Introduction - sorry in advance if this is long winded

Good day everyone,

Quite frankly I miss driving, I can't shake it. Which brings me to now.

History:
How to put this short and sweet. I can't. It started in '90 where I drove until '98, saved money and chose to go to back to school instead of doing my own authority, got married, and climbed the corporate ladder. In 08 the economy tanks, and to fast forward to right now, I am sick to death of the corporate mantra that employees are not human and are just resources, laying off people because of dingbats watching numbers from powerpoint slides doing knee jerk decisions that impact hundreds and thousands of lives (you know those numbers obscure the fact that humans are what the numbers represent),

My experience:

• about 750K total, no tickets, no claims and no log violations, nothing fell off the flatbed, all 48; stayed on the bottom (I10) in the winter or tried to; out of service once in norCal, worst that Banning.. imho
• chicken hauler: Zero Express San Antonio; then for owner operator (2 separate guys) pulled their loads, awesome equipment and they let me be free, I ran hard and they rewarded me for it.
• wiggle wagons: a green company out of Dallas, never triples
• flatbed: McAlister trucking Wichita Falls, Tx; Prime, Spring. MO; JM Austin, Tx
• cars: Danny Hermann
• tank: gas for 3 months; valve stuck open and I was drenched with gas,, took the tank back and said, "nope"...
• heavy hauler: Dripping Springs, Tx. not the 58+ wheel trailer, but constant 4 axle tractor with stepdeck / power drop - #### good money,, I liked chaining things down and leaving fast 'cause the crane operator to unload me costs the receiver a LOT.
• local dump, and construction equipment site to site : Austin ; boring and local traffic sucked
• never been stranded by Cummins, have by 3 different Cats (I know, but I am superstitious)

As I got burned on the grind of running too hard without balance and company pay not being great no matter where you worked (except those two OO's) , I made the decision to change; love and marriage will do that. A fork in the road of life, I live without regrets.

About 6 months ago when I started looking at trucks, I was pleasantly surprised to see equipment I was familiar with, then shocked to see "PRNDL" on the dash... a true "WTF?" moment..

So as the forum lady said, gotta love her handle "thebullhaulerswife", introduce myself and get talking.
As we speak I am in the process of building the authority again. Which brings me to my question(s), again, everyone thank you for your patience.

Questions:

• Can someone point me to these rules about emissions requirements and engine changes necessary for years of trucks? Maybe a short explanation on engine evolution?
  • I'm a big fan of rebuild and know your unit; not be a slave to a bank; take calculated risk based on the "80/20" rule
  • prefer slightly heavier (pete / kw) over lighter that rattles (fl / volvo) - no offense to you who own the latter,, just MY likes; I can sleep through a Tstorm, but can hear a rattle 20 feet away.
• As I roll out my "lane strategy", I am moving towards a longer dump trailer strategy. Had friends who could haul a lot of different product, dirt products to soy beans and corn as long as hazmat wasn't used. Am I nuts here?
• I'm now in St Louis and would like to pick the central states from say Duluth Mn. to Houston. Never liked Cali government nor the North East due to time and congestion. What are some of your lane strategies you use?

Closing:

Tough to open up today without sounding stupid, but please let me share another point. If you are an OO, you've made the right decision. I have a million air miles, ran the US for a large well known company, layed off 36% of my US work force when the economy crashed, joined a global team to keep the target off my back and everywhere but the US has been my territory for years, holes like Mexico City, Medellin Colombia, Bogota Colombia, Istanbul, South Africa, easter Europe where we are not liked. Leaving that sheisse soon. The job is a meat grinder, as we get older, my peers are dropping like flies because we are not that old. Scary... kind of like me thinking about playing with tarps now. Nope. PTO lever has a certain attraction. So does drop & hook.

So when you lament the day to day,, take it from someone who's been there: the grass isn't greener, the turds are the same, but you have a steering wheel and can avoid a lot of them. You control your destiny easier than any corporate boy. I am a slave; to people who do not care, each one reinvents the corporate wheel at others expense, gain huge bonuses from others work, which isn't equally reciprocal which is fundamentally unsustainable.

Hats off to all the OO's on this board.

As for trucks and trucking, I've missed it and ######(there is a cuss word there that the board x'd out) I'm coming back; a little wiser, but a lot tougher.

Also, if any of you OO's who have their own au would like to take this off line I'd welcome that.


Cheers, thanks for your time.
thinice

 

Thanks for your comment Chinatown, but the alternative to not being OO, doesn't fit the plan. Company driving / lease on doesn't give the flexibility to control my life. I am a ghost on the travel road for a corporation selling services now, no difference in being a ghost as a company driver, out 3 & some days home, except the pay is rough and again too much corporation. For me, I'm suffocating, I need more freedom.

If I can get insurance as a new pilot in his own plane, I can figure out how to get insurance for something I have a lot of experience in. Recent or no. Maybe I work a deal with an OO who realizes a sound business plan at work with potential benefits later on for help initially.

Don't mean to sound arrogant, but this next phase of my life will be done under my rules.

Did you have an opinion on the lanes ?

 

Chinatown, I also have to ask:If this is an OO forum, why are you giving advice not to be an OO, since you haven't been one? The thing that I have learned over my exposure to OO's is if you know a business and run it based on fact, discipline, and some intuition (which we call luck) you have more than a 50/50 chance of success.

 

thank you LowMax for your reply, what's your experience of engine evolution over the last 10 years?

 

Chinatown, good points, well taken. Lanes I will work themselves out as I relearn. Wish the older hands would chime in on engines, experience speaks a lot to me. Reviews and marketing are tied together,, but folks who get hit with real world issues and people who live what manufacturers put out on the market know reality. Big time dollar decisions. Agree with you on red tape... we have these people called 'law makers' and all they do is bury us in more laws.