What is your "below dignity" or insult rate?

That’s my problem now, worse than ever. My brain literally gets stuck in the planning phase. Trying to work smarter as I get older. I’ve got lots of plans, not much desire to start, Lol. It’s better sometimes to just get started, and deal with any problems as they arise. I put new seats in finally. 4 hr job took 36 hrs. Lol. Still glad I got them though. My back, and ability to walk has improved already.

 

It’s all about your total set up. Multiple income streams makes these rate an “ehhh” situation. My wife’s income plus stock market lets me work 1-3 days a week. Today I’m deadhead from Haslet to big springs (partial pu) then back track to sweet water cotton warehouse for the other half. Then back home, $1,150 net on the day. Third day of work this week. Monday I’ll net $1,800 on the day doing a cotton pu in Lubbock then back to Haslet. I like to set the truck income to weekly and the rest monthly.

 

Well, if you have cash in the bank and can wait an undetermined amount of time for better rates (2 months or 2 years) air enough, certainly you should never run below cost, but i argue a few things.

1. If you arent being otherwise useful (to yourself or others) i fail to see the point in sitting. Leisure is all well and good, but theres a limit, and if not atrophying, your driving skills are at least not going to be quite as sharp

2. If you still pay insurance etc, why deplete reserves as opposed to at least making enough to cover actual existing costs?

3. By sitting you slow or stop cashflow and as we all know cashflow can be quite hard to establish, but once there, you're reinforcing your brains reward center by seeing work in to cash out (see both 1 and 2 as well for this)

4. By refusing all runs, youre depriving yourself of data points and the experience of how bad the bad times are, maybe you just do 2 runs a week, best you can, one out, one back, but you will be able to point to data and remember the REAL times things sucked in the market and be better informed on the real causal factors for things rather than the bs people make up to explain why things tanked. There are long coat-tails as well as catastrophic occurences that lead to the cycles in trucking. The "news" only reports the catastrophic stuff. (Case in point, $/gal diesel was made out to be putins fault this year, but looking at your purchases 2020 through 2022, you already KNEW 2022 was going to be rough on fuel because it was going up in end of 2021 and never dipped, clearly ukraine didnt help, but it wasnt causal)

 

I paused on response to your reply, but had to respond to your direct reply.

Managed to answer 2 phone calls today, forced my conversation. I think I pulled it off.

Get mired down. Debt free and a lack of need to work is a double edged sword, and I was warned of it.

You’re right - better to get started than stay on the porch.

I felt the dark clouds approaching a day or two ago and should have acted quicker. A cloudy day or two, and you’re in the funk you knew you could have avoided.

Everything is fine, yet nothing is good. First world problems.

 

How many cold beverages of choice tho?

Seats can make a huge difference
I have the Maximizer not cheap but I have zero issues
Had a $800 seat before. After a couple hours I’d be tossing and turning

 

Agreed
I think Mercer had a column once about daily expenses
If you need say $400 per day to break even, then sitting in a bad area an extra day or two now would require you to need $8-1200 to break even

I won’t run for fuel or costs either
I told an agent once who said he would get fuel money to bounce 500 miles
How about you work Fridays for free but I’ll pay $20 for your fuel
He said I was the only person to explain it to him like that

 

I’ve been hauling containers for 3 weeks. I have no shame

 

I have parked my truck a lot in the past 12 years of running one. I've done it for months on end multiple times. Usually for about 3 months at a time but once as much as 8 months off. Driving a truck is like riding a bicycle and I didn't forget how. I never regret taking any of that time to just enjoy life but I do regret not at least covering my cost when I did so.

I could work a couple or maybe 3 days in a given week in typical times and cover my truck and household needs without bleeding cash. If you're burning your cash you're going backwards just the same as if you were running lots of freight below cost. 3 days on and 4 days off ain't the worst gig. Lots of drivers would like that if they were able to. I just get a little too comfortable not climbing back into that cab sometimes.

 

I didnt say you forget, but i guarantee you werent as sharp day 1 back out after 8 months as you were when you parked

Equally i said below cost is not a recomendation.

My dad described both cashflow and workflow as an old flywheel (for ironworkers/pressbrakes etc) they ramp up very slowly but then take not much input to keep going. Other people call it a "virtuous cycle"

 

containers aren’t bad like everyone thinks. Especially now that TRAC has been switching to radials.