Finally got my own truck

A big difference is that I can live on peanuts while putting almost everything back into my business. I've been paying myself just enough to live on. I don't have hardly any personal expenses. I can live on $300/week salary. And since my truck is a lease purchase, the monthly payment is directly tax deductible as an expense.

Yeah my costs are high. And I had seriously considered buying used. But I realized the safer thing was to buy new. If I bought used, I'd be spending money on repairs, but I'd also have downtime, and since my business plan required me to run hard and hoard currency, that downtime would seriously affect my ability to follow through on that.

If things go the way they're going, which is mediocre, I'll still make it, I just won't make as much as I want. $100k net this year is the goal. Anything less and I'll be disappointed. But I think I can do it. I'm a hard worker, care about quality, try to get the most I can from loads, and I have high intelligence. It's just that there is a big learning curve to this all, so I'm constantly learning and adapting. I'm the type that seeks and hoards info. I'll go up to another driver that might look like an oo and I'll start a Convo and try to get info out of him or her, see if I can get out of them what they booked their load for. ANYTHING that will give me an advantage.

And correct, I won't be taking 8 weeks off for table tennis. Just one week.

I remember the last job I had as a yard switcher. I was trained by some douchebagg they called Hillbilly. My whole first week was "you ain't gonna make it here, you might as well give up now, just go home, this ain't right for you," etc etc etc not to mention he was always flying up to me to nitpick everything I did. After a couple weeks, I nearly quit. After a couple months, I just ignored the guy. After 6-9 months, I was telling HIM what to do and how to do his job right, because he wasn't.

This ain't no cake walk, but I'll tell you one thing, this ain't nearly as stressful as being a yard switcher at that hell hole, where the place was so incompetent that us switchers pretty much ran the place from the outside in, and management was too stupid to realize that if it weren't for us, they'd be lost. The day I quit that place, they fell 3 days behind.

Anyways I'm here near Berwick, PA. Gonna listen to the NCAA tournament all day and crunch my numbers and do my paperwork. Did I mention I hate PA?

 

Just did my numbers.

This week I averaged $1.988/mi ALL miles. And that is with TQL screwing me over and giving me $640 to turn around to go back to shipper instead of the $925 to Joplin.
325 empty miles this week so I ended up $6015 gross on 2700 loaded miles. $2.22 per loaded mile this week.

BUT I end up empty here in PA - and appointment isn't until noon - BUT there are like over 600 loads already posted for Monday morning within 120 miles of me. Backlog from winter storm here late last week? Hopefully I can get $2/mi to Jacksonville, FL or close to it. Or more? We'll see how many calls I get.
That would be ideal, and what I'll be looking for tomorrow.

Also, last weekend I started a running balance sheet
I'm in the black now for the year. With my $10,000 down payment, the $2500 I spent on the Webasto heater, all my expenses so far this year, just a running count, not counting everything divided by x amount of weeks, just a running balance sheet. A week ago I was so far a little over $2,800 in the red. But now I'm $1,349 in the black. When I make a truck payment, etc, I add that to the expense balance. I also keep track of what my settlement should be for the week minus what I spent on my boss' fuel card between settlements, the % he takes off the top for his profit, which isn't much, and the $400/week that my boss takes for trailer and ins, just so I make sure my settlement is correct. He's never been wrong so far, so I appreciate my boss taking the time to make sure it's right every time.

He really does a good job at being accurate, and being quick with factoring check and rate cons when I need it. He works hard at trying to make leasing onto him being worth it. I'm not looking at switching companies, so please stop suggesting I move to here or move to there, etc. And if you're good at booking your own freight and want some freedom, may I suggest coming on board? If you are interested, send me a private message.

 

$162.50 for trailer and $237.50 for cargo/liability.