Will Own My Truck Free and Clear Sept. 8th…advice sought

I remember reading this years ago, not sure if still true or not. But the jist of it was, the price of an air fare is not necessarily lower if the distance is less. What apparently matters is how much competition there is on that route. In other words, if you do decide to fly out there, maybe you don't even need to bother driving out West first? If you ever decide to poke around comparing some fares, I'd be really curious to know if this old theory still holds water.

 

Sorry to hear about your mother, and congratulations on paying off the truck.

There's always Landstar - despite all the BS with them, they have a pretty low bar for revenue each year, I think if you turn a minimum of 50k a year, they leave you alone. My choices 8 years ago were LS,Mercer and Schneider - because I wanted to be able to do nothing if I felt like it, or the market dictated it.

It suits me - I build up an escrow of 4% to pay for tires mainly, but also to clear their 'red file' which is all the weekly charges that accumulate when you're not working. They'll call if it gets up around $2k and you haven't been running.

This year so far, I ran 2 weeks in January, and just set out today, for a week, and that will put 1099 for the year at $40k - so I could theoretically just run another 4 or 5 weeks through the year, and keep them, and myself happy.

If your truck is CA legal - then pick you a load out there when you feel like it, and go on.

Things change a lot when you become debt free in this life and industry - and it's nice to see. Your family and time spent with them should always be prioritized over pounding pavement.

Good luck whatever you choose.

 

The cheapest airfare is nonstop in a high volume lane. Miles aren’t as big of a factor

 

Basic supply and demand for those seats.

 

Right. So do some research and find out the cheapest fares from OC locations......indy, Nashville, Charlotte, Atlanta.....etc
Book a load there, park your stuff, and Uber to the airport.
By the way, I was able to get loads to Phoenix out of Dallas. Only problem was there wasn't jack coming out of Phoenix. Finally found a load to SLC, it was ugly and cheap, but it was an interesting ride.
Congratulations on paying your stuff off. It's a good feeling.

 

Landstar has plenty of work out west….. at least that’s what I read …

 

For two years I'd just stay there if you are happy other than not being able to get west very often. I'd just buy plane tickets as it seems I don't get good opportunities to see family members when I'm near them while working anyway.

 

Yep

When I lived in Atlanta we would drive to Birmingham alabama to fly somewhere because the price was so
Much lower .

Delta buys empty gates at Atlanta so no other airline can compete with them, hence the high price
All the discount airline fares were from
Birmingham.