Where is the money in trucking?

Now that is a different conversation. The medical system in this country is at best broken. In reality closer to 3rd world in my opinion money should not determine the care you receive it should be available for all. Having lived in the UK and Canada I can say though they are also far from perfect they are better than here. Before anyone starts about the waits etc my wife has/had breast cancer we had to wait 45 days before any real treatment started. My kidney stones it took 72 days before I got an operation. The worst part is she works for the facility so strings were being pulled. Never mind the insurance debacle of in networks or out of network we have their insurance yet providers in the hospital were not in network or covered. Including an ambulance ride from one of their facilities to another one. That ambulance company parks at their facilities and has the contact but hey out of network.
For reference when I was a kid in the UK my dad (a Canadian) had a heart attack. Total cost 5 bucks for the phone calls he made. My hernia surgery zero. My birth (a preemie who spent 45 days in hospital) zero.
In regards to the spelling I said I suck also. Grammar never been my strong subject either.

 

I would also say on the insurance the costs to both companies and individuals is stupid. Combined with folks take for granted the insurance is a cost per employee that is less money available to pay. Combined with if you get real sick you as an individual have to pay all the premiums at a point which also means you are probably too sick to work. A vicious circle that honestly drains people at their weakest moments.

 

These two together are right on target, and I'm thankful that I'm now in a line of work that specializes in this type of lane. True, we still have to deal with all the usual DOT bull that everyone else in trucking does (fuel is a BIG one, probably the worst apart from insurance), but because of the service we provide, what I do now is completely disconnected from and thus independent of the freight market at large. Quite the nice lane to ride in...

True that. I've long thought about this quandary and how, if I was an employer, I'd handle this. Mind you, I don't know all the specifics or the tax ramifications, but it seems to me that whatever cost an employer pays to whoever they pay it to to provide health coverage for their employees, it might be smart to simply pay that straight to their employees as part of their salary. I can only go off what I know from when I did 3PL, but the business owner I worked for paid roughly $35/hr for my labor. That was without health coverage. Of that, I saw $18/hr go to my paycheck, so I tried to needle of him where the remaining 12/hr went. I never could get a straight answer (that's also one of the reasons I quit working for/with him). I'm sure I'll dig down this rabbit hole more another day, but today ain't it.

 

Instead of typing out that long rant, I can sum it up quickly.
1. Get a good trade while in school.
2. Get a job and understand that you are at the bottom of the ladder.
3. Have a positive work ethic.
4. Do not get married until you have completed steps 1,2,and3!
5. Do not have children until steps 1 through 4 are completed.
6. Most important,,,,LIVE WITHIN YOUR MEANS!!

 

When I was 22 years old I was living in a barracks with about 20 something others in South Korea. Did I miss something??

 

So you think that those of us who came of age in the 60’s and 70’s didn’t have the same problems??
One advantage we did have is that we weren’t spending good money to watch the idiot box(TV) or pay for cable, internet and other ridiculous things. And by the way, we got along just fine and had a good time too.

 

Go to Schneider

 

Hmmmmm....seems like...the original thread topic here....was maybe something about....where's the $$$$$$$ in the CDL world....???

Let's see....how 'bout....running teams....in either LTL...or hazmat tank?

Any other suggestions? Anyone? Anyone?

--Lual

 

Good advice... especially that last line. I can stretch a dollar from here to Bangor, Maine, but I still live pretty well. So many folks think they HAVE to buy the latest tech devices, buy a brand-new vehicle, buy a home beyond their budget, the whole nine yards. Living in debt is NOT the American Way, better to ditch all the trappings and live within your means. The only new vehicle I ever purchased was a dirt bike, and I still paid cash for that... most of the time I buy a vehicle secondhand, but from one good owner who took care of it, and that generally means an elderly person. I would never buy any vehicle from a kid in his 20s... ain't gonna happen, lol. And don't even get me started on credit cards... WAY too many folks are mired in credit card debt, a pitfall which I managed to avoid by never buying into that whole scene in the first place. You can call me a conscientious objector when it comes to credit cards, lol...

A debit card will suffice, but not a Chinese Walmart debit card, a card from a decent institution like USAA (my one and only "bank"). I tell my nieces & nephews not to buy anything unless they can pay cash for it... a home is different, as a mortgage may be required, but I paid cash for the last three homes I owned (well, I still own this one, lol). The difference was that I bought fixer homes and spent my own time bringing 'em up to speed, since I'm handy with tools... I never pay ANYBODY to do something I can do myself, UNLESS I'm already doing something else and I "farm out" the work. And with so many video tutorials out there in cyberspace, a younger hand really has NO excuse to NOT try and repair something himself (or herself), whether it's swapping out car parts or pulling home rehab work. Just my $.02 on this subject, as repair bills can be heller expensive, lol.

 

As you already know, dry van is a joke because companies can (and do) hire any illegal Mexican to do the job thus keeping wages low. You can’t do that with hazmat since you need a security clearance. You’ve got that figured out correctly.

Finding a place without cameras will be more difficult. I’m +$120K, without cameras hauling crude and have actually looked at buying my own outward facing just to protect myself.

Know plenty of people making that. It’s not as rare as you think it is.