intermodal

I don't know how it is now, but I was leased to BTT a few years back, and I did pretty well, considering I was home every other night, and come 3pm on friday, if they didnt have a load back to the home terminal, they would bobtail you home. I cant say its a different ballgame than regular freight, its a whole different sport! But just like you get used to shippers and receivers, you get used to the port and rail experience. I actually started to do pretty good, in and out of JAX and Charleston in a little as a half an hour. If we hadn't gotten us a brand spankin' new 23 yr old terminal manager, I might still be there. Keep an open mind, especially if you are wanting to limit yourself to working around the house(give or take a few hundred miles). Its tough on the road right now. If you can afford to take advantage of the cheap truck prices, by all means do so. But do it with the thought that you will not make any money this year, but MAYBE next year. Also, keep in mind that Miami Ports are union. TWIC is nothing but a fee and more fingerprinting, its bullcrap, but the cost of doing business. Good Luck Sir!

 

Just wanted to know if there are any port hauler's out there? If so is that a good way to go if i wanted to get my own truck and to start out that way? Is there any good websites i could go to and get some more info. Any info would be great, Thank's

 

Can any tell me about intermodel in the Chicago area? What companies can I lease onto .

 

I tried it for 6 months... Never again.. I worked for peanuts and ran my butt off for even that... Some of the worst equipment, heaviest loads that I've pulled were containers...I've never pulled a cheap load since.. Not to mention waiting for hrs. in the port, everyone out to pin the tire repairs on the driver, Lights?? (what r those??) lol every driver should be handed a 5 gal. bucket of lights to install on chassis when they hook up to them.. & Refilled every month..~

It seems like all the trucks running outa the ports are held together with bailing wire and duct tape.. These guys say they're making $$?? Obviously they're not putting any $$ into their trucks (bad missmatched tires, missing flaps, lights, bungee corded fenders.. nothing newer than a 2000 model.. ) shall I go on with this rant..haha

Just throwing my 2 cents worth into this.. as u can tell I am a bit ticked off at container work.. I for 1 will NEVER go back to doing it.. I'll pull a stick trailer first & haul logs outa the woods..

 

I have pictures proving they running more than 00 model trucks. However, all of them are in poor shape. The best ones i have seen are:


Now I see a lot of this company and it appears this company takes care of their trucks.

Hunter

 

I agree with Gonzo. Majority (90+%) of the trucks are trash, freight is cheap and heavy, the trailer chassis missing lights and I've actually seen on that had half the brake drum missing!!! If you want to become a o/o or IC start somewhere else in my opinion, but it boils down to what you like and want to do.

 

Thank's for some info guy's, i dout if i do try to go O/O it won't be that way. Just wanted some info

 

I'm doing well at it but I am working directly for the shipper, not a container company. There are a variety of trucks working the ports, from local trucks that look like a wounded seagull taking off when the truck moves with various body parts flapping in the breeze to fancy KWs and Petes with all the lights and chrome hauling agriculture products fron Idaho, Canada and Eastern Washington

 

That's Good that you're hauling directly for the shipper, Native Dancer!

That's the WAY TO GO!

NO Middleman dipping their fingers into the pot of your profits.

Even though the rates have dropped from the previous years, for the reason when the fuel cost was up, more drivers were making better profits at that time.

Most container work, Miles_of_Truckin, are Owner Operators. If you're Looking for Local Work, that's about the best way to go. The only problem I see within that, is , if you're leased on with a trucking company to haul containers, You may do good one year, then the next year the work is gone..
I have seen many trucking companies who get a contract, but that contract lasts for only one year. So they lose that work because of another company getting the contract.

Your best contract work is Gov't Containers pulling out of the Military Depots. The Rates are still there, 684.00 for less than 500 miles running.
You can make out good if you do one and half turns a day.
If you've never done container work before, you can get your feet wet by getting on with an Owner Operator that has an extra truck.


JB HUNT also hires on drivers for container work. They pay pretty decent. The last I heard was 17.00 bucks an hour. At least in this area. The Chicago area should pay decent too. But JB HUNT works the Rail Yards. Not the Ports.

Yeah, it takes all kinds of people to make this world go round. And it's like that at the Ports. They even have pretty college girls working there at Norfolk Va., running the yard cars.
I think it's Fascinating and Fun at the PORTS. It's a different world over there. And, It's all how you look at it.

we had our Shiny Red and Black Large Car 379 and Blue 378 Pete hooked up to them ugly containers. A sight for sore eyes running down the road. It looked nice when we hooked up to those blue containers, like the pic above.. , but it's still work and we're not going to complain when we profited 2,000 a week take home with one truck.