Josh Sorry to hear about your dog, without question they're our best companions on and off the road.
Here's mine. She's a Black Russian Terrier.
Adorable, I can't seem to post pics of mine at the moment. Picture is too large I think.
Today has been very drawn out for what it should have been. Another small load that ended in Ohio. Should have made it here hours ago but there was a few snags at the shipper.
First being, we got there at our scheduled pickup time of 0700, freight wasn't ready and the guy there was super rude. The building had no signs directing you where to go, so I just found a door and flagged down some guy on a forklift. I said "I'm here to pickup but I am unsure of where to go, Could you point me in the right direction?" He got super pissy and said "well, what are you picking up" I showed him my clipboard and said "fedex gives us a very generic description, just says machinery" He points to the box that has the destination address and says "It's right here if you'd just open your eyes and look" ......Ok, kind sir, I was unaware the destination address was the answer to your "what are you picking up" question. I was tired, grumpy, and nothing but polite to him, as I am to every single person I encounter. I don't need your
ass tone.
Second, the freight wasn't ready until 10:00, once we finally got into the dock door, our 7 piece 4400lb load turned into a 17 piece 14,000lb load. I explained that our weight was different and that we could not take that much and we had to call fedex. They said ok. While the wife was outside on the phone the guy comes up to me and says we're calling fedex to change the weight. I explained to him again, we cannot take that much weight. He explained to me in his "I'm superior to you voice" the truck can handle it. Oh it can? Yes, it'll be just fine. I then very simply said "look, I'm not going to argue with you, but I will tell you the most I'm taking from here is 7,000lbs, I will hit the scale on the way out and if its 7001 ill turn right back around to grace you with my presence." He seemed irritated, I don't care. Ending weight ended up being 6500lbs.
Just so everyone knows where our truck stands weight wise. We have a single rear axle, and our truck has a max of 33,000lbs gross. Our empty weight is right at 25000lbs, leaves us 8,000lbs capacity, I subtract 1,000lbs for leeway. Fedex is aware of this.
Also, I know the internet doesn't show moods very well, and it may sound like I complain a lot. It's not meant to come off that way, just want to convey to any new comers the stuff you'll run into.
On a more positive note. I received an email from expediter services the other day. Apparently they thought the wife and I were enrolled in the path to ownership program. Not sure exactly what that means, but we were invited to attend a gathering they apparently have every year. I guess its geared towards people that have the desire to be owner operators. Now, I know I have said I had no desire to own our own truck. But I guess I'm not %100 against it at the moment either. Either way I have some questions that I haven't been able to get answered through my re search and I know I'll get them answered there. Its a two day gathering and expediters pays for your hotel and food, pretty much everything. So why not? They told us to get as close to Mississippi as possible and they'll pay for the fuel if we need to deadhead the rest of the way.
While we're on the subject.. I did some math, Keep in mind, I'm not awesome with numbers and these are done roughly. Also, if we could keep the "omgzz your not making any monies!!!!!" comments out, that'd be great.
- Year to date, our truck has generated $55,562 in revenue
- $19,097 of that is ours
- $36,465 of that has gone to expediters.
- We have driven a total of 39,880 miles year to date. Assuming our truck gets the 10mpg the dashboard says it does, that's 3,988 gallons of fuel. If diesel is $3 a gallon the truck has consumed $11,964 in fuel.
If I'm adding all this correctly, minus fuel costs, expediters has made $24,501. If we owned the truck we'd essentially be doubling our income. An extra $6,000 a month at our current rate. Is it worth it? With the numbers in front of more experienced people than myself what would you do in my situation?
Truck payment, insurance, maintenance allowance, licensing, taxes.. Is anyone able to narrow down what their truck owning costs are a month? So far, the taxes question is one I don't yet understand. I keep hearing random rumors that the food deduction is gonna get taken away among other things. Any insight from anyone?
