Newbie Grain Hauling Questions

You also might want to check out some hopper trailer dealers like E R Trailer sales near Lima,Oh(i think thats where they are located),but the hopper/dump trailer dealers will know the ''super farmers'' purty good because they trade-in their trailers frequently,plus they will know more specifics on which ''super farmers'' are decent folks to work for.Get on truckpaper.com and run a search for Wilson/Timpte grain hopper dealers located near you,just a thought.

 

Rollin parking lots make more than flat bed even..

If you can get a covered rolling parking lot like how reliable sets up their rigs..ten you can really bank.

Reliable gets paid per car per mile to the company..and on hgh end ransfers going to car auctions car shows as an O/o yu could easily see 8k gross trips

Its not hard work.its just careful work...then you got the old reliable runs coming out of the auto plants to dealers as a back up

Now you know why reliable has such nice equipment

Petey

 

Most of the larger farmers around here hire drivers and pay hourly wages between $15 and $20/hr but they will run their drivers hard and long during harvest,and purty hard through March hauling Jan./Mar.contracted grain so you will basically run Sept./Oct. through Mar.with a lull around Christmas,but other than fertilizer in the spring it will be slow. At least that's how it is around here,may be different in your neck of the woods entirely.

I would recommend getting your feet a little wet first driving for someone else for at least 1 full season before investing in the trailer just to make sure it's gona be something you will want to pursue as an investment/buisiness,plus you will learn the do's and don'ts and in's and out's of whats required of you,as far as working schedule,different elevator/mill locations and you will also see just how ''competitive''you have to be against all the different larger farmer owned ''truckers''.Just remember if you decide to dive right in and buy your own truck,you'll be competing against a lot of these ''super farmers'' for round trip freight,and all they are concerned about is keeping their driver busy during the off season,so they WILL haul it cheap. Remember one thing as your out there,most of the shiney new trucks and trailers you see at the elevators are ''farmer-owned'' and they are paying for those rigs with grain/farm produce,not income from trucking, imo.

 

find a "super farmer", much like a "super trucker" with several trucks that will pay by the hour

today took 11 hours to do 2 loads, travel time was about 1 hr each way
really good days max out at 5 loads

average is 45 hours a week

remember the 12 hour rule

the hours worked depend on when you can get loaded in the morning, and what time last delivery is

around here, it's heartland to ADM, ethanol, or company transfer

don't bother with a broker, know your territory, or just show up and wait for the elevator to open

if you show up, usually they will load you, but they might tell you to not come back

if it's your first time to a "new" location, talk to the people at the probe, and tell them it's your first time here, and ASK FOR DIRECTIONS if it's not obvious
b
if you are having a bad day, turn off the cb < very important with ^

 

Well Jason,the end dump will give you a LOT more options for different freight than the hopper,that's for sure,but your gona sacrifice on average 2500-3500lbs of payload when it come to grain,so you will have to factor that in.When i switched from a frameless dump to the hopper i went from a tare weight of 29500 down to around 26200,so i gained a tad over 3000lbs of payload,but i would still recommend running for someone else for at least 1 harvest season just so you know if it is gona be your ''cup of tea''. I completly understand wanting to watch your kids grow up and all,and i commend you for that. It will be a big sacrifice financially, wanting to be home most nights,but it can be done. With that said,it will be harder to get home most nights unless you have your own truck,and your gona be too tired to enjoy your kids a lot because of the long hours,truck maint,paperwork, and all the other stuff that comes with truck ownership,and unless you are gona be independent,the folks you lease on to with are probably not gona make it easy on you as far as getting home every night. I'm not trying to rain on your parade here jason,just trying to be honest with ya. Have you had a chance to go down to Cargill or one of the ethanol plants and ask them directly if they would be able to keep you fairly busy? That really needs to be done BEFORE buying the truck IMHO. After having a talk with them,it might clear some things up a tad more for ya.

Personally Jason,i would make Ray at Midwest get you in contact with Garber BEFORE you buy the truck from him,if he can really get you ''hooked up'' with them,then he should be able to do that first

 

You will not make money pulling a hopper. All the local stuff is tied up with the farmers who haul because they already have the truck and are just bored. (Some even have the appropriate tags and insurance to haul for hire, most just use farm tags and cut the rates) They also get preferential treatment from the elevators so it's hard to get your foot in the door and long haul hopper freight is cheap. We only have two hoppers left and we wouldn't have them if we didn't have a few really good customers. Also we have an advantage because they're super light so they make more revenue than the average truck. W900 daycab with 43' trailer with 80" sides is 21,800# and a T800 that's slightly heavier.

My advise......run your odds of success are better in Vegas!

 

hey i would do like others said run 1 year. but i would say i would buy a dump before a hopper why u ask? you have more freight avaliable to u grain,scrap steal,demolitions etc. hoppers you can haul grain fertilizer and what not but your limited to what you can haul. also your ethanal plants if there like they are here they will have dried distiller grains a wet distillers grain. dry you can haul in hopper but wet is impossible with a hopper. I mean ya you can get freight for hopper but an end dump would be better profit to you because your not limited to what u can haul. wish ya luck