raceman
Veteran Expediter
After seeing the locked thread I thought I would jump in here to try and give my picture of Expediting.
To begin with I think the test that LDB and others refer to is exactly what you should try as a married couple looking into this business. Living in a truck is for very few people. If it works it normally works well and if it does not work it normally ends the business venture and the marriage and I know folks that it did this to.
As for money. I have found it to be very very very good money. I have never made a secret of how great I feel about my decision to be in this business. When I ran team and owned one truck I made more money than at anypoint in my life. The down side is that I had no life. I did no site seeing because we were rolling and when I was not in the drivers seat I was trying to get some sleep in the god awful bouncing sleeper. I did however have an income like nothing I had ever seen. I could not take the lack of sleep and another person in that box any longer. I also lost my girlfriend, could not find a new one and never saw my kids. Never saw the ex wife either and that was a plus. I did make good money.
I then added trucks and even sold two local trucks and had money. Now I had drivers and money and boredom. Then all hell broke loose. Break downs, drivers selling fuel, drivers turning down freight, drivers sitting home and telling me they were on the road and on and on. It just was getting horrible. At this point after a year of $17,000 in repairs and lost income the business did not look so good.
I am now back in one of my trucks and simply driving by myself and am back to making pretty good money but I still have a truck and driver out there that for whatever reason run like mad never stop but there is no income. Where is all the money from that truck going. While I am out driving I think about my other truck and what in the world is happeneing to all the income. I dont know yet but I will and when I do there will be hell to pay.
The bottom line is this is not a picture perfect business and too anyone that has lasted more than a few years they deserve to clean up the pretty pictures. I simply do not think it is possible for anyone in this business to have only a perfect picture. I am sure it does happen but I have yet to meet one person that it has happened to. I think if you get in this business with a truck that never has a problem and you simply do not care about how much good sleep you get, where you shower and who sees you, how much it stinks and how loud it is when you do get to park, what you eat and how much you see others in your life, then you will love this business.
I do love this business and I plan to stay in it a long time but it will be in one truck and at my pace. I figured all that out on my own despite everyone having told me up front. I come from a family that has had a number of trucking businesses and I even have a daughter and son in law in the business. I never listened to any of them and I never listened to anyone else. I learned it my way in my time. I am guessing I lost thousands up on thousands of dollars due to looking only at my pretty picture.
When I am finished squaring everything in my business away and get down to only the one truck and simply do it myself and only as much as I want to do, I think I will be back to making money and enjoying myself. Now that part of this business is a very pretty picture. The bottom line is take your time listen to others good and bad and do this right and you will make good money and you will enjoy it. Very few do both witout problems.
To anyone that wants to know about what can go wrong I will gladly share my stories one on one if asked. To those living pay check to paycheck I once again strongly suggest you listen and learn and take the time to try this on someone elses dime first. I can honestly say if I had not started with a nest egg not only would this have not been a pretty picture but I most likely would not have had a wall left to hang a picture. Be careful do not jump in without all you need to know.
The up side is I love the business and have never for a moment wished I was not in it. You just need to be able to handle the down sides from a finacial standpoint. You also need a lot of knowledge that you have never gotten anywhere else in your life. There is nothing that will prepare you for what goes on out there. Only road vets can teach you this or time out there and if you are going to rely on that, do it on an owners dime not your own.
Raceman
Owner Two Straight Truck.
Part time driver of one of my trucks and local TT.
15mon.OTR Expediting
1 yr local Expediting
Line Haul TT 2mon.
OTR Straight Truck Plt to Plt off and on 5 years.
Based in Cincy Ohio
Currently at Express-1
To begin with I think the test that LDB and others refer to is exactly what you should try as a married couple looking into this business. Living in a truck is for very few people. If it works it normally works well and if it does not work it normally ends the business venture and the marriage and I know folks that it did this to.
As for money. I have found it to be very very very good money. I have never made a secret of how great I feel about my decision to be in this business. When I ran team and owned one truck I made more money than at anypoint in my life. The down side is that I had no life. I did no site seeing because we were rolling and when I was not in the drivers seat I was trying to get some sleep in the god awful bouncing sleeper. I did however have an income like nothing I had ever seen. I could not take the lack of sleep and another person in that box any longer. I also lost my girlfriend, could not find a new one and never saw my kids. Never saw the ex wife either and that was a plus. I did make good money.
I then added trucks and even sold two local trucks and had money. Now I had drivers and money and boredom. Then all hell broke loose. Break downs, drivers selling fuel, drivers turning down freight, drivers sitting home and telling me they were on the road and on and on. It just was getting horrible. At this point after a year of $17,000 in repairs and lost income the business did not look so good.
I am now back in one of my trucks and simply driving by myself and am back to making pretty good money but I still have a truck and driver out there that for whatever reason run like mad never stop but there is no income. Where is all the money from that truck going. While I am out driving I think about my other truck and what in the world is happeneing to all the income. I dont know yet but I will and when I do there will be hell to pay.
The bottom line is this is not a picture perfect business and too anyone that has lasted more than a few years they deserve to clean up the pretty pictures. I simply do not think it is possible for anyone in this business to have only a perfect picture. I am sure it does happen but I have yet to meet one person that it has happened to. I think if you get in this business with a truck that never has a problem and you simply do not care about how much good sleep you get, where you shower and who sees you, how much it stinks and how loud it is when you do get to park, what you eat and how much you see others in your life, then you will love this business.
I do love this business and I plan to stay in it a long time but it will be in one truck and at my pace. I figured all that out on my own despite everyone having told me up front. I come from a family that has had a number of trucking businesses and I even have a daughter and son in law in the business. I never listened to any of them and I never listened to anyone else. I learned it my way in my time. I am guessing I lost thousands up on thousands of dollars due to looking only at my pretty picture.
When I am finished squaring everything in my business away and get down to only the one truck and simply do it myself and only as much as I want to do, I think I will be back to making money and enjoying myself. Now that part of this business is a very pretty picture. The bottom line is take your time listen to others good and bad and do this right and you will make good money and you will enjoy it. Very few do both witout problems.
To anyone that wants to know about what can go wrong I will gladly share my stories one on one if asked. To those living pay check to paycheck I once again strongly suggest you listen and learn and take the time to try this on someone elses dime first. I can honestly say if I had not started with a nest egg not only would this have not been a pretty picture but I most likely would not have had a wall left to hang a picture. Be careful do not jump in without all you need to know.
The up side is I love the business and have never for a moment wished I was not in it. You just need to be able to handle the down sides from a finacial standpoint. You also need a lot of knowledge that you have never gotten anywhere else in your life. There is nothing that will prepare you for what goes on out there. Only road vets can teach you this or time out there and if you are going to rely on that, do it on an owners dime not your own.
Raceman
Owner Two Straight Truck.
Part time driver of one of my trucks and local TT.
15mon.OTR Expediting
1 yr local Expediting
Line Haul TT 2mon.
OTR Straight Truck Plt to Plt off and on 5 years.
Based in Cincy Ohio
Currently at Express-1
