making the jump to more than one truck

Good luck. I tried for a few months to find a driver and nothing seemed to work out. Seems all I attracted was Swift rejects looking to get into Flatbed with 3 - 6 months of XP and already have preventables and speeding tickets.

I decided I just wasnt ready to make the move yet,.. too soon for me.

Hurst

 

I'll work for you hurst. I'm no swift reject. Just an England reject with a dot reportable preventable. That's a step up right? Lol

 

you will gross more but net less

 

I've never had more than the truck I drive. My friend has 5 trucks and I've talked to him about what he goes through. He said to make it work, in his opinion, you need to have only one truck or at least three. He said when he expanded to two that one couldn't support the other if something happened or the truck sat with no driver. But he said with at least three that two can support the one that breaks down, etc.

If you're thinking of buying a truck and having a friend drive it that's the fastest way to not be friends. My brother has a story about that.

 

Yeah, I always heard its gotta be an uneven number, untill u go over 10 or so

 

Hear it all the time. Some driver been at it for a year talks about "Doing this for a year, then buying a couple trucks and putting them on the road." And I ask him, "Where are you going to find decent drivers at?" Oh craigslist or some other website. Yeah. Dime a dozen, right? Bet you'll be broke in 6 months.

For trucking not to be rocket science, it sure is difficult, extremely difficult to find a solid driver. We have MJ and CatalinaFlyer here for example, 2 company drivers. If you wanted to be successful as a small fleet owner, those are the type drivers you would want. Problem is, good drivers are ALWAYS happily employed. If you want them, make them an offer. Bet you can't afford them.

There are others...Macavoy for instance. Fairly new driver, but he's already happily employed. Bet you can't afford him.

Where are you going to find said rookie? The problem in trucking is that the person has to have good work ethic before they ever start driving. How many people do you know that flip burgers would do a good job at McDonalds if a manager wasn't standing over them? Ever watch Bar Rescue and see what happens when the owner doesn't keep an eye on things? If you had a solid driver, one that you could put in a truck and let him work, he would be the equivalent of 4 slackers, minus the headaches. It's actually a steal of a deal to pay for a solid driver, but beancounters everywhere would argue with me that instead of paying big bucks for a solid driver, they can pay peanuts for a slacker and save money. Of course we see the results. Wrecked trucks, damaged loads, lawsuits, unhappy customers, thieving drivers. Are you really saving money?

Put an ad out on craigslist. Some driver answers. Brags about his experience and the loads he's pulled. 'Really? Are you currently employed. No? (Red flag...Six said that good drivers are ALWAYS happily employed).

The best way to find a decent driver is seeing him in action. See him on the job, how he deals with shippers and receivers, how he handles his truck. Make him an offer.

 

As much as I would like to,.. I not in a financial position to afford a second truck and trailer right now. Combination of upgrades, downtime and repairs to my Columbia have set me back and I just dont have the nest egg to support 2 trucks if they both go down and keeping a driver paid at the same time.

That and I want to be able to give a driver everything he/she wants and I just can not afford it right now. I'd rather do it right and legal from the get go instead of teaching a driver my bad habits in order to make things work. It wouldnt be fair to the driver. Not with what other companies are offering. I'm at least 1 - 2 yrs away from being ready to hire a driver. I would have been in over my head if I found a good driver when I was trying to hire one.

I'll get there eventually. Baby steps for me right now.

Hurst

 

I was just messing with you hurst lol but of the 5 rejections I got today that was by far the best.

 

I think the answer to more trucks is...you have 1 truck you run...its the money truck...its an OTR truck driven by you. Then you get some day cabs ....there cheap you can buy 2 great ones for 50k and you fill them with older guys pay them a little to much...run them like 9 hour days figure out how to slip seat one of the trucks or 1/3 to 2/3 of the trucks so the rest can be in the shop etc....bingo...I would NEVER want all my trucks over the road..

Be Safe Out There

Captain Dave

Oh I dont any trucks but will own 1 in 30 days when it arrives.

 

Are you glad you didn't find a truck n driver right before all this went down? Sounds like it would've been a tough situation with what's happened in the past few months for you. Lotta #### landing on your doorstep trucking wise