Hopper, Dump O/O's & Drivers

Do any of you guys use hoploads.com? If so , what is your experience with them ? They seem to have a lot of loads but I was wondering if it was a bunch of cheap stuff or if it was a good source to use?

 

We had a break last week during the bad weather, Tues-Thursday, then got going again Fri. I've been hauling the last 3 days from a guy shelling corn on some reclaimed coal mine ground. When it was froze it was great, no problem. But yesterday afternoon he said the frost started going away as it warmed up. He said the field he was in had been ripped 30" deep the previous summer with a D-8. Maybe to break up the compaction after the mine put the topsoil back? I don't know, but he said it was getting soft. He's got a 9650 JD with logger tires, so he can still go pretty well. Have to go on about 2 1/2 miles of gravel to get to this place, half of it looks to be a brand new road maybe last summer. Got fresh looking gravel, about a foot deep, or at least a foot drop off to the shoulder! It is wide enough that 2 trucks can meet OK, but definitely don't want to flirt with getting too close to the edge. It rained just enough last night that the trucks are a sloppy mess after running it today.

If the weather will cooperate, I think most folks should get done this week. Not a moment too soon either. Everything needs a serious cleaning if it will be warm enough, if not, going to have to go to a truck wash. Hate to pay someone to do something I can do myself, but hate even more to start into the salt season with them still dirty from harvest. And I have a bunch of other small things that need attention that I haven't been able to do.

 

stepnfetchit,.. i would say for me in my area its mostly other drivers, o/o's. but i am starting to see some skateboarders leaseing hoppers,talked to one at Greenleaf Commodities the other day,and he said that he leased the hopper for harvest cause flat freight was in the crapper,so i don't know ? he was a nice o'l boy though,i enjoyed chatti'n with e'm. i think he said he was from the Show Me state.

 

I echo the dirty truck sentiment I was gonna load beans for in the morning but the farmer had company coming so we are gonna load first thing in the morning but that still puts me behind to only 2 loads tommorow instead of three but every thing has to go right to make that happen but I took the opportunnity to wash truck and trailer it was really looking pathetic but now there is a heavy dew on and its only about 2 miles to the guys place so I may have to make a long loop to get there we all know how bad dust sticks to a wet truck lol

I got my bin empty on saturday and put 2 loads of corn in it yesturday afternoon only have about 45 acres left but will probably wait a couple days for it to freeze back up to finish I need to buy some cheap local corn to fill it up and contract it for march delivery would make out pretty good

Jan and feb are pretty much booked corn mainly with some bean and soyhull pellet backhauls have some for march as well but by talkingto a couple customers I think that will probably be full as well then I'll take a month or so off to plant next years trucking lol

I guess you could say I'm one of those farmers that had a truck, got authority, and put her on the road but I like most of you refuse to rate cut. I did take a contract but the former guy was still screwing him big time I just took what he offered and it is still about $5 a mile 150 miles a day great rate just not enough of it I'm lucky to get one days notice of when he need me and it is incredibly dirty and somewhatt specialized light fluffy stuff only about 32k on my 72" side timpte and there is not all that much of it to do but I'll kiss his butt when he wants to move it we all have those deals. otherwise I dont need the experience to haul for nothing I'll just let someone else go broke I also haul mainly off farms directly to end users and set up the delivery contracts I really ought to become a grain broker but I dont handle the money so really no need I guess. So wha I do is a litle different than you normal everyday otr guy the only people I have took work from is mainly the local elavators and the railroad I dont like running anyone out and usually consult with other guys about rates just because i dont want to undercut any one I just snoop out the best places to take it and develop ties to certain merchandisers and get them to pay better for the grain this helps in keeping customers through loyalty and better prices for them and when you cut the elavator out of the eqation they take a pretty big cut so beeting their bid by quite a lot isnt all that hard and still make out very well on the freight

be safe y'all ttyl

 

Bought me one of those air cards from Verizon, actually its the router that lets ya connect up to 5 computers at once. Figured I'd try it out a little bit as I am sitting here in line at Colwich (lucky me right!), seems to be doing pretty good so far. Little slower than cable at the house, but not too bad.

 

Just watch that 5gb monthly limit.