The journey begins - purchased a truck.

Then the right question becomes, "What do you intend to do with the truck?"

That's the most important question to answer. If you plan to run OTR pulling a flatbed or other low profile trailer, it's a good choice. If you plan to pull a van or reefer or get involved with lots of off road mayhem, it will have challenges that will cost you money.

 

When I can afford something like in the pick it will have a nice drop deck be hind it and I will only be working from April to October. Till then I can keep dreaming right?

 

I forgot to measure the clearance from back of head. Spent all of yesterday grinding down shock shanks to get those #### road kings on. But the eyeball measurement showed its even more than i thought. The firewall has a cut out section, I'm guessing because they used the same cab in the fld to allow for the shorter hood on those. You can easily get to anything on the back of the engine or bell housing iif the tranny, can even access most of the shifter plate bolts from there.

 

If you’re planning to stay with LS, I would take advantage of the market, but not gouge.

 

I feel over the years I have burned some bridges. I know I have. They come and go. I think it's a little different with brokers on the open market though. Its like there's a revolving door and always new ones taking over accounts from,old ones.

That may or,may not be the case inside Landstar? I tend to think with some of the better agencies that likely isn't the case especially with you specialized. With door slamming there really no such thing as specialized. I go back and forth on this all the time. It always seems like when I try to foster relationships the offers and workload get cheaper. But sometimes when the work just isn't there you need a handful of contacts.

I can tell you this also that EOBR has really rocked everything for me. I dunno how much more of this being forced to take a 10 hour break at 13:00 I can take. I'm tired all the time and missing out on opportunities that I used to book and roll with in the past and be perfectly rested, looked compliant always, though there was heavy editing involved. I'm running ragged on the same sort of miles I always used to run. Veered off topic there sorry. I just don't see anything wrong with the old way I was doing things. I wasn't as tired and didn't have near the stress. Never watched a clock or even thought about it, now it is all I ever do.

 

I'm seeing the opposite in rates as what you are. Mine are down and overall what's being offered is down. But all the talk I hear is of difficulty finding trucks. But I've been thru this a few times the past few years. I know things can change and turn very quickly. This just doesn't have that same feel to it as 2017 for my operation. My feeling is EOBR is having a negative affect on the short haul solo operator hauling typical freight.

 

As a non-bipartisan observer-

Truck capacity is down. Guys that could "make it work" on paper can't book the same loads now. It's coming down to who has a truck, in the right area, with hours available to make the run. Brokers and shippers need to wake up we're in a new world