It's that time again........

I love the replies....... haha! A lot of Negativity here.....

I have not found any other truck in the Market the last 6 months of constantly looking that is in this good of shape for the Year/Milage/Brand of Truck. It's not a POS, even my Mechanic was Highly Impressed...... Would he pay 81k for it, no.... Maybe I will just shoot them a offer and see if I can get it for 65-70k. I think its worth it personally. The original owner sold this truck for 60k, the person he sold it to remained in contact with said driver who ran into Financial difficulties of his own, not because of the truck and the guy put a lot of work into the truck. The Original Owner came back and bought the truck and paid an extra 20k on top of what he initially sold it for to get the truck back and ran it for a brief time. The guy does local now and owns about 3 trucks, day cabs. I know this directly from the people I am financing the Truck Through multiple states away. I have spoken with the original owner of the truck multiple times. The reason for the high interest is because of current said interest rates in the country, My Credit and the overall age of the truck. If I put more money down, 30k or so then I could get the payments dropped down to 2400 or less per month. I don't like waiting and have already been patiently waiting long enough. Like I said, maybe I'll shoot a 65k-70k offer and tell em I can grab it tomorrow just to see what they would be willing to do. If this were the case then my Payments would drop quite a bit and so would the interest, mind you that the 3400 Monthly payment is for a Maximum of 22 Months.

1. I will never in my life again work for any other large company. Job security is no longer there regardless of who you work for. Their are too many problems associated working with larger companies. I just did that gig all throughout the pandemic for that last 3 + years! I would work 3 or 4 ,12hour Shifts making $22.61 hr... It's just not worth it, but the home time was nice....I felt like I was still wasting time and being over worked for what I was making. I was moving 90 trailers a Night while the other switchers would move 30-40. Last year we got so jammed up I was getting double time for 4 weeks straight working 6 days. When we got slow, I might even be able to bust a nap for an hour or two in the middle of the night.

2. The truck is well maintained and needs nothing as of now. Worst case, a Motor and the Diffs Rebuilt at some point. I know my self, so with that said, I would only do an out of frame Over Haul. I would send it all to the machine shop and every piece of hardware would be New. That's just how I roll......

3. I know Fuel has Jumped from 3.50-3.80 a Gallon up to 4.45 a Gallon /4.55 a Gallon in most places. My Rates based on two loads I do pay $2,400-$2,200 ONE WAY. 800 Miles for one of the loads with the other being 1230 Miles with about 13k Lbs at MOST. I don't DH over 150miles, we only run the runs that make us money which is a hot area for Return Trips. In other words, I won't be sitting around for days waiting on a load. Most of my Return Trips are anywhere from $1,700-$2,400 for the same miles, just 41-43k Lbs. If I do the shorter runs, I can do about 2 or 3 a week and still be home, it all comes down to the return Trips/Deliveries. The shorter runs I will also make more money.

4. I could buy a newer truck, with lower miles, with the emissions and Def. Why though? I thought about it hard! With a much newer truck with 500k miles or more you're still looking at 136k out the door before fees, Taxes and Interest. You then have to pay much more for parts and their is a lot more likely to go wrong with the truck. The more hours for labor will also go up because of the amount of issues a newer truck can have.

5. Financial Markets. Yes, I beat both the S&P 500, DOW JONES averages this past year while the hole market was down. I was up 20% per 10k I had invested in as little as 2-3 Months. I was getting Dividend income on top of that as well each quarter and letting that also compound/snowball. I manage my own money in a ROTH IRA and don't dump it into a 401k like the majority of you do. I can yield a higher return than what the big firms can. It's just a side thing I do, but it takes time like anything else, however I can put the money in and let it ride for a few months and not have to look at it. Worst case, It triggers a stop loss order and I break even or slightly above break even.

6. My employer has warned me about taking on my own truck for years. One individual in particular, but they also want to see me be successful and are looking out for me. They never screwed me over. My boss has been screwed over twice by two owner operators in the distant past, but I am the only Exception now. I will be the only Owner Operator here under his authority. Keep in mind that when my Truck is down, I can jump in one of his trucks and Gross 2k for a week if I need too...

7. Find me another truck thats in as good of shape for the price. I bet you yah won't!

 

We have a Direct Customer right now with dedicated lanes which is what I am doing as a Company Driver. Tomorrow I leave out and will be parked at the Receiver for my 1st drop and a fresh 10hr break for Monday Morning. I then move 2hrs 30mins down the road to the final drop and grab a return load. We have our own Asset Based Brokerage as well under a hole different company name. Boss man just got the Trade Mark Registered a few weeks ago. I will not have issues finding loads, I will not personally have to check the load board or bid on loads my self, its all taken care of in house.

Based on my Current Revenue as a Company driver I will make a Minimum 75-80k Gross up to 100k for a years worth of work. I'm home at least one or two days during the week. Depending where the Return Trip Delivers, I can even swing by the house and leave the truck at our office for a day.

This week I did a single run and had the option to do another for another 2500 miles and be back by Saturday Night/Sunday Morning. Sadly, I have been home since Weds because the Air Dryer was completely shot and I had a River of water in the tanks which would take 40 minutes to drain. I also had a Hole in the Exhaust Pipe under the hood in the Cascadia shooting soot everywhere which needed to be fixed. Shes deleted....

 

Everyone is calling it a rattle trap etc, but I guess no one looked at the work and money that was put back into it suspension wise alone. I already plan to put bags on the front. I have Receipts for the engine work done which was 10 grand by it self, before all new Kingpins, Splindals, Air Bags/Airline Hoses/ Pads/ Drums etc the list goes on. New Shocks, Bushings etc. The Clutch is brand new as well. Other than the Engine it self which has had substantial work done in terms of performance already with new Cam, Injectors and Larger Turbo, the only Concern is a New Transmission ,3600 before Labor and new rears or an Over Haul at some point further down the road.

I'm not after a Cascadia, a Volvo, a 579, T680 for 20-60k that is newer. I'm for sure not looking at spending 140k on a truck with 500k miles with Def thats just a newer model kenworth or Pete either. Part Prices are also Dramatically higher and any newer truck is much more difficult to work on. Most of my Boss Mans Trucks are Volvo day cabs, Automatics which I think he regrets after a repair bill for one... Newer Drivers with their automatic Trans Restrictions and tearing up equipment. Drivers out here take no pride in anything, especially if they do not own it. Parts are Cheaper for me versus a 2016 Truck and they're easier to fix. We have like 1 or two volvo sleepers left that are 10 speeds, 3 Cascadia Sleepers, 1 of them being automatic. Boss man paid cash, at auction..... Too much gamble for me..

I'm already as a company driver, driving a DEF Deleted Cascadia Glider with about 550hp. She rides good and will out climb any other company truck on the road with 43k in the box. I thought about purchasing one very briefly, but said nah.... It's not what I want in terms of looks either... If I am going to spend all my time out here driving then I at least want the comfort of appearance from the truck, the noise and power to back it while still having good comfort. Trucks will only ride as good as the road does, lets face it... Luckily, I don't have to run the North East..... I don't like going any further north of PA personally, we are not running Chicago and we have no intentions on ever going to California. She will be a Southern Ran truck for the most part.

I have thought about putting a Green APU on it already for about 12,500 just to save on fuel, motor hours and wear when idling. If I gotta pay my self less as a driver to keep her running solid and shiny, so be it. I don't have debt. Everything's paid for and my living expenses are relatively low.

At the end of the day, I can always trade the truck in for something Newer in the future, but 265k for a new truck when they were half the cost 3 years ago is "psychotic." Tell me I am wrong? lmao! In 2018 I was already looking at used trucks and still never found anything as clean as this and was even considering a Brand New Pete Glider for 165k out the door owner op spec'ed at the time.