Stacking the deck in your favor.

For a heavy hauler, it's not necessarily the money...it's the truck, it's the trailer, it's the freight, it's the challenge. What's interesting is the guys on top generally know each other.or know of each other. Its funny... when doing your trip plan, you look for a full service restaurant with the biggest parking lot to stop at. You pull into the parking lot and go to the very back and you look for some big load taking up 2 spots and park next to him so you two only take up 3 spots instead of 4. Of course, there comes a time when your load becomes so big that you need 4 spots total. In many places, superloads cant move on weekends. So, you meet these guys that are stuck in a truck stop all weekend. A decade ago, we would all sit in the back of a truck stop, break out the lounge chairs and grill food and drink beer all weekend. Nowadays tho, there are just too many sidewalk sissies in this industry to do that. So I will usually find one of my pilot cars in the area and have the pilot car load us up and take us to a nice bar with good food and hot waitresses. Or a taxi works too.

The Dreaded Lunch Counter

You know how, when you go to the lunch counter and you hear the guy that's done everything, knows everything, 40 year driver with 5 million safe miles, 55 years old, yet fought in Nam under Johnson? Either laugh at him or ignore him. They always have 2 things in common 1. Ex navy seal 2. Ex Heavyhauler.

I've always wondered why do they feel the need to lie. The thing is, when they lie, they're re telling stories that they've heard before. For example, 30 years ago, I had someone tell me not to ever blow my horn at a moose. He then went on to tell me about a friend of his with a black Pete that blew his horn at a moose and the moose demolished the truck. Well, last year, I had a guy in his early 30s tell me never to blow my horn at a moose. Why not? Because he has a friend that had a black Pete that blew his horn at a moose and the moose demolished the truck. I told him that I saw a moose and I blew my horn at the moose and the moose ran away. The guy didn't believe me until I told him that I do not drive a Pete.


ANYWAY, you usually see the same types of guys in the restaurants. You have GI Joe telling tales of espionage with his secret decoder ring. You have the FearMongerer, telling tales of moose with hard ons for peterbilts, or those 'old man at the weigh station stories.' You have the moron that's afraid of his wife, talking on the phone from the crapper to the buffet (he didn't wash his hands, so don't eat from the buffet). And then you have the gear heads. One the conversation goes to wrenching, the losers in the room will get quiet. The guys you want to listen to can turn a wrench. You don't have to be a mechanical whiz to be an owner op, but if you don't know anything, every time you take a truck to a shop, you're handing over a blank check.

I can turn a wrench. I've been building my trucks, cars, now bikes for a long time. However, time is most important. I have a series of shops I use on the road. How will you know which shops you can trust? Remember those gearheads in the restaurant? They will tell you.
I always tell new owner ops to find a shop near the house. I have one that gives me good cash prices and I give him cash. When I go home, I have other things to do, and they're much faster than me. And it gives me a secure place to park the truck. Win win.

 

@G13Tomcat, this guy is a walking legend.