Three years of own authority costs combined.

Man, I need to look into this LTL stuff. I have a small building and dock at my yard. Maybe I’ve been leaving a ton of money on the table? :X

 

My friend was doing truckload stuff for some places that made various dairy products and through conversation he found out that they were having trouble shipping their 3-4 pallet shipments. And that’s how he got his foot in the door doing 5 to 8 stops in NY and NJ to small bakeries and such.

 

Decided to pop in and see what's happening at the theruckersreport.com and read through your post.

I just finished up my 4th complete year with my own authority and a dry van too.

My personal conviction from the start has been that even if I can only earn as much as I could doing line-haul (as a company driver) in my area, I would still opt to be an owner operator with my own authority, booking my own loads, making my own way.

I cringe at the thought of being dependent again upon some dingbat dispatcher to plan and schedule me accordingly Not to mention having to be out for 5 to 6 weeks at a time, no thanks.

If I get to the point where I can longer do this (for whatever reason) I'll sell the truck & trailer, turn in my authority and go back to work for one of dozens of companies that would hire me tomorrow doing regional work.

Until then, I'm an independent owner operator and darn proud to be one!

Here's to a steady and successful new year to you, TallJoe!

 

Things have been going pretty well. My problem is that I get a little too lazy and comfortable with being home LOL.

The spot market is what it is, it goes up and down, round and round.

I finished the year in the black, which is better than the red

My taxes are paid up for the year. I Was able to pay my insurance premium in advance for 2020, my tags are paid through 2020, paid for new drive tires a couple of weeks ago, did some periodic maintenance on the truck, etc, and still have some cash-flow on the books going into the new year.

So all in all, I don't have a lot to complain about.

 

The two biggest things with ltl is finding drivers that want to do it, and scheduling the stops. If I could find a good driver that wanted to do ltl reefer. I would add a truck tomorrow.