The adventures of 'Team Klingon'

I'm excited... Everyone one (well most anyways) says direct shippers are the way to go... We we are hauling for one now, and I think (during their season) it will work out well. We went up to OR/WA because we heard rates were through the roof, but we didn't want to haul Christmas trees... Mess/smell/pitch etc... So while looking for 'other' loads I cam across a post on a load board from a 'direct shipper'... For kicks and giggles I called. They were up front and stated they could NOT compete with Christmas trees, but if we worked with them now, they would offer the same rate to us during a slow trucking time... We gave them a rate we were happy pulling for and we are on our first load for them. So far it's been awesome! Went to the first pick up and we were told it would take 3-4 hours to load... They actually offered us their car if we wanted to run into town for shopping or what ever!! Second pick up, at the owners location, we got to meet him and a tour of his facility... Really down to earth neat guy So their season lasts until February, so until after then we will be heading to OR frequently... I think we will plan for a March vacation!! LOL! (Why the picture went sideways I have no clue!) (PS... This load... FULL truck = 16,000 pounds!)

 

Note to self... Bare root trees are just plain messy... LOL! We didn't want the pitch and needles of Christmas trees, but we sure got the muddy walls instead!

So we made it home for Thanksgiving Day... Which was nice. We are now heading to Reno... Deliver tonight and we were SUPPOSE to pick up tonight as well, but that was delayed until tomorrow... Right in time for a storm across the Sierras... Sigh... But the delivery in Portland is the same, so it's just the snow and the overnight parking locations that are different.

The 'direct customer' that we have WILL have more loads for us, but they won't be ready until the end of the week, so going to find some short hoppers up in the OR/WA/N. CA area until then.

We also did a major purchase of 4 new drive tires (super singles)... We probable could have gotten another month out of them, but with winter/snow/ice etc coming... I rather be safe than sorry!

 

Oh My... First time delivering bare root trees... 20 stops... And we get to call and set up appts!! Klingon doesn't have any hair left! WEEE!

 

DH miles 3809
LD miles 19903
T miles 23712
gross inc $69,990.00
rate/T-mile rate/L-mile
$2.95 $3.52

These are the totals we've had since we started under our own authority in June... So far so good - its just the TIME it took to get this... 6 months... that's less than 4000 miles & $11,665 (gross)/month... but hey, we are still in business and getting our processes down...

 

Well we survived the 20 stopper, and back for another 14

 

We got smart for the second go-around... Had a friend that lives in LA meet us and help to unload... We cranked out all 14 stops in one freaken day!! LOL... And we are back for more (talk about being gluttons for punishment!) 11 stops this time, ending in Las Vegas, NV. Yep, Christmas away from home again but we want to retain our 'customer' and he seems to like us so here we sit, getting our trees on ... LOL!