Do you need more freight?

[Tennesseahawk]

Overall, I'd have to agree with Dave. If you have a 22' st like mine, the best place for you is a company. If you can get one or two more trucks together, it may be worth it to start your own authority. If you insist on a one truck operation, I'd recommend something larger than a 24' st. That's the only way you'll come out ahead. You have to have something capable of handling a small semi load, or a couple of st loads at a time, if the opportunity presents itself. Semi loads pay more than $2/mi, and one of those every once in awhile makes it worth the journey.

Now look at a 24'st. You get an average of $1.75/mi for expedited loads. That's only .25/mi more than what I'm currently getting. What is that .25 going towards? Load insurance, time taken to find the load, the price of the loadboards/emails, cost of audits including drug tests, cost of authority. I'm sure there's more.

If you run a tractor you average around $2.15 or so. You could either take a semi expedite load or be lucky and find two st expedite loads. Or, you can take a st load and two ltls. In that scenario, I'd see someone coming out well enough ahead that a decision like that has merit.

Personally, I'm going to make due with the 22', which I'm driving now, and plan on buying. After awhile, I'll get into the truck I've been wanting, which I believe is the ultimate expediting machine... Argosy with a 30' box. That's two trucks. My neighbor has a rig, and he may still want to try his luck in expediting yet. So, I have goals going toward getting my own authority, but it's based on patience. Unless something went terribly wrong at the company I'm with, I won't be doing the authority thing till I've gotten my second truck.

 

[mygroupllc]

I know its a little extra work but you can carry decking in a 24' truck and carry 48' of freight it just takes some extra load bars and sections of plywood.

if your gonna do this get a truck wit swing doors

 

[davekc]

Excellent tip.
We have been doing this as well for some time. In alot of instances we can book loads at tractor rates which justifies the extra effort.






Davekc
owner
21 years
PantherII
EO moderator

 

[Tennesseahawk]

I used to drive a truck locally that had hinged decking front to back. That was a nice setup!

 

[mygroupllc]

hinged decking

now thats interesting explain more please.

you could handle it with just one person? what size plywood did you use?

 

[Tennesseahawk]

One person easily. About midway up each side is half of a floor that swings down and locks together in the middle. Perfect for light skids that can't be stacked. But they also take away about 6-8" in width when folded up, about half way up the box. I would propose some metal rods to slide between the sections to reinforce the lock. Some other minor details like e-track placement and figuring out max weight, and you have yourself another floor.

I've pondered this for my next truck. Maybe even the one I'm in now. I'll let you know if I do it.

 

[mygroupllc]

yes t-hawk please do keep me informed on this. going to try and do this over the next couple weeks while im waiting on the new authority and insurance filings.

I found progressive is now writing commerical truck insurance so I got a qoute from them its only going to cost $1,800 to get it started but it will still take a couple weeks for the new authority.

I have seen some adds for authority in 24 hours have you ever seen this done?

I always just go to safersys.org and fill out the forms onlne myself
and it takes me about 15 days before it shows up as active

do you or anyone know of a quicker way?

 

[Tennesseahawk]

You're talking the government here. Nothing is fast with them. You'll get your numbers within a few hours, but you can do nothing until everything is filed. And usually, that takes a month or more. Anyone who says they can get you rolling sooner LEGALLY is blowing smoke.

Talk to your insurance company about holding off on starting it until the DOT sends you a letter requesting proof of insurance. It'll save you the cost for a month's insurance.

Don't forget to apply for your NY HUT sticker. Without it, you're missing tons of New England freight. Also, check into any intrastate decals you may need if you're wanting to run MI-MI or OH-OH loads.

Finally, check out the roundtable at truck.net, as they have a section for getting your own authority. They will cover anything I've missed.

Good luck!

 

[Tennesseahawk]

My neighbor told me his company used to have trailers with those fold down floors. They stopped using them because they were stacked top heavy. I still think they'd be worth it on loads where you had many lightweight skids.

 

[jaminjim]

You could just carry your own decking in the nose with the load bars. and save some money and width.

 

[Tennesseahawk]

In the end, I think you'd gain more freight with the decking than you'd lose because of the width. If you use load bars, think of how many it would take to make a floor across a 20' box. 2 per 4' comes out to 10. Plus you'd have at least that many cargo straps to secure it. Plus a couple extra bars just in case. If you have a 102" width to begin with, you're not really losing too much. And that's only if the freight is over 3.5' tall and the same width its entire height. I haven't encountered too much freight like that. Also, you're looking at the labor and time it takes to strap each skid down and removing the freight afterwards.

I'm not really arguing for the point or against it. But from what I remember about my old job, I think it has a shot in the expedite market. Would you be more inclined to call about a semi run if you had an available deck at hand? I would.

 

[jaminjim]

I could set the decking on six bars, if I spent some home time setting up the boards, but I would not like to carry all that stuff for two loads a year.

 

[Tennesseahawk]

That makes sense, Jim. But the whole premise of this thread is getting your own freight. With a 28' box, I could expect a couple loads a year if I were running it with a company. If I found my own loads, 1/20 loads might be a t/t rate. With the decking, I could boost that to maybe 1/15. Would it be worth it then?

 

[mygroupllc]

Ive thought about this all night my problem t-hawk is my box is only 96" wide inside so I think im gonna have to stick with traditional decking.

I far as I see I could either cut me a couple small sections of e-trac and mount them on each side at the top in front and put the extra load bars and plywood there or I could try to find me some toolboxes to mount under my box on each side thats about 10'long but then I would be limited to about 24" deep on each side and im not sure if the battery box would be in the way on the drivers side.I will have to measure between my cab and back tandems I guess.

my next question is how do I find out how much weight the side walls will support. bouncing around at 70 mph.

 

[jaminjim]

Anytime you can improve your rate per mile it is a good thing. anytime you can increase your monthlyload count it's a great thing. Just for me thou I would hate the extra work, worry, and the few times the shipper did not know what they have weight wise and I show up and can't get the whole load for one reson or the other. The other thing that was asked as far as wall capacity would have me worried to death. I can hear it now, " Hey Alumi-Bunk what kind of weight can I put on those walls". I know you are saying light loads, and common sense rules that. but at what point does a light load become a heavey load.

A 28 foot box setup to properly do decking with enough truck to do it would be a great asset.

 

[Tennesseahawk]

That's a good question, and one I don't know off hand. I don't think I'd go more than 1000 lbs per section, just speculating here. That would be something to ask whoever puts the deck in... then knock a few hundred pounds off that.

Ideally, I'd have the box built to order. That way, any reinforcements could be put in from the start. I just don't think I could trust any old box with this setup. The box I have now may not cut it. Hmm... now you got me thinkin...

 

[x06col]

We routinely turn our 30 footer into 60, when there is someone in the truck to do it without whining. Once my wife and I were in the valley in Texas and made about 5 pickups and loaded 60 foot of rebuilder shopping carts going to Michigan. The load only paid $2600 but, it was plenty slow down there then. And it sure beat dead heading a hundred miles to go to Oklahoma. I read a couple of wouldn't wannas on this thread. and, all I can say is keep up the don't wanna's, it's ok by me. I wanna!

 

[mygroupllc]

Well I used to run a tractor and did a few decking jobs
mostly trade show stuff so the whole load wasnt over 5-9,000 lbs
but my trailer had logistics post not e-trac.the post up and down and like you said the trailer was original built that way.maybe davekc can answer this weight on decking thing.Was there anything special about your trailers dave?

 

[mygroupllc]

x06col
do you ever run into shippers who dont want to take the extra time to let you deck your truck?

besides decking and blanket wrap services what other things do you do to max your revenue

I dont mind the extra stops,decking and all that cause more money is always better no matter how hard I have to work or how many docks I have to bump.I would even do inside deliveries.

 

[x06col]

I only run into dock boys and girls that don't wanna. When that happens, I go speak with the shipping supervisor. If he/she is lazy also, I go speak with the big boss, and explain I work very hard to move their freight, and, would like some help from them to get 'R' done. I have never had an instance when I visit the big boss that he/she didn't cause assholes and elbows to fly. I still enjoy letting my "Eagles flap" once in a while. To answer your question, we do it all except Canada or HAZMAT, and, we're very, very good at what we do.