new trucking family & we are STARVING! It has to be better than this!??

Have him tell his FM he needs to run...wherever, whenever and whatever they have...once those planners see he can run for 2-3 even 4 weeks at a time they will keep him busy.

 

Everyone has to make their own decision. I was in the same situation a couple of times and had a wife and 4 children at home in a raggedy trailer and jumped ship and did much better. I was desperate and figured, well, I'm at the bottom of the pile so there's only one way to go and that's up. That was me though, may not be right for someone else.

 

I know about the hill country, being a Tennessean. Now I'm in Seven Hills not far from the strip and McCarran airport. Movin' on up as the saying goes, but was a rough ride.

 

I don't know where you're from (might've missed that in perusing the thread, my apologies) but if he is running east, or more particularly northeast, TMC is a good choice for work and for home time. I worked for them for a year and a half, pretty much strictly northeast, and was typically home every weekend and occasionally days throughout the week. I honestly have nothing bad to say about them, had a good experience for my part.

Also, for those advising longer hauls as a solution to increasing the bottom line, it isn't that simple. I lost money every week I took long runs with TMC, as opposed to staying on the shorter hauls and delivering 5 loads/week or more. The exceptions to that were running John Deere equipment out of Welland ON, those loads were nice.

Edit: Southern WV, missed that. Also, I would very, very strongly recommend against leasing a truck on with anyone at his experience level. You think it's bad now, wait until the truck breaks and his settlement has a negative number at the bottom. Don't do it, no matter the stories or tempting numbers from recruiters.

 

Excellent advice. Stick with a company gig for now, whomever it be. Leasing a truck isn't something you want to go into without a boatload of money saved up and set aside for the unexpected that WILL happen. When it does its a whole lot easier to sit back and let someone else deal with it while your on hourly pay as opposed to stressing how your going to cover it when times are already tight.

 

Wait a second. He has been driving less than 6 months and you think it's a good idea to before a trucking business? Make no mistake about it, leading a truck or buying one, is running a trucking business. as ruling coal stated on the first page, that chose of action is basically committing financial suicide. He needs a job as a company driver at a decent carrier. Tmc is just about as good a company job as one can get. But no matter what company you go to, expecting 1100 a week after all deductions is not realistic. That's what 75 to 80k a year in wages? Not very many jobs pay that. You guys need to cut back expenses, or get his job back at the mine.

 

I puzzled... Did he get laid off from the coal mines or just to decide to get into this mess without thinking?

Sorry if I sound harsh but the truth is that there are tooooo many red flags in you guy's life to make a major change into something that isn't easy to learn. You seem to be setting up for failure, which I don't want to see happen.

And another question ... You keep saying independent contractor. That means he is not an employee and will be responsible for his own taxes, or did you mean employee?

 

I am with the others, go TMC and have him do % plan, not per mile!! They are #1 in my book for a company driver- Best Equipment, pay, home time, benefits, etc.... Remember, % not cpm, hope this helps.