenworth lol I mean c'mon for me it can't get any better than this but that's just me.

I got accused of making up loads in a prime thread so I posted screen shots of my loads I was doing.. you can find that here http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...trucking-company-here/276615-prime-inc-9.html
People seem to think Schneider only posts cheap loads OR that I'm making up numbers on loads I'm doing.

Anyway here's another picture taken from my cell phone of my laptop showing my recent loads I've completed and the rates I've gotten





This is PERCENTAGE! The kind of thing most all company drivers are kept in the dark about for good reason but not for the company drivers lol.
It's not longer about how many miles I drive....


then lets play compare numbers to a Celadon driver doing a lease for example http://www.driveceladon.com/leasepurchase/

which they get paid $1.17 all miles currently about.
BUT that's dispatched miles NOT all miles you'll be driving.. plus they still have a dispatcher and etc
Lets then say all fixed costs for all in on a new truck with everything is $1000 a week.

Mr. Celadon hauls butt and does 3000 miles at $1.17 = $3510
Fuel MPG lets say 7 MPG (yes you can get more but going any bit out of route you're paying for that fuel) X $2.8 a gallon over 3000 miles is $1200 in fuel
then subtract $1000 in fixed costs

and you're left with about $1,300 for a week.. or company driver wages.

Vs me averaging 1600 miles a week averaging $2100.. with lots of extra time on my hands.
That's just an example but hopefully you get the idea.
Point being don't get fleased by being paid by some low mileage rate.
% and picking your own freight is the way to go to my opinion if leaving being a company OTR driver and want something more out of that lifestyle.

 

🎶"Intergalactic planetary,planetary Intergalactic "🎶

 

And these numbers are before your self employment taxes(which are higher than a company driver/employee tax rate), before you set aside a small percentage for your yearly plates, permit and yearly HUT fees.
Do those fixed costs include health insurance (which the government requires now)?
Do your fixed costs include a repair escrow or savings account for general p/m services and repair for non-warrantied parts like tires and brakes?
When your truck breaks down, how much do you make?

I've been a true O/O, a L/O and a company driver...those numbers don't show me enough of a difference from what I make to offset the cost you have yet to incur. Plus you say you don't run yourself to death, but look how many different customers you had to visit...it looks to me like you are an LTL driver, so you are doing far more extra work, just in a different area. I would prefer to do 1 long load a week and be far less stressed and tired than all the stops you posted.

 

My fixed costs include all costs involved with plates, HUT fees, all truck insurances etc etc and $135 a week going into my maintenance account.
Schneider basically takes ALL costs and rolls it into a weekly deduction, including for maintenance.

You can't even throw health insurance in there, that's silly. I paid for my own health insurance last year as a company driver and I'm paying for it still now.. that's hasn't changed.
I'm driving a brand new truck with warranty plus I'm not exactly doing a lot of driving so I'm not too concerned about it but if something happens hey that's why I got a new truck with warranty and I've already got $4000 in my maintenance account with $135 a week being added to it weekly.

It's not like I'm having appointments for live load unloads all the time... mostly it's drop and hook. I'm in and out of a place within 30-40 minutes when I drop and hook.
Even if you take my longest recent week where I did $2500 after fixed and fuel costs. I only drove on average 5-6 hours a day. Throw in maybe 2 hours a day with customers.. doing drop and hooks or a rare live load/unload.. then fuel, pretrip and 30 min break and my day is 9 hours long. So I didn't do no 10 hour breaks, try 15 hour breaks or more. Plus most the loads are open window appointments so I don't gotta be stressing.. I can get there asap or take my time. All a choice!

You can run the numbers multiple different ways and no matter what way you look at it here it's LESS work and MORE money and FREEDOM.
The loads I did were my choice there's 1000+ mile loads paying between $1.30 and $1.80. I could do that if I wanted to but right now I don't.
Now that I'm not a company driver anymore I don't mind short loads because endless driving for me is more tiring than stopping to do an extra drop and hook during the day. It splits things up and makes my day more interesting.
Like I said I'm still experimenting with how I run and where I run.
This isn't for everybody no job is for everybody. Some drivers just want to drive and not worry about anything else and stay company drivers... there's nothing more with that.
I left Shaffer and came here because I wanted total freedom to go and do whatever I want, pick my own loads... drop and hooks and hey work less for more money. I'm wayyyy more rested here than when I had to deal with silly appointment times at Shaffer for live/load unloads, trailer wash outs and having to revolve my sleep and driving schedule around an appointment time.
Money wise Shaffer paid me .43 with less an a year experience and was on pace for over 50k a year which I felt was good for being a noob HOWEVER I was unhappy and now I'm happy.
Soo that's what it's all about.

 

Glad you're happy, but leases always sound too good to be true, lol. If it were so easy, everyone at Schneider would be on one.

I am NOT an owner operator. Adding oil is the most repair I do to a truck, but I can say with some confidence that your $4,000 repair fund can go VERY quickly. I hope you find a good mechanic, because I rarely get a problem on my truck taken care of the first time. Visiting a dealership is usually just buying 3 or 4 more days of driving for a lot of issues.

 

It's not "Easy", it requires a lot of learning markets.. planning etc etc. It can be learned though it's not big deal.
My truck has 20,000 miles and the $4000 is just where it's at now. No problems so far but hey there's a warranty also lets not forget about that.

 

You have 1 year experience and have been on the lease, what? 2 months? How much wisdom does one have to acquire..? Sorry, it's just funny that you've placed yourself on the pedestal for drivers to look up to because you have a shiny lease truck, haha.

 

wow dude really.. that's mature of you.
I have more than one year experience, I can't list one year and 8 months or what have you.
Before I came here I researched for months endlessly, talked to multiple drivers, seen their paychecks etc.
I was sharing my experience and even said it's not for everyone and people should do what makes them happy. That's not being "on a pedestal with a shiny truck". maybe read what I write next time before replying or ask before assuming random things.

 

I thank you for all that, that was a lot of work to post that much,
You totally changed my opinion about leasing.

I don't think it's for me anymore, I just scanned and emailed permission for the new company to pull my psp.
It is a bear to email a scanned item with my brain,
I a bad trailer and got put oos til they fixed it, in CA. and a 4 wheeler merged into the side of my trailer in Milwaukee, he got a ticket for failure to yield.

 

He may be "green behind the ears" but if you read other threads about leasing and stuff, he knows his stuff.