New guy out of CA

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum, looks like a great forum with so many different discussions which is awesome because every topic here is important to all of us in some way. Well, in 2008, i graduated college with no job offerings, in now 24, my brother is 27. so my brother an I decided to start trucking, we figured our best solution is to haul tankers. I fell into what APEX was offering and we decided to purchase a tanker truck, Peterbilt 384, 36'' sleeper, 10 speed. Its a very light truck with a C-13. Well, with us being so ill known about anything, we purchased the truck, THEN went to APEX, APEX didnt accept us because we had no experiance, and neither would any other tanker company (first bad experiance of my life). So, the long journey began with trying so many different companies starting with a dry van. This was probably our worst times, we went all over the United States, we did not come home for 45 days once. Went from LA to Laredo, up to salt lake down to houston, up to detroit, over to PA than back to CA(second bad experiance of my life). There was at one point days without a load. By the time my brother and I got home, we sat down and talked how to make this work, decided to get a reefer trailer (desert Trailer is the best, they financed us our first trailer). So, here we were, using a tanker truck, with a reefer trailer and sharing a 36'' sleeper. We finally began began booking our own loads using a factoring company for 6 months because some companies wouldnt pay for up to 28-31 days. After we put in some miles and made a bit of extra cash we felt it was time for truck #2. This is the 06 peterbilt c-15 (great truck, very powerful climbing the steeps of VA and TN) and hired another driver on the 09. The truck is small, but fine for one person if you ask me. However, this is my long journey to here now, ive felt ive been through hell n back starting out with trucking. You must be very aggressive with loads and at first it wasnt hard to get use to, Ive seen some beautiful scenery, my favorite states to run are TN and VA in the summer time, so beautiful and green, Arkansas is also beautiful. We always run the interstate 40 route up the 81 north to Jersey and back. but here is some pictures of my equipment, and one from the worst drive of my life through UTAH, and was literally my brother and I's first time driving through snow. Luckily we had an experianced owner operator ahead helping us on the CB radio, telling to keep a slow/moderate speed and dont slow down going up hills, we noticed how some trucks started going backwards. One of my most stressful days though, right now though, thanking god, we are doing fine with two trucks. Ive recently had an issue with my driver and workers comp. But, I'm working hard to fix everything and do it right, and god willing , everything will be.

 

sorry, another bad experiance, our first run, we hit a deer in texas!!!

THAT WAS SOMETHING CRAZY!!! haha