THE ADVENTURES CONTINUE - DFO gets a truck and hops on Schneider's IC Choice Program

I waited and did hazmat in my home state. Hazprints.com you can pay online.thats in louisiana. Dont believe all states use hazprints. I dont mean to clog this thread up. Its all about DFO !

 

Not only finger prints but a back ground check also. It's around $90 and no guarantee you'll pass. Here's the TSA info on it. https://hazprints.tsa.dhs.gov/Public/

 

Yessir! You can and should take them all at the same time. It's cheaper to take them all together. At least in CA it is.

 

Same in Michigan. You can take them all individually - they're only $5 each - but it's somewhere around $17-18 each time to change your license. All together, CDL with all endorsements except passenger/school bus, including the 'enhanced' license so I don't need a passport to go to Canada or Mexico, was right at $90, I think. And the HazMat fingerprint/background check was another $80-something.

*all endorsements = HazMat, Tanker, Doubles/Triples

 

Wow! That's cheap. Here it costs about $60 bucks to take the permit test. That includes all endorsements should you choose to take them. If you just get the basics and want to add tank or hazmat it's another $60. I've never heard of an enhanced license. How does that work? I thought I had it all with my endorsements and TWIC.

 

Not sure if they have it in Cali; It's sort of a ground-transportation only passport, good for Canada (for sure, I think Mexico too). Here's the FAQ from Michigan's Secretary of State website: http://www.michigan.gov/sos/0,1607,7-127-48296---F,00.html#37 Your TWIC might do the same thing, and more. I don't have a TWIC, so don't know what all that does for you.

IIRC, the breakdown was: $25 for the permit test, $5 each for the 3 endorsements, and $50 for the enhanced chauffeur's license (it's a Michigan thing. even if I'm not carrying passengers, I still have to have a 'chauffeur's license' to get a CDL). Still way cheaper than California!

 

New York is $15 for the permit and 5 for each endorsement in New Jersey it's $125 for permit 10 for each endorsement glad I live in NY.

 

Talk about hijacking a thread....

 

I'll attempt to get us back on track. I do read daily and wonder what I have missed.If your expenses are basically $1.03/mile and average rev. is $1.39/mile this will leave you about $.36/mile correct? Is there another pool of money somewhere to cover another truck someday,savings,living expenses and etc....?

 

Unfortunately, there is no other "pool" of money. You have to know what it costs you to run and what you need to make to live. Then you have to pick freight that pays at or above your needs. Talking with DFO he says he needs to have freight that averages $1.64 per mile. Since I have been looking at the load board for more than a month, I do not see where that expectation is unreasonable. There is a lot of freight that pays above 1.64.

As a matter of fact, I called DFO the other day and shared with him 4 loads that totaled 2001 miles (including deadheads) that would have paid his truck almost $3600 in 4 days. We were discussing how to get out of the area the last load ended in. Even adding in a long deadhead, we were still able to keep the per mile rate above his threshold.