My journey to getting my own truck.

I thought that I would chronicle my journey to getting my own truck.

In a land far far away... Tennessee... I got divorced and decided that I needed a change. So with two bags and $200 in my pocket I headed to Montana.

For a while I built web sites but that was scarce so I got myself a job picking up and processing scrap tires. Yep loaded the trailer by hand. Got comments from younger guys like "the old fat man is trying to kill us"

In this job I obtained my class A for the Dodge but had to upgrade for the Western Star later on. I was hauling loads for a local heavy haul company when the boss and I had words about his maintenance practices.

I went to the heavy haul owner and asked if he needed a driver. I told him if not that I was gone. He said you are not going anywhere.

That started my foray into heavy haul. I hauled everything from a 5k street sweeper to a 139k bridge beam. Normally daily gross was 100k +.

For this guy I pulled flats, steps, lowboys, stretch trailers, belly dumps and steerable dollies. Axles ranged from 5-13 axles on the ground.

Left him for another local guy paying more but quickly found out he did not have enough work for me. So I happened to get a call from an aquaintance on the gig that I am currently enjoying.

He was 19k into the one truck that was leased to him when they cut off his loads. I called the truck boss and explained who I was and asked if I could come back if I got my own truck and he said yes.

So, since the leased truck had already started the process of obtaining his authority and he offered to front me the licensing and fuel to get started it was better to lease my truck to him.

So out I go to locate a truck. Only took one day because a friend of mine knew about this truck. He had looked at it a year ago and $17,000 later I had a truck.

Now for the start-up costs, $5,200 in licensing, insurance etc. Then there is the fuel, it took me three months to pay off the start-up expenses and the fuel.

I am now current with the fuel and have stashed over 10k in the bank and increasing that every week. I have been running since Feb 9th. So less than 4 months at this point.

Now I am single and have paid off my kids. I have sacrificed more than most are willing. Have not had a regular paycheck since before Christmas. I take what I need and stash the rest.

So to sum up the start-up costs, $5,200 in license and insurance plus $15,000 in fuel expenses. So that was $20,000 just to get to the break even point. And I had to wait a month before the money started to come in from the first runs and continuing to add to the fuel bill the entire time.

During this time I have had to put about about $500 into repairs. I don't count the ecm as a repair. It was an upgrade that I wanted. There is a couple of grand more that I need to put into her with steering box and radiator but those will come shortly.

I have started the process of obtaining my own authority. Everything is done except the insurance. Waiting until we are closer to the end of this job to do that.

Because I am stashing the money away, I will have this truck paid for, another truck and trailer purchased by the time this job is over. Will not be a lot left over but there will be enough to operate and not have to resort to factoring.

You will read on this site that you need $20,000 in the bank after getting the truck. Bull ####, you need to double that amount. I have been lucky with the truck and the helping hand of the guy whose authority I am running under. There were times that I could not have even paid for a new tire.

The one and only reason that I took the plunge at this time was because I had several months of work lined up. Not the best paying but definitely steady and that is what is needed at this point.

I may be getting lower fuel mileage than the other guys but it is not much. They are paying $2,000 more per month for their trucks and $800 more a month for insurance. We are getting paid the same so I am actually taking home more.

That is how I went from $200 in my pocket to owning my own truck. It took several years to get to this point but patience will be rewarded.

 

1993 T600, 3.90 rears, 12.7 Detroit out of a 1991 freightliner and 13 speed from who knows.