Finally got my own truck

He emailed a few months ago. Stayed he was dying. Lost both trucks, the Viper. Haven’t heard anything since.

Be Safe Out There


Captain Dave

 

I have my own fuel card now, have had it for a couple of weeks.

I get discounts at TA/Petro but the bad thing about it is that their coffee is subpar to PFJs.

 

But they have parking.

 

I get the best of both worlds. With my fuel card the deepest discounts are at TA/Petro. It varies by location. This morning was a record $0.77/gallon off list price.

The best of the other world is bypassing coffee from any truck stop (except of course for Caribou Coffee inside the Joplin Petro). I grind and brew my own coffee in the truck. The place I normally get beans up and changed roasters. The new roaster sucks dog balls. Casting about and experimenting until I can find that "BAM!" bean again with the big flavor.

 

Likewise. My carriers fuel card is flat twenty cents at PFJ and Loves, but variable at TAPetro. I can go where it's ten cents or go where it I get sixty five cents per gallon. Who can pass that up?

 

@BoyWander How's January treating ya?

 

I got a discount of .90 in PA . But my avg is .60

 

Hey all! I'm alive!

Just wanted to check in.

My God are rates terrible.

I go to a good area and asking for $2.50/mi might as well be asking them to chop off an arm.

I'm glad I didn't "make relationships" when it was busy because I wouldn't be able to afford this downturn.

I'm blaming a few things for this.
New owner ops who jumped in and don't know their costs, carriers running for cheap and paying imported labor cheap and on a 1099, and the trade tariffs on China.

Even when people are calling on your truck, they don't want to pay anything.

And they're like "this isn't like it was last two years" and I'm like "So why are you begging for my truck?"

If you're new, here's a piece of advice.

If someone is calling on your truck, there is absolutely no reason to quote less than $2/mi and it doesn't matter where you are or where it's going.

You should still be aiming to average $2.25+ loaded mile.

And no that's not on 1000 miles a week.

I don't mind running 3000+ miles in a week. But I'm not gonna do that for $5000-5500 gross. I did that the first 4 months after I bought the truck and not doing that again.

You can call and beg for freight every single load and still avg $1.60/mi but that's company driver pay when you actually add up your expenses.

I've also been in the market for possibly selling my equipment but I love it out here. I've had some low-ball offers and I'm not interested in that.

In 3 months my truck will be half paid for. Hard to believe.

Anyways, just wanted to check in. I'm in college basketball mode lately and can't wait to fill out my bracket.

Hoping my Wolverines can keep up this recent offensive renaissance because with their top-of-the-nation defense, a trip back to the title game isn't out of the question. Also high on Wofford, but who isn't??

Go Blue!

 

Welcome back! We missed you.

 

Then how in the world are these guys doing it on $1.00 a mile plus fsc of $0.29 a mile leased onto some mega carrier?