When to take the plunge....

A new cascadia is probably about 140 out the door. Spend another 10 and get a western star.

 

With 55K and you and your wife driving as a team, you're better off than most of those who tried and still succeeded at least in the aspect of improving their income. You can afford a decent downpayment and excluding your wife, the loan to buy a truck should not be a problem, plus a nice money reserve if something goes wrong .I can't see you fail; all carriers welcome teams, with ELDs imminent you'd be in a great position to make good $$$ too. And not to experiment too much it is a good idea to sign up with Mercer or Landstar at first. Good potential to even double you current pay.

 

What?

 

Whew well not sure why your in the business..... That means you will be cherry picking loads you may want to get your own Authority. I am assuming any company you lease to will want you too run miles. I am not saying it cant be done...... A used truck with a good warranty would be a good alternative. Another ting I would start shopping for Loans and look outside trucking company's.. Credit unions or banks

 

What do people mean by "cherry picking loads"? I see that term thrown around in here quiet often as if in derogatory tones like someone doesn't want to work or something.

The whole idea of running a trucking business is to run as many profitable loads as often as you can. Being that those are few and far between with most typical freight and the fact that sharks are happy to grind you into a pulp working for nothing you #### well better be cherry picking. Or you will go broke for sure.

I was reading some comments in the refrigerated section where some company driver was talking about, and documented a typical week, where he was losing about 8 to 10 hours on every load he was dispatched on.

I thank my lucky stars I don't have some dispatcher shoveling that #### my way. I discuss load details on every load I book and look specificly for loads I know I can pickup and deliver on time. If they are "work in - missed appt" I reject them out of hand no matter what. Products and commodities known to be a waste of time where the shippers, receivers, and brokers pushing this garbage are known to be cheap and time wasters, I reject these.

Is that cherry picking? I think it is the only way to pick loads. Once in a while I pick a bad one but more often than not I am not losing wasted time on crappy loads through my system... ...of cherry picking.

 

Rollin Coal it means what it means meaning you have to pick your loads be conservative. Only choose loads you can be profitable with. I don't think its negative at all.