Freewheeling/Practical ELD conundrums

Oil crashed hard again recently, and I decided to GTFO for good. Now I still have bills to pay from when I was making "oilfield money".

Well, a buddy of mine used some savings to buy a box truck, and was telling me how good it was. So I figured F-it, and bought a box truck to do the same thing. Was going to run under the dispatch's numbers just like him. Well it didn't work out, so I got my own numbers. Then box truck freight was all but impossible to find on the load boards. Talked to the wife and we decided if we're going to do this, we need to jump in all the way.

Bought a junky old truck and a pretty nice flatbed. Fixed up the truck and ran Texas only while I was waiting on apportioned plates and IFTA. Now I run the Northeast mainly. Roads are challenging, and the money is good.

To answer your question, I have to run more than that because of household bills. $6k per month in overhead was very responsible when you're bringing home $20k per month after taxes. But now, that same $6k per month is a lot of money. I'd say I average about twenty days per month. I do spend a lot of time working on my truck too. It's not even the same truck I bought anymore. Same ugly paint job, but just about everything under the paint is new.

 

She's my wife. I also named the company after her. Woman has had my back for almost twenty years now.

I like the NE. Beautiful country over there. Not a fan of most of the roads due to them being in such bad shape, but I like seeing 400 year old churches, and towns with houses built 200 years ago. Rolling farmland with barns and silos everywhere. Man, it's nice up there.

 

The people in the NE can ####ing starve as well as NW. maybe $10.00 a mile freight I might entertain going to those high priced liberal #### hole states

 

Only good thing up there scenery

 

If I never spend more than 10 minutes fueling how am I supposed to log that with 15 minute log increments?

 

My last two loads made $10/mile and $11/mile up there, lol. The last three loads were $4,500, and I did them on one tank of fuel. It boils down to shorter runs, more actual work (tarps, securement, ect), and you trade that work for a decrease in fuel costs.

I'm thinking about staying out of the NE this next trip. I went to Maryland and back to Texas a few weeks back. Two loads, $8,900, and did it within my 70-hour clock. Burned a lot more fuel, but made more money on average with a lot less headache. Plus, hitting the load board every single morning sucks. We'll see.

 

To be clear, it's not "automatic." Omnitracs uses the FMCSA standard "ERODS Request" system that is required of all ELD's. The officer has to ask the driver to transmit the last week to him. Then they can run it through their audit program. They can do this with any brand of ELD.