To all of you out there ready to strike it rich...

I always refer to it as “turning dollars” instead of making money

you can make a decent living driving your one own truck, but all you are doing is paying your bills, you’ll never be a millionaire, I just wish I wasn’t as ####ed up in the head as I was so I could walk away from this industry

 

When fuel goes up so do rates. We don’t turn keys unless it’s profitable. I feel blessed to be a worker in an industry where my pay goes up with inflation. Many others beg for a raise every few years, lagging behind. Many dog what we do, but I think we rock!

 

Tell joe thanks for the empty shelves and massive inflation .

and be sure to thank everyone who voted for him

 

I posted about DAT raising their rate by 25% while it's a drop in the bucket now. Rates WILL eventually drop. All these people raising their costs due to inflation are very unlikely to lower their cost when the rates drop. This is going to lead to some bad times in the future

 

My highly maintained paid off equipment is good to go for years to come and I'm leased to a solid carrier that started in 1932 and am tenured there so I'm not to worried.
I dont have much debt and intend to keep it that way .
Yes I belive a hell of a storm is coming!

 

My fuel at .45 cpm truck costs .57 cpm now

Rates can handle that atm, anyone betting rates will stay constant or higher must also assume inflation will cover that increased rate as things continue, those that bought in cash now assuming things will be their 2019 costs will continue are the ones that will lose over the longer term, financed or paid off low cost equipment is the key to survival when it dips for a year, its cyclical, 3-6 year cycle on it, if youve been paying attention, it wont hurt, if you bought at peak... sorry for your luck

 

I’m seeing a lot more Trucks out here this week, compared to last week. Rates are steady, but fuel and everything else is up. Service everywhere is backed up, and quality of service is down. I have no idea when or how bad it will crash. But eventually it will. The backlog seems to be elsewhere in the chain, some in Trucking, but not for long. As soon as new equipment is available. The Drivers will fill the seats. Once the backlog is filled up to date. There will be too many Trucks out here. 1999, 2008, 2022? Happens fast. Race to the bottom. I’m not going through that again.Ill give someone else with big eyes a deal on my Truck and Trailer. It’s not worth the trouble. Been there done that.

 

I recently did a tentative analysis on going through a lease and then O/O (4 year lease that on the end you actually own the truck). And, for me and my situation, just determined I don't think it is worth the risk.
Other may very possibly have a different answer for their specific situation. But, for me, I earnestly looked into it and determined I'll just stay a company driver.
To those that have the discipline, resources and motivation to make it work. My hats are off to you. But, think anyone considering going that route to do your best to take a realistic look into it and the details involved. Although it is a good way to significantly increase your income, also way a good to seriously lose your butt!!

 

(Just a disclamer this was intended to be a short post but then i saw my soap box and you have a wall-o-text now.....sorry about that)

Im young and rather fond of my plastic 579, not sure id like to trade it for a hood to be honest. If i could kill my #### bendex system it would be the perfect truck. Turns sharp as hell, big comfy interior, drives smoother then most hoods i have driven, and i think mine looks slick as well without the gods awful roof ferring on it. And frankly i prefer it to the hoods i have driven.

That said i can tell you most of my peers think im insane for buying a truck, they think i should either just work for a company or "make just as much getting unemployment because only a retard would work when you make more NOT working" and yes i have had several childhood friends say some variation of that to me. Most of the kids i grew up with wouldnt know what the words "work ethic" meant if you jammed them up their round entitled jiggly ##### with a 500 ton hydraulic press and i mean that quite literally. One specific example was a guy i knew who was getting $18 an hour to flip burgers and as much overtime as he wanted due to the mcbrownbag being so understaffed, He still thought he was being underpaid and quit when the manager wouldnt agree to $25 an hour as well as X2 overtime.

Back to the main subject though i got my rig not "to strike it rich" but because i love what i do, dispise other humans in general (save people i find friends, yaall are alright) and it was a major bucket list item. But you are correct a HUGE majority of new O/O drivers i talk to have that "strike it rich its a sure bet" mentality. They rush into this with little to no planning, they grab the first truck with wheels and are shockef when the truck gets 10 miles then bursts into flames and....sometimes literally. They then panic because they had no backup plan for "well if X happens, then i Y unless that wont work in which case we Z instead" and many have zero maintaince account.

Another perfect example, and this will sound like a tangent but just bare with me for a moment. i ran into a guy at the oak grove petro shop while i was getting my shocks changed. He had just bought a fancy hood from the AUCTION sight unseen because it looked cool.....let me repeat that SIGHT UNSEEN because it LOOKED COOL and paid 90K for it. He only got 20 miles before it stop engined him. So he took it to TA and had them do a DoT inspection and "oh just clear the codes it will be fine" turns out it had a laundry list of problems that make what i had to do to the bullfrog here look like minor maintance. When i talked to the mechanic afterwards he said it failed EVERY SINGLE ITEM on the dot inspection and frankly was good for little more then as scrap due to how rotted the frame and engine were.

This is the kind of planning most people seem to have going into being an O/O with, namely none. This is also why you see so many places saying 8 out of 10 new O/Os go under in the first year. Combine this with so much misinformation about def trucks due to how poorly understood they are leading to many otherwise good units being trashed, the parts shortages and rates, the fact most good pre emissions trucks are now snapped up and all thats left are the ones that make the trucks at that one ohio lot look factory floor room.....and many should be very very VERY careful in their consideration and i would recomend reconsideration of going O/O.

And this is all before you take into account things like riseing costs, new laws like the ####necticut truck tax or proposed bidet pigeard and asterisked to hell infrastructure plan they are trying to shoehorn stuff like massive insurance rate hikes and mileage taxes into, riseing fuel costs, keeping track of the overseas stuff bidet is doing that could effect our cost of operations, parts shortages and a million other little things.

This job is a lot more complex then most people seem to think if you dont want to re-enact dropping the soap in a super max where they just let everyone out of solitary and straight jackets for the first time in 20 years.

 

I just read about this great company called Super Ego. I'm gonna lease from them and get totally rich so I'm all good. And if they don't work out I'll just move on over to Big Cheese.