Kivi Bro's Open Deck done Right

Our contract freight is lower than I’d like, keep in mind the company may be getting fuel surcharges that are not in the linehaul rate.

Broker freight is paying more and so far for me the impact has been negligible, annualized I’m on path for another strong year…hopefully the war gets sorted before it torpedoes what is setting up to be a strong year.

 

If anyone is at MATS stop by and say hi, booth 62030…

 

It’s similar to what my next truck will look like but I’m trying to get one without the Heard bumper. I’m working in the booth off and on so if you’re attending stop by

 

Well sadly the time came to bid farewell to my 567 after 497,000 miles over nearly 4 years.

So many good memories - it was after all the truck that got me into flatbedding and was the closest truck I’ll likely drive to a true luxury owner op setup. I didn’t want to take a chance on not being able to get into a KW, so I made the jump.

While the new truck is no slouch, and something most anyone would enjoy from a company driver perspective, I do miss shifting myself and that rumbling Cummins power plant. The MX-13 is so quiet, and the upgraded automated box rarely needs to be shifted into manual.

The reduction in torque has me in the right hand lane more these days, but with only a couple of thousand on the clock I’m already seeing 7.2 mpg and the loads I’ve hauled so far have been heavy and over dimensional. The truck weighs 1,600 lbs less than the 567 with full tanks (720 lbs is from the reduction in fuel capacity) so I’m now able to scale much more than I really enjoy.

Ah well, the future generations of Kivi need us to make adult decisions even if they are not always fun, and with fuel costs going up the new trucks are a necessary evil… well at least I have an APU again .

 

Yeah part of our deal with the manufacturers is we have them work on the electronics and read the computers, now in Duluth we have a Peterbilt employee working in the shop, in Kentucky we have excellent relationships with nearby dealerships.

I’m interested in seeing how the black motor will treat me, the red head rocked with only a single sensor replacement over the 4 yrs, I also lost a clutch and needed to have the AC condenser replaced - overall not much time down. Heck when the AC went out I drove across the country (needed to get back for hometime) and they put me up on hotels to do my 10’s.

I’ll keep folks posted on how the new truck and driveline does, even the 567’s will now have MX-13’s. We will also be getting a handful of Cascadia Evolutions, another reason I jumped on the KW.

 

Well its been a long time since I’ve checked in and I thought I’d give an update on how things have gone this year at Kivi Bro’s as we get ready to sign off on another successful year of running stepdeck freight. Overall it’s been a great year and I’ve been able to accomplish my goals and the new truck is not nearly as bad as I thought it might be .

Freight has been constant this year, recently like many we have seen a little drop off, and I don’t need to tell most of you how many new entrants there are in the arena, so many of them don’t even know thing one about open deck, sigh, its the way of modern trucking I guess. Financially things have gone well, keeping in mind I really focus on maximizing my home time and I stick with a step deck, I have been able to stay ahead of inflation this year vs last and will touch $80K for year end by the looks of things. That’s not to shabby as many drivers who stay out and are willing to run whatever trailer type gets the highest pay are doing better than that so again it’s been a pretty good year here.

Freight has consisted for me at least of mainly cable and equipment, I’ve really hit a roll on helping out with the construction industry as several of our customers are trying to catch up with orders now that the pandemic has abaited and parts are flowing again. Something I haven’t done all year is visit a military base, and my heavy haul loads have dropped off now that we have a more formalized program to bring drivers into that freight type. They start off in three axle trucks running Landroll trailers and mechanical RGN’s until they are ready to move up to four axle trucks. Of course this means they occasionally do step deck work which is where I was helping out before so that has for the most part dried up for me. I’m OK with that as I decided not to pursue heavy haul after looking at the loss in hometime vs the gain - I really am enjoying the time I have with the family and don’t want to change that, even to haul cool big pieces of equipment lol.


The truck has 69K on the odometer now, and has been running well, it took some time to get used to the new power plant, but now that I have the hang of things I have learned to adapt my driving to match Peril’s style . The automated transmission was not the hardest thing to adapt to, but when you’re used to copious amounts of power (the Cummings vs PACCAR) its a big change. I’ve learned to be the driver in the right lane a lot more these days as so many trucks have a bit more get up and go when you are climbing, though thats not always the case, its good to be polite. After I adjusted to the torque change I’ve been able to get through traffic just fine and by my calculations I’ve saved an average of $1,200 per month on fuel, at times I can barely make Dimond status at Love’s for crying out loud. The interior set up we have works great and the APU has been rock solid fortunately. One thing that had me worried was cold weather performance, I’ve been able to experience some single digit temps and the updated fuel heater and APU are doing the trick and I’ve had no problems with gelling - without having to add fuel treatment.

Overall things are going well and its been a good year, we’re doing well as a company and I’m still enjoying driving a truck without safety features beapping and nagging me, and I enjoy working for people who don’t feel the need to micromanage me. I’m looking forward to finishing up the year and enjoying the holidays with the fam - and to another hopefully strong 2023 .