Good Night From II

Seeing as how you are the Grand Poobah of all that is Swift I understand your need to pontificate however I've been driving for this outfit pretty much as long as you and have a keen understanding of whose job it is to do what so please try and resist the urge to educate me. I find it slightly irritating and borderline insulting. I don't wear a helmet and I didn't arrive on the short bus.

Your advice works fine for someone who strives for mediocre miles, aimlessly driving around the city burning up their 70 with minimal return and is happy to sit waiting on others to do their job while taking 12 hr plus breaks. That dog won't hunt if you don't like sitting and like to run 3000+ mile weeks consistently.

My issue is with the Houston terminal coming off home time as I stated. I'm not willing to be ready to go in at my 3am PTA and then wait for hours on end for some Memphis ECT person to get around to sending me on a goose chase through the city which by then is in gridlock with rush hour traffic. Their usual response is to go to The Home Depot DC on the opposite side of the city to pick up a trashed out reject assuming they have any...then get sent somewhere else all over again.

Drive around getting paid you say?!? I'm sure you're intimately familiar with Houston so you should know that our zip code areas are huge and you will drive 100 miles and NOT get paid #### thanks to the HHG scam. Swift pays .38 to .76 cents total for those 100 mile trailer chases from east to west across town in dense barely moving traffic. Ask me how I know!! You state you're content to put up with waiting and driving around looking but I am not..not in Houston.

I'm sure you know the Houston terminal like the back of your hand as well so you know that going into that jungle to find one yourself isn't going to work either..however, I doubt you'd even bother as you said. Your choice.

The tactic I've started using now because of the unique conditions there, are to call my evening ECT guy at the terminal hours ahead of my arrival and if/when a good mty comes in the gate he'll have them drop it up front and dispatch me with it before I arrive. It's moderately successful.

Finding trailers while on the road is no big deal as I've developed my own methods of finding them in most major cities and those methods generally don't include waiting on planners to waste my 70 on wild goose chases. You can feel free to sit and wait...and wait...like you said that's their job so why worry.

 

The first points I would make you've answered . If you need to be home every few weeks because you have youngsters as you should be doing forget about leasing . Doesn't sound like you . You will need at the least some business experience / training with the ability to form a business plan as well as develop a spreadsheet that will let you run "what if" projections and most importantly track and analyze trends . Sounds like you .

If you are a runner you will make more money as an owner . It WILL NOT be substantially more . Your break even will be 1100 to 1300 miles a week every week . Anyone who says they do it with less is a straight up liar and I stand by that until I see paper proving otherwise . You must understand the truck is nothing more than a tool and no different than a carpenter's hammer . You pay for the depreciation and anything that doesn't improve mpg is wasted money and bad business . The nuts and bolts have been covered in more than a few threads so I'll skip those .

We are getting a raise in May but currently we have two pay plans . One pays fuel surcharge rebate on empty miles and one doesn't and there are other differences as well . Mystic is on the first and I'm on the second so one of can answer questions about either with some accuracy .

There are certainly substantial other benefits other than monetary to being an owner . For me its the freedom to tell a planner to kiss my furry fat ### above all else . Additionally , as a history buff I've had the opportunity to route myself to places I've wanted to see my entire life . Two years ago I parked the truck in Virginia for 10 days , rented a car and toured Civil War battlefields . I've been able to take time off to go fly fishing on internationally renowned streams . I've been able to play cards in casinos all over the country and in 2013 almost matched my driving income and last year exceeded it playing poker and blackjack . I wouldn't have been able to do these things and others as a company driver because I simply would not have been allowed to take a week or more off and have a job when I got done playing .

 

LOL. You are correct in many respects.
Not all, but many.

 

In Hurricane WV at the T/A. Rolling out to SC at 1am for mid morning drop. Less traffic in the mountains along I-64/77 but I'll miss the great scenery.

Arrived at Miller Brewing outside of Dayton OH this morning for what was supposed to be a D/H. After putting the load of bottles in a dock door found they had no empties for me to go to P&G for my next pick up.

Had a quick chat with their dock guys and they stopped unloading some other trailers and unloaded mine. Took them a whole 20 mins. I thanked them, rehooked and hit the road for P&G arriving on time.

 

Peace and Happiness my friend in whatever path we take.

Moving on...mac30 keeps coming up dry in SC. I may get to enhance my calm by waiting on a load today...Lord knows I need to.

 

HousTank, you are aggressive and I am passive when it comes to our work.
I'm old and tired, and like to take it easy.

 

I tried to become an O/O recently but was told too many on the fleet right now and I have to wait either for one of them to leave eventually or the higher ups to ok another, our ops make bank especially the ones who run the Vegas 6 days a week and one of them is a team who makes a load of money. I would like the extra money but also the freedom to do what I want with the truck, take it home when I want etc.

 

Yes. If you are going to lease, use someone other than Incredibly Expensive Leasing (aka IEL). With IEL, you'll have the privilege of paying $180K in lease payments for a $140K tractor, then still owe $50K to buy it at the end of the lease.

But then, Swift won't allow you to bring in a tractor you lease from anywhere else, nor can you take an IEL tractor anywhere other than Swift.

Would you be kind enough to explain why you want to lease?

 

Beyond being able to count your change at McDonalds, you really have no understanding of money.

Not only can you bring a tractor in from the outside, several terminals have partnerships with the likes of Select Trucks and Arrow ... they actually have trucks on display at Columbus and Lathrop.

What his reasons are should be of no concern to you, given your total lack of both business sense and understanding of Swifts leasing policies ... It's highly doubtful that you could give him feedback that would be of any value.

 

This might be interesting! Now where is my popcorn? Found it!!!