Some numbers for new O/O

Not that expensive. Check out ATRO brand silicone bushings.

 

Correction -Polyurethane bushings.

 

Are they hard to put in/on?

 

Well said, I work for a small fleet owner. He has 6 company trucks and 4 o/o leased on to him. I have no idea how he stays in business. The repairs are insane! I had no idea how much freight is zooming around this country. He is down to 4 company drivers right now and it's really hurting him to the point where he's thinking of jumping in a truck to haul ethanol. He's been driving since the 70s. Got his authority in 2010. Just started his own business last Sept. We try to do 4k to the truck every week, which is what he needs. Right now I spend all day staring at the boards trying to find decent paying loads. We got them all over 5k this week, but it took looking days in advance. A trucker just doesn't have that kind of time to sit looking for loads. Our o/o dispatch themselves and they're doing horrible right now. They're barely getting 3k a week. Fleet owner takes 10% of their loads. If we dispatch it's 15%.

I know it seems like dispatching is easy, but it's a pain in the ###. The brokers never know the dimensions of the load. They often don't know how late they load out or how late the receiver stays open. In the time they take to try to find out the load is booked by someone else. You get the load and all of a sudden it's gone or not ready etc...They wait 3 or 4 hours to tell you that and now it's the end of the day and you got to take whatever ####ting load you can find now.

 

^^ sounds like y’all should get out while you still can. With freight rates at record highs- if y’all ain’t making it now you’ll be going bankrupt in the next cycle.

 

Ruthless said it right but I'll add a little something. A lot of people jumped on the trucking bandwagon a couple of years ago when things were going good. That was fine but it created an over supply of small trucking companies. Brokers know that and they take advantage of it.
If you're depending on load boards and dealing with brokers you've never used before you're skating along the edge of trouble.
If you don't already have a base list of steady customers that you're hauling direct for you are already on the skids.
This might be a good time for your boss to think about getting out of the game entirely. Things aren't going to get better anytime soon. Better to cash out now than to go entirely broke and lose everything.

 

Yes, yes! Please get out while you can!

 

I’ve done all except rear springs hanger bushings .Shop used special Mobil press made just for that job. It was worth the labor. Haven’t done front springs yet or 5th wheel will change and rebuild Holland looks fairly simple

 

We have regular brokers that we work with, but their loads are drying up so you just got to seek out new pools to draw from. My boss has been trucking for a long time and is pretty savvy he'll be fine.

 

We're making it just fine

Yeah from reading these boards it sounds like people would rather deter other people from being in the business than offering anything helpful.