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

Just a day of deadheading today from GA to AL, bout 35 miles from the shipper and will pick up the load tomorrow. The shipper was closed today so I couldn't confirm that the load was there, but here's to hoping for the best!... It pays way too good not to give it a shot. Gonna have to slow down though, been running 66-67 the past week but I know that 30k and hills all the way up to PA will kill my mileage if I try to haul ***. (well, haul *** compared to my usual 60mph at least lol).

Should be able to get this load up to PA on the evening of the 1st and be ready to roll again on the 2nd, not much showing up to get me back home though... we'll see. Won't be the end of the world if I don't make it home for the 4th but I'd kinda like to be off for that weekend.

 

Ok (throws 2 cents on the floor ) dfo follow your dreams till the end ....I was there and let a woman talk me away from what I knew and grew up around ( grease, diesel, . attitudes ) . Started reading this thread and couldn't stop till the end .

If any of the older truckers in here may remember Friese trucking (grandfather). Or Parkway truck stop on the causeway between Mobile and Pensacola . Worked on them , serviced them, worked the fuel desk before computers took control . Lol back then you had to dial for a code number to get fuel . A very POS system and confusing at times . Drivers didn't fuel their trucks or wash windows and we checked the air on all tires ...... we didn't leave the love bugs on your trucks to eat away at the paint either.

I was able to drive some before lil head had to overcome big head due to the ball and chain said no mo . Did get a chance to have her out with me . Load of paper fromMobile to NYC with 4 drops in the Burroughs . Lumpers hit the side of the truck and #### hit the fan . Sleeper she went zipped curtain up and would not come out LMFAO . Well no to funny really because I had 2 choices plane asap or get her ###### headed south now . Lucky a husband and wife team took her to ossining with them where we usually picked up cabinets heading south . Bam my dream is done .

Now i am gettig ready to re enter the style and profile of the trucking industry . As i read the threads on ttr i see so many people bashing what another driver is trying to achieve . WTF !!!! I know with my past decisions in life I would have to follow one of theese progams ( of course after driving for at least 1 to 2 yrs for a company ) to be independent. Driving for a company if that's what you call independence or freedom #### me running . That's drinking KOOL-AIDE . Driver your out of route , driver your driving to fast , driver wtf was you thinking I told you to be there at 2 it is 2:15 wtf are you .

Freedom was lost when we took this country from the Indians . Where as they knew this country and lived off the land . Now talk about freedom when you could wake up jump on a horse and ride , live free . Way I see it as a independent trucker that's as close as we can get of not being tied to a corporate chain . No 9 to 5 tied to a building . Can roam our country draw a check give uncle sammy his cut and carry on .

My hat is off to all of you all .

As a child growing up did not understand it all , dad always gone would make it home as needed mainly due to he drove for my granfather . He is gone now , and a lot of people take the trucker for granite never realizing without them they could not do for their family If I it was not for them sacrificing time away from home and family. As I've noticed a lot of ex-military are truckers as well . Kinda strange when you really think it over bikers also are ex-militarily too. But yet are the most to give you a hand in need . Military, Truckers , and Bikers are a brotherhood that society can throw stones at all they want , but with my back to the wall that is who I want and need in my corner to fightnthe every day ups and downs of life . So nay sayers IMO lead , follow , or just plane get the #### out of the way . If you dont want to give a brother a hand up don't beat him down for trying to better his or her families . It was all better back in the day we know . 25 yrs ago I was making 12.00 per hr slinging drywall . Adds all over c.list right now for the same pissy ### 12 p hr for 30 days till we can see what you can do . Hell man I can show youmin a day . Thats just a way to get cheap labor .


Sorry Dfo didnt mean to chime in more than i did , it is in my blood for independant truckers to succeed not to see someone beat them down with words . I road with my grandfather from time to time doing the summers and he would go out of route or turn around to help a fellow trucker broke down or in need . And many a time i saw him take money from his pocket if one was down on his luck .

Just remember nay sayers it is the times we live in that has us trying different ways to be independant . Corporate has knocked the wind out of many of different industries and brung us to our knees . When the housing market went to hell all kind of people went out of business here .

Here ( throws 2 bits on the floor ) don't want anyone to say i didn't pay for more than my 2 cents lol

Thanks all for what you do !!!!!!!

 

Wannabe that's old school and well put!

Never let anyone beat you down and tell you that it can't be done.
Just takes hard work and discipline..honestly I can't figure out why people can't make it on Choice.
I know I know we are all different but Jesus it isn't like we're splitting the atom here.
Find a truck..get a laptop..book loads in the area's YOU like..Run and run..rinse lather and repeat.

You don't have to make a ton of money to be successful..as long as YOU are happy with the money you're making and the bills are paid who gives a SHI*!

Success to me is being content..with a little happy on the side.
I wish I would've pulled the trigger on the Choice program 18 months ago like I was going to.
Better late than never..that goes for anyone who wants to try it.
Do your homework..ask questions and dive in.
The water is cold but you'll get a feeling for it quick enough.

Sorry for the rant..well not really.

Peace out and word to your mother.

 

Forcing myself to stay awake (holy **** just looked at the curtain and light is coming through LOL) so I can sleep through the day and finish up this load at night, and make my delivery at night because there is no way I'm going down 95 in near-holiday traffic during the day.

So, sitting here half awake I am pondering some stuff, wanted to get input from you all and here some different suggestions.

So I've got, what, 4-5 months left on my lease.

I need to start seriously considering what I plan to do at the end of the lease so I can start taking the necessary steps. Here are the options I am considering at the moment:

1. Get a loan from my credit union to pay off the residual of $54k that I owe on my current truck

This one is just filled with "IFs"... because who knows what they would say. As I have said before I have no credit history, so other than showing them my statements and the fact that I've been making my payments, not falling behind, etc., I won't have much to stand on. I know when I talked to them before about getting a loan for a used pickup truck they were willing, but they wanted to have someone co-sign. I don't know if I would feel comfortable asking one of my family members to cosign on something like this or not. With that being said, I just need to go in sit down and talk with them, which I plan to do over my hometime coming up soon.

The pluses to this, if possible, would be a lower payment, lower interest rate, and complete and total freedom to do whatever I want with my truck and go wherever I please with it if for some reason I needed to look for another company to lease on to besides SNI. Hometime would be much easier to take, I could spend more time sitting and waiting for the gravy loads, etc., because I would no longer have a $905 truck payment+maint account payment looming over me every week. The downside is that as this truck ages it will only cost more and more to keep it maintained, and if I'm going to be throwing money at a used truck honestly I want to be throwing money at a pre-emissions N14 powered largecar that I've always dreamed of.

2. Release this truck for one more year with SFI

This isn't something that I want to do by any means, but it is an option. I would not have to contribute to the maintenance account any more if I renew the lease for another year. I'm not sure exactly what the payment would look like, but it would definitely be lower on a 54k truck vs the 80k truck it was when I first got it. Right now my truck payment itself is $693/week, so I would just guess based on what I have read here on the forum that it would probably be somewhere in the $4-500/week range which isn't bad. Still, the high interest rate still hurts. I will not consider leasing a different truck. It's just not an option. Been there done yet, it was a great way for me to get started but I'm done with $905/week coming straight out of my settlement.

3. Turn this truck back in and look at getting a truck from Lone Mountain.

Lone Mountain has a pretty good deal on brand new Cascadias. Very decent rate, payments are 600/week, and it requires a 12.5k downpayment. But it is a brand new truck with a 4 year warranty, DD15 + 13spd, BUT, no APU. I refuse to idle so that would be an added expense, although I don't think I would spend $10k on a Tripac, I would get an RV diesel generator installed and run a backwall HVAC unit which would be much cheaper. I'm sure I'd get much better MPG with this setup (driving how I do I would would not expect to see any less than 8 MPG with this setup) compared to the 6.8ish that I see now. I really really like my Cummins but the only way I'm going to see those kind of MPG numbers out of it is not exactly... legal... and I'll leave it at that lol.

So those are kind of the big 3 options that I'm looking at right now. Opinions?

 

Several questions:
A what is a similiar truck (so the same as you have now) selling for?

B have you asked SNI what their asking price is for a new Freightliner?
I do mean without lease.
SNI could sell you one cheaper then LM and make a nice profit on it.

C ask price at a dealer.If you show the LM deal............they might make a extra effort.

D Should you decide on a LM truck,before you sign on the dotted line,take the VIN number off the truck and have it typed in the Freightliner system by a dealer.

E have you calculated how much you would earn more if you went from 6 MPG to 7,5?
why 7,5?Cost off DEF+not being over optomistic about MPG gains.

 

I was possibly thinking about Lone Mountain myself as an option. If you are happy with the truck you have and happen to need a cosigner[I would hate that as well], talk to a family member about it, finance it, keep it a few years and then sell it or trade it for another truck. By then you will have positive history and would be able to pretty much get what you want. Or another option is take the money you have saved and you can probably pay cash for a pre emissions N14 that you prefer. I know this is not a lot of help, but the options are there. I have read your entire thread and in my opinion the N14 is what you really want in the first place and paying cash and owning it from day one would free up a lot of capital that you could put back for maint. You will have a year in being an O/O / L/O..I'm sure you will make the right decision.

 

WOW HAD TO GET A MVR REPORT TODAY BECAUSE EMPORIA VA. DID NOT LIKE MY SPEEDLIMIT OF THE COMPANY VAN I WAS DRIVING.

AND UPON MY WANTING TO PAY AND GET IT OVER WITH I FIND OUT IT IS WRECKLESS DRIVING . NOT GOOD IF IM WANTING TO GET MY CDL NOT GOOD .

DONE A 7 YR CHECK IT IS BLANK NO WRECKS NO TICKETS , HAD TO LOOK AT THE NAME ON IT AGAIN

DFO , YOUR THREAD IS GREAT ....YOU HAVE A VERY GOOD OUTLOOK AND WILL GO VERY FAR ........WHAT EVER YOU DECIDE ON THE TRUCK IS IMPORTANT I KNOW , BUT YOUR WORK ETHICS ALONE PROVES SUCCESS IS THE ONE BEHIND THE WHEEL AND NOT THE PROGRAM ITSELF !!!

 

Yeah I'm really torn about what is the smartest route to take. I don't think its time for me to jump into the N14 powered largecar yet because I want to have probably $40k in savings for an older used truck in case I blow up an engine., etc., as absolutely nothing will be under warranty, and I would want to still have savings left over after a major repair like that to give me a time cushion to build it back up. I would also need the cash to purchase the older truck or at least a fair bit saved up for a down payment and I just don't have enough saved up to do that + still have considerable savings for a major breakdown.

I am happy with the current truck, its been very reliable and that has easily made up for the fact that it doesn't get as good MPG as the new trucks, it hasn't sat in the shop at all and cost me very little in repairs. But as we all know that could change as soon as I start it up today, and the remaining (very limited at that) warranty on the engine internals will be over within the next 100k miles. If I could get the bank loan to finish paying this off, I think this would be the "cheapest" route to go (in terms of weekly expenses) for the time being, especially if I made some ... ahem ... modifications to improve MPG. The question is though, at what point will this truck cost me more in fuel and maintenance compared to a new truck? Is the smartest move to run it until something major breaks, fix it, keep running it, or sell it at that point? When would having a full factory warranty + better MPG on a new truck be worth it over the expenses of keeping this used truck running? As of now I can't answer that as I have been very fortunate to not have any major breakdowns yet.

Lone Mountain would be the option if the bank says no to financing what I still owe on my current truck, and if I really do not want to release through SFI for another year. I really want away from the lease agreement, although SFIs is a very good lease/purchase system overall, I am still tied down to the technicalities of that agreement, which, just for example, lets say I do something stupid and SNI says they are going to cancel my lease for it (u-turn, drop trailer, etc., etc.). Well, now they simply take the truck that I have paid $40,000 into BACK and I'm **** outta luck with no truck and no job. It works out OK if I finish off the lease and pay it off, but if God forbid something like that happens while I am still under a lease agreement, it could really hurt, vs. if I had it financed through the bank, SNI just says nope you're contract is terminated and I go take my truck and work somewhere else.

 

I strongly suggest going to that credit union and obtaining a secured credit card for as much as you can stand and keep the balance around 20% and pay that bill on time every month.

 

Wouldn't it be better to pay it off every month?