JJ's Place

Pan, you were just saving the company money...you know the price is going to fall and why burn fuel to carry fuel? Enjoy your HT! On the trainer...I had a veteran trainer from the Simon days of Central....he didn't know jack and I learned everything from him in the first week and most of that was stuff I would never do as a driver. It is cool that folks are out there that are willing to share their wisdom as long as you are willing to ask, listen and learn.

 

i love the port runs i usually leave about 5am and day runs are 250 miles one way so 500 a day give or take . then theres somedays whre all you do is pull boxes in and out of the port setting up for the days ahead to deleiver. i am usually home by 4 or 5 everyday some times sooner somtimes later depending on traffic . i try and run at least 1 tenn or miss run a week and that keeps me out overnight . i usually try to run them first part of the week. all loads are no forced dispatch my dispatcher gives the option of choosing between 3 or 4 different loads so basicly i choose where i run. if i go somewhere and its a pain in the arse i wont do them again and theres no reprcussions from dispatch. i am off weekends but if you want to run theres always loads. i like the wal mart local runs on sat morn can do 3 before noon and they pay the driver a flat rate of $35 per turn so thats $105 for about 3 hrs work on sat morn.
the port does get crowed 1000 plus trucks some times coming and going gets real hairy at times. but i like it for the flexability and i average 850 to 1100 a week and im home daily. if you want off the road i would recomend this to anyone espicially if you have a family and dont want to miss the kids growing up like you will being otr.

 

1bad keeps watering my mouth i'm moving to the port with him. wouild love to see those checks every week. not just in the summer. and defenitly not as many hours.

 

Yep I have the book and have been going over it!

Savannah sounds good about now its cold here and about to get colder.

 

Your tractor will have self adjusting brakes. Your trailer may, or may not.
I do not believe that there is a rule yet saying that you have to have self adjusting slack adjusters on the trailer yet.
So most likely they are manual.
No easy way to explain how to tell the difference. Best thing to do is search for pic's online.
As long as you get that lock ring in properly and remember to back off 1/4 a turn after you are done you will be ok.
You have to do this on each brake.
A self adjusting slack adjuster is a pain. They are designed to not adjust too much, so instead they keep your brakes barely in adjustment.
I mean less than 1/32 away from out of adjustment.
This is why many trucks are dinged for this on the roadside. It does not take much lack of maintenance for then to wear out.
This is why most fleets prefer manual adjusters on trailers. The self adjusters need grease regularly, and need the brakes used on a regular basis.
If they are on a trailer that sits allot they will not function properly.
You should never have to manually adjust your tractor brakes though. Only the trailer.
If the ones on the tractor are off then you need to hit the adjusters up with some grease. If this does not get it adjusting, then get it in the shop.
They will not stay adjusted when it is bad, even if you do it manually.

Sorry for the wall of text lol.
I do not want to give too much info at a time, but some info must be included, and should have been included in the post where I told you how to do it.

 

On the ports.

Think about it this way JimBob.
-The canal is getting larger.
-Mexico will eventually have trucks running from there port into the US to any point.
-70% of the people that live in the US live East of the Mississippi.
-There is not much land left around the ports in CA to grow larger.
-Too many rules in CA.

What do all those things have in common?
They are all things that make it so that the west coast ports days are numbered.
In a few years the Mexican drivers will be able to make all port delivery's in the west. But most of those drivers will not want to run to the east coast. They will be content in the western states and going to canada.

It costs allot of money to move all the freight from the West coast to the East coast.
The rail yards in the West are over burdened. And they do not have much room to expand.
Plus you can only bring so many trains thru the mountains at a time. Thus making a freight bottle neck on the way East.

With the expansion of the Canal now they can get the largest ships to the East coast.
But where to go??
They are rebuilding some Gulf coast ports. These will get a little freight.
Baltimore, NY, NJ etc are all having issues with Unions, and really cannot handle much more freight than they have now. They are close to the capacity that they will get.
Just not enough roads or rail to move it out of those highly populated areas.

Thus they need to find a new place to take the freight off the ships in the East.
Savannah was the first new port in many years.
It was designed and built with expansion in mind.
They have ALLOT of rail heads in the area and plenty of room to grow. And a workforce ready and willing to get it done.
But they do not have enough trucks to move the containers from the port to rail heads and cross docks.
They are low on truck capacity now.
They will just continue to grow from here.
Rates will go up, and you will see many small company's come out of nowhere. That start with a few friends and a couple of trucks.
If I could go down I would start it myself. Would just have to find someone good to keep the books and work with the shippers on loads.
Get 1 cheap class 7 twin axle yard truck to pull from the port to my house, or a small rented lot.
Then a couple trucks to pull the freight from there.
That way the yard truck stages everything, and the road trucks normally would never have to see the port. Just run.
Hopefully in a few months of good hauls we could get some contracts, so we are not doing spot freight. At that point you can establish lanes.
Heck, if it is an employee owned company, which I would prefer to do, then you can let the drivers choose the lanes they want, and get those contracts.
Start with just a couple trucks and expand as needed.
Hire only like minded people and make all part owners. They just have to get a road truck to come on.

That is a very rough idea of what I see.
I think that a group coming in that way and all having a stake in the business it would work. This way you are working for the team but also for you.
The yard driver and dispatcher would need salary's. And some money going into savings for the company.
Plus small fee's to cover the company's taxes and other expenses.
But otherwise everyone would profit equally. And have a say in expansion and hiring.
Talk about 0 turnover.

The best part is that a company like this running well for 5 years or so and established before the area really booms means that it will be worth allot when the time comes.
I think that a company like that would have buy out offers of many many times the vested value of the company in just a few years. If they get the proper contracts.
Then everyone gets a retirement check lol.

 

Kudos to both Snowwy and CD for the primer they gave to me on brakes. Alot, say 50% of TA's tlr's are the self adjusting type, if I've understood CD correctly. They've added an after market auto greaser to the tlrs that is poorly designed. Well, ok, so maybe I should say the bracket is poorly designed. Its a 1/4" plate, bent at right angles, that they bolt to the frame. Only problem is, with all the rough roads and the flexing it does, that bend eventually breaks. Have had 2 do that to me now. First one broke on me going thru the Chicago area and I was 45 miles into IN. before a 4 wheeler pulled up beside me, rolled down their windows, and let me know I was dragging something under my tlr. Talk about being embarassed!!!

When you get your company up and running CD, give a shout and I'll come running!!!!

 

Don't know if it will ever happen. Wife would have to either agree to move or leave me.
I could get the capital to get a truck, and probably a yard truck as well within a week.
But it does not help without the other things needed.
And it takes time to get a trucking company going under it's own authority.
I just keep dreaming about that area right now because it is the best time to act on it.
You know how it is, in 15 years I will be sitting here yelling at myself for not doing it.

 

Yea but it has to be a family decision!!

JJ and I both want a warmer friendlier climate lol.

You need to work on her Chrome

 

CD, I have self adjusting slacks adjusters on my truck and I still adjust mine manually because like you said they barely keep them in adjustment at all, I had to manually adjust them before i crossed the supercoop in Lincoln, NE the other day because they were out of adjustment