What is it like driving a bull wagon?????

Oh, I get what they are talking about. THEY don't want you stopping because of shrinkage. Yeah, that makes sense. On a 600 mile run you can easily loose the weight of two fats just from stress on them during transit. And they must be paying by the hundred weight, vs by the mile. Even if they are paid by the mile, they can get docked for shrinkage.

My husband is an Owner / Operator, so he works for himself. He runs for a broker that finds the loads for him. But he has very strict instructions with the broker, nothing over 600 miles. He will not do what some of the bullhaulers will do for the long miles. He makes sure that he gets his 10 before he takes another load.

 

I'm not going to tell him how to cheat on his logs. He'll learn that soon enough, HOW EVER its funny to see the comments from those that have never hauled cattle.


I can tell you from experience that for the MOST PART almost all of the ranchers do not care in the slightest that you have HOS and weight laws to worry about. All they care about is when their cattle will be delivered. Now working with feedlots that could be a little different, I don't have much experience in hauling for them. I have seen ranchers knowingly load 20,000 to 30,000 lbs over weight and then tell the driver to just go around the scales. I've also seen when a rancher is told that some thing can't be done on the HOS, his comment will be then I'll find some one that will.
There will be massive pressure to run illegal on the logs, and then the dispatch and ranchers will deny all knowledge of the drivers illegal activities. Those that haven't done it can be naive if they want to, it doesn't change the real life reality at the loading chute on the ranch.

Bullhaulerswife's husband is on a little different run than many, with his runs being 550 miles or less, he should be able to make his run and then take the required time off.

 

He said that he has not hauled from any of those ranches. But they aren't far from where we live, so chances are, eventually he will. He has taken some runs into Omaha Beef. But No IBP yet. He used to load at IBP when he was running reefer, so he knows that plant well. LOL

You are so right Brickman. But, you have to remember back when you gave me some great advice, and I passed it on. LOL His broker is fully aware that he will NOT violate any laws for anyone. We even bought the overweight permits, necessary to let him run legal on the interstate. And he has never done a Montana Run. Because those haul all the way back here. As an O/O when you are negotiating, you start at the beginning, letting the broker know what you will and will not do. Some brokers could care less, but this one, lucky for us, will listen and only keeps him legal.

 

We are about 30 miles NW of Omaha.