Stacking the deck in your favor.

Six, you're a liar. You're just trying to scare us young'uns away so you can keep all the money yourself.
Just because you old farts are too stupid to make it doesn't mean I can't. How freaking hard could it be. It's only driving. I love to travel and I watched all the YouTube videos on how to succeed with trucking so I know what I'm doing. Do us all a favor and stop posting BS on these boards.

Signed,
Super trucker in training.

 

Jesus this post applies to every 'easy money' idea anybody ever had. Assuming no special skills (and special skills are not easy to acquire... the very few I have took years and years of practice) there is no 'easy money' anywhere on planet earth. In fact any time something looks so good it blows your mind you should be very suspicious.

 

Yesterday I was leaving the shipper and there are two trucks in front of me at the guard shack. Guard comes up and asks if I have a hammer since the trailer door in the front one was being stubborn.
The truck in front of me was some random daycab, so I can see him not having a hammer, but the one that was having issues closing his door was a Landstar trailer, so I'm assuming a Lanstar o/o. Yea, he didn't even have a hammer....
How can an o/o ever succeed if he doesn't even have a hammer,? To me that's as needed as diesel.
(And btw, I do carry a hammer, if for no other reason than to thump tires when pre-tripping)

 

AS My Old grandfather used to say..

The only place Success comes before Work, Is in the Dictionary.......

 

This is a great thread.

 

Good stuff here. I may not be smart but I'm smart enough to see how dumb it would be to lease. Pay money for a POS ex-fleet truck, pay maintenance, fuel, etc but still get treated like a company stooge. No thank you.

 

The other thing stopping me right now is family. With two daughters ages 10 and 7, now isn't the time to take a risk like that. I worked as a mechanic for ten years, but driving truck was a part of what I did. I started driving full time when we found out my wife was pregnant with the little one. Talk about an adjustment! Had a two year old, a pregnant wife, and I decide to start driving regional, being gone six days at a time. Almost ended up divorced with a custody agreement. Thats when I got a little wiser and found a local gig. Best thing I've done so far.

I actually almost pulled the trigger and bought a truck just before my oldest came along. This was in '06. Friend of mine had a 95 Pete 378, nothing too fancy, just a basic work truck. He pulled containers with it. Had the engine rebuilt in '05, it might have had 100,000 since the rebuild. I could have bought it for $7500, and had it leased on at the rail yard the next day. But the wife talked me out of it. I often wonder where I'd be at today if I had bought it. My buddy that had it bought a new W900, beautiful truck. Went to Mercer in 08, and nearly lost everything. Ended up divorced, paying 1500 a month in child support and alimony. I wasn't about to go down that road