SO .. Where is the money - most OO going UNDER

I aint mad once bit. I loved trucking when I used to take a day off and let the logbook catch up... come on

 

That is true, if one sector doesn’t work go to another.

But one thing people don’t do is cut down their daily expenses.

I see drivers go in and purchase $10-$20 worth of junk food for their lunch and wonder how they stay afloat in this economy if you multiple that by let’s say 2 times a day? That’s $40 x 20 that’s $800 and month. Just for lunch and dinner not including the coffees or waters or other liquids.

That 2 for $5 pizza at the local TS is to expensive, or that $15 beef jerky.

I survived on cup of noodles for years when I was younger. I can do it now as well.

My daily expense for driving is if I’m feeling hungry is.

$8 for a pack of cigarettes.
$5 for dinner and liquids. Waters great don’t need soda. That 2 for $3 burgers at McDonald’s great for something.

Yes I survive on $5 and sometimes even less then $2 per day to make ends meet.


I eat once a day and have gone days surviving on Protein bars, coffee and cigarettes.


People don’t understand you have to do what you have to do to survive.

 

Compared to the previous 8 years 3% is a major boom.
As far as the 80's and 90's early 80's we had high interest, as much as double digit on new autos, growth while I don't know the official numbers, I do know it was nothing to brag about.
Later on in the 80's when oil went to nothing, there was a major bust.
I seem to remember a major bust, especially in the trucking industry in 99 or 2000.
Trucking industry has its boms and busts, no matter what the economy is doing, always has and always will.

 

So cigarettes are now a necessity of life. I hope the Children's Aid doesn't find out my kids are non smokers or they might come and take them away from me. This is possibly the most unintentional hilarious thing I have ever read. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black LOL. F... that was funny.

 

Here is another scenario. Let's say we get a recession soon, a lot of people will be out of work, so they will look into trucking. Megas will have another huge wave of new drivers.
ELD's, 65pmh speed limit, higher insurance requirements, will force a lot of o/o out of business and Megas will simply gain more market share

 

Now that I read that I agree. Not a necessity but It’s the only thing keeping me from losing my mind watching these 4 wheelers merge into the highway at 40mph.

 

I went to a going out of business garage sale style yesterday for a smallish trucking company.
He had lost his contract last winter, hauling to the mine.
The old guy that owned this company for years, through thick and thin made it alright. He sold part of the company several years before he sold the last part and retired, but the present owner is shutting the doors.
It is odd, though, anybody in town that even thinks they might want to work is busy, every company here servicing the slope is using outside trucks for freight overflow, and keeping them busy.

 

I know how to keep the body from having trouble on very little to eat and drink. In the end it's worth it sometimes I discovered a employer near home where I can work nights for a couple of months and then purchase some supplies in food and water and other useful things. Small stuff but a beginning of a savings. I have talked many times about having something saved aside. It's really tough to do when you are a big spending or worse a comdata parasite.

When the payrolls do not go through for whatever reason if you have savings you will be ok until it does. I remember when I was young there were times that the meals were sufficient to not worry about breakfast or dinner depending on time of day last taken. Enough calories to work in the trailer.

Fast forward to about the 40's I was pulling a full time job at the auction house, in times as a crew boss for CDL truck sales if not a driver then night college with a full load of 16 credits a season course work. One hour was set aside for a meal strictly designed to get me through the classes after the work. At some point the body failed to respond in that way for power. I checked with the doctor and realized that I was missing the basic B vitamin. So once we put that on the diet it got much better. We were worried about bigger problems due to familial history of diabetes etc. (Not yet.)

There is one road to most truckers I believe is the shortest road on earth in this lifetime. Going home.

 

If your daily meals aren’t nutritious enough, you want to take a vitamin/mineral pill. You don’t have to do it every day, just on the days when you realize your meals were very basic. It can actually be dangerous for your health to live off of meals that don’t give you sufficient essential nutrients. There are people who have ended up in the ER because their meals were too basic.

 

What fuel mileage are you getting? Do you know what your idle percentage generally is? That’s pretty extreme measures not to burn fuel. I commend you though.