Looking to get back into the business

[tseders93]

I got my CDL with a big company in April 2015 and got into an accident in November 2015. After being let go I went to Panther (Jan 2016 - June 2016) and ran for a great fleet owner that didn't bother me. I took my loads, got the truck serviced, etc... with no issues. Things were going great as far as the relationship goes. However, I didn't know how to play panther's games with getting consistent or long freight. So i left. Went to work for an Outlaw company (June 2016 - October 2016) and got a speeding ticket and a "failure to obey a traffic device" ticket (dry van I was pulling was 13'7 and tried going through the 13'6 bridge tunnel on WB 64 in Chesapeake VA). Left that company when they had their Authority pulled. Then (October 2016 - August 2018) I went to a seemingly great company based in LaVergne TN pulling a dry van again. Was going well but despite being on time and running most of our great routes I was getting stuck with mileage I would have considered great at Panther.

TL;DR - looking to get back into expedite with a few tickets that have been holding me back from being hired on locally.

Edited: added dates and fixed some grammar

 

[BigStickJr]

If the company in LaVergne hired you with that crap, you may want to beg your way back in until the tickets drop off.
If you’re unemployable you shouldn’t voluntarily become unemployed.
Also, in this day and age, there’s no reason to leave one company until you feel you’re good at your next company.

 

[Truckster1036]

Track record of crap...what else can you say.

 

[Andyinchville1]

I'm looking to take on a driver running regional OTR (home once or twice a week / most weekends off).

We run 26' straight trucks with lift gates....non CDL / no sleeper (since you are a Class A driver we could look into a sleeper truck since most non CDL with 26' box are on sleeper (BUT with the required 26' box I'm wondering if a regular big truck / big sleeper would stay under the 40' max length for a straight)....details...details...

Anyways,

What kind of miles / pay were you looking for ?

What kinds of perks / benefits did you get before ?

What was the situation behind the accident ? .....Worse thing I could see was the tall truck in a low tunnel .....did the roof come off on that ?

I'm not a big co (mostly we work local trucks / cars / vans) BUT we started our first OTR straight truck this past Monday and still learning that side of trucking now so your insights and info from what the big boys pay and do would be helpful so I can see what I need to do / offer....

Here's to possibly working together and beating the big boys at their own game !

Andrew

PS - where are you located ?

 

[C&J]

Are you trying to under cut the "so called" big boys.... cuz that is a losing mentality and a losing game.

Also...OVER THE ROAD ( OTR ) is not regional work nor home 1-2 nights a week with weekends off....

 

[Andyinchville1]

Are you trying to under cut the "so called" big boys.... cuz that is a losing mentality and a losing game.

Also...OVER THE ROAD ( OTR ) is not regional work nor home 1-2 nights a week with weekends off....

I'm not sure if we are in fact undercutting (maybe they are grossly over paid so undercutting them only means we are overpaid?) the big boys BUT our agent / broker / pimp does what he can to get us to gross $5K per week with weekends mostly off and home once or twice a week

I have no idea if that is a good number or not to gross but it seems to leave money to pay for fuel, insurance, hotels, the driver, truck rental, the broker / agents , taxes etc and still leave some money for me ;-)

 

[Ragman]

Are you trying to under cut the "so called" big boys.... cuz that is a losing mentality and a losing game.

Also...OVER THE ROAD ( OTR ) is not regional work nor home 1-2 nights a week with weekends off....

I'm not sure if we are in fact undercutting (maybe they are grossly over paid so undercutting them only means we are overpaid?) the big boys BUT our agent / broker / pimp does what he can to get us to gross $5K per week with weekends mostly off and home once or twice a week

I have no idea if that is a good number or not to gross but it seems to leave money to pay for fuel, insurance, hotels, the driver, truck rental, the broker / agents , taxes etc and still leave some money for me ;-)

Let's face it, he built a better mousetrap.

 

[C&J]

Soooo, are you grossing 5k per each unit? Even a Car and a van? And your "local" trucks are taking breaks at a hotel? And you are renting these trucks???....what type of trucks?
Help me understand your biz model.....cuz I'd love to put a car to work for 5k gross!

I'm a bit surprised that you don't know or have "no idea" if 5k gross is good or bad.

Heck, I've got a Saturn Vue that I'll drive for 5K if you are putting me up in a hotel 3 nights a week, home 2 days, AND weekends off..... SIGN ME UP! I'm ready
I'll even accept 40% in your 5K grossing company car, if you are putting me up in hotels when I'm out. Warm bed and hot showers every day, no scales, no DOT, no logs..... I'm in. Or a van.... I'm not picky.

 

[Andyinchville1]

Soooo, are you grossing 5k per each unit? Even a Car and a van? And your "local" trucks are taking breaks at a hotel? And you are renting these trucks???....what type of trucks?
Help me understand your biz model.....cuz I'd love to put a car to work for 5k gross!

I'm a bit surprised that you don't know or have "no idea" if 5k gross is good or bad.

Heck, I've got a Saturn Vue that I'll drive for 5K if you are putting me up in a hotel 3 nights a week, home 2 days, AND weekends off..... SIGN ME UP! I'm ready
I'll even accept 40% in your 5K grossing company car, if you are putting me up in hotels when I'm out. Warm bed and hot showers every day, no scales, no DOT, no logs..... I'm in. Or a van.... I'm not picky.

I run local cars / mini vans (your own) .... typically I typically pay .85 per loaded mile or by the day depending on the contract....mostly small items like UPS expedited / lost luggage / medical trays... we don't gross $5K per week on these ...the 5K per week gross is the OTR trucks

For local box trucks 26' non cdl I typically do overnight Amazon freight , UPS Air freight , Lowe's home Deliveries, Pier 1 deliveries etc...typically these gross about $450 per day up to 7 days per week scheduled depending on route.

The local box trucks don't make as much (in theory due to lower pay , fees out for damages, lower work volume) as the non hard core OTR (I say non hard core because we get home weekends and once or twice a week) .

The OTR box trucks are leased trucks non CDL, non sleeper, 26' units with lift gates. We lease them for about $75 per day with 1000 free miles per week after that 11 cents per mile or use our own locl trucks pushed into OTR service BUT that makes me a little nervous (breakdowns etc not as easy to handle as simply calling the lease co).

OTR we sleep in cheap hotels / the truck / air BNB etc...

Our broker / agents / companies books us for about $5K per week but the last 2 weeks were filled with issues so our actual runs have been less (delays by accidents / run ins with the man each conspired to break up our back to back pre scheduled runs....once a link is broken the remaining runs have to be rebooked with other carriers so the shipper gets their stuff moved and the broker / agent / company doesn't look bad.

Driver is paid a flat rate per day or % of the freight .... driver pays for food / hotels and indirectly for the lease truck / insurance.

OTR for us is more profitable hence why I'm looking for more drivers.... Trucks / insurance is easy...already set up .... the broker / agent / companies are looking for more trucks hence my CL ads for drivers....

If anybody is interested in OTR lite you can PM me .... I want more drivers (if you have your own vehicle that's OK too ... ideally they should know log books etc)...

If we can get 15 drivers / trucks we can get a big Uhaul contract .....

 

[BigStickJr]

Andy, are you running ads here for drivers?
I didn’t find it .

 

[ucfd608]

Hey stick I am wondering if I get that freightliner if Andy can keep me busy

 

[Andyinchville1]

HI,

Actually I was running ads in the Richmond Craigslist ....

I had not actually run ads here but probably should look into it.

 

[Andyinchville1]

Hey stick I am wondering if I get that freightliner if Andy can keep me busy

Truthfully, I'd have to figure out a reasonable pay schedule for OO since most of the people I get just use my trucks or we lease them and get a driver into one...OTR is easiest for me since runs are long and the dispatcher handles most of the stuff ...

If you are willing to relocate near the Richmond area we can put you in a truck doing Lowe's deliveries with a helper...home every night (i guess that's a selling point for many people) and if you can make $150 + tips per day as a driver (we provide the truck).

I can probably still get the $300 / day run with UPS since we still do truck #2 with them (Truck #1 is best with a Richmond driver since it would save about 3 hours per day and 150 miles since we are not based right in Richmond...the $300 rate is O/O ....if you live in Richmond and use our truck I can pay about $145 per day for that run (truck #1 is about 10 hours per day).... Monday - Friday gig

 

[BigStickJr]

Hey stick I am wondering if I get that freightliner if Andy can keep me busy

Save your $$$.
He can keep you busy as a driver.
Or Mechanic.
Or Accident Investigator.

 

[ucfd608]

Save your $$$.
He can keep you busy as a driver.
Or Mechanic.
Or Accident Investigator.

It seems that way don’t it there is a job for all of us with him