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Wow, scottm4211, wow! You just brought back a wonderful memory that I have not thought about in a very long time. Bless you, brother. You warmed my heart and brought a smile to my face. We hope and dream and strive and work all our adult lives, but when it comes down to it, there are few...

Not really. Keep the box clean. Lube the wheels and rails every so often. Trailer shops sell spray cans of roll-up door lube. It's good stuff. We have an air hose and nozzle in the back of the truck that taps into the truck's air system. I use it sometimes to blow out the dirt that builds up in...

Which is probably why some fleets find it wise to use nitrogen. Their drivers neglect tires and nitrogen partially compensates for that. That's probably the biggest reason I resist nitrogen. I actually enjoy airing up our tires. Don't ask me why. It's just one of those things. Maybe it goes...

The door was painted when we had the body painted (ghosting of old graphics). The bolts were replaced that hold small part of the door latch (where the padlock goes through) onto the door (rust). Bolts would have been fine if left alone but FedEx wanted bolt heads turned around. We replaced door...

I would buy an ARI sleeper because the one we have now has proven to be very good over six years, as has ARI's service department. Also, ARI survived the Great Recession when at least three custom sleeper manufacturers did not (Double Eagle, Bentz, Alumi-Bunk). If you buy a long-term...

There is no way, ever, that I will take the hand dealt to me if I don't like the hand, and especially if I don't trust the dealer. There are always options. If the game goes bad, or if a better one comes into view, I will change games.

I hope you are happier with your Kidron body as the years go by than we are with ours.

Yes, it's a big secret ... Not. See this FedEx web page.

I would think that insulation would be key in determining roll-up door performance on a reefer truck. A well insulated door would perform better than a poorly insulated one. For the reasons Zorry states, roll-up doors are the way to go. Diane and I were once on a run from New York to...

No need to ask. I knew that, as any trucker could be reasonably expected to know. Every day that I drive and some days that I don't, my log book shows on-duty time for truck inspections and maintenance when applicable. Airing up tires gets logged there. (It does not take long). Mindful that...

$4,000 a week equates to $200,000 a year, which most expediting teams would consider to be an acceptable if not a good number. But the discouraging thing to think about when looking at trucks like this is the fact that $200,000 was considered a good year ten years ago too, and operating costs...

It happened just three times in eight years where we were one of two trucks that were double booked on the same load. At least it was three times that we know about. Lots of loads were canceled without explanation. It may have happened without our knowledge that we were double dispatched on a...

I understand about time savings, but when I am laid over for a weekend or passing time between loads, the time saved equates to no money since none would be made anyway (assuming no other income producing ability). I understand about optimal tire pressure and would add only that in a straight...

59.5 percent? It was 60 percent when we were there and 61 percent for a reefer truck. When did the 59.5 come to be?

OK, nitrogen fans, help me think this through. Diane and I have 10 tires on our truck, so at $5.00 each, it would cost $50 to fill our tires with nitrogen. Say we do so. In what way will the nitrogen-filled tires make that money back and more? I understand about consistent inflation pressure...

With those numbers, and with the contract we had (close), no it would not be a bad-faith offer. Our contract stated that we would receive an exact percentage of the gross pay (and the company had the option to pay more). That number would equate to $1.20 (close), so to offer $1.20 would be good...

I was with that carrier for eight years and am not without insight into its operations. The difference between me and many who remain happy with the carrier in question is that I lost the willingness to accept the new ways of doing business. I lost the ability to play under the new "rules." It...

You just explained in one sentence that you are contracting with a bad-faith carrier. A carrier that can pay $1.60 to the truck and offers $0.80 has abandoned all sense of partnership and is clearly putting its own interests ahead of the contractors, any one of which can be easily replaced.

I once questioned a carrier owner about the driver shortage and capacity constraints it might create. He was unconcerned. "The economy changes but the psychology never changes," he said. When I asked him what he meant by that, he started to explain but cut himself short and changed the subject...

Our sleeper could easily go another ten years if not more, on another truck if not our present one. The very first sleeper ARI ever built is still on the road. Normal wear and tear items would have to be replaced, just as they would on any sleeper that got up in years. In many ways, a sleeper...