Thanks for the advice. I did go to the ER 2 weeks later. I already scheduled a stress test (doctors very persistant request). See what happens there. Im not really gonna get all worked up about it until after the results. I can tell you all one thing and I dont care who believes me and who thinks Ive lost my marbels but... I always try to feel out the market and get hands on experience before embarking into something larger (more than 1 truck in this case). I bought a 48 Flatbed trailer and tractor and leased on with a small company who had a bunch of O/O pulling for them with Nice looking long hood rides that belonged on the cover of Large Car Mag (more than a few were in that mag over the last three years). Figured If they can afford the rides then the pay is good, right? Well Ill tell you right now the pay was good, **** GOOD! Heck, I paid off that piece of equipment @ $70K and paid all my personal bills and living expense for me and my family (Repairs, maintenance, House payment, 3 vehicle payments, Ins. on everything, etc, etc, etc. + my wife stays at home with the kids) and after all that I was still able to put $60K in the bank after only 10 months. For those of you that think I was gone for 10 months let me stop you right there. I was home every weekend. Once in a while I would get ambitious and leave on Sunday evening so I could get a little sleep that week but usually left Monday 2am. and home by Friday 8pm at the latest. Like I said some of you guys will believe me but most of you will laugh and roll your eyes. Honestly, I dont really care. But I am writing this to address the last few posts. You dont have to kill yourself to make a living. But, If you want to make a killing you gonna have to run 18 hours a day. I never fell asleep driving but came darn close. There were so many times I pulled off on the shoulder of the road or a ramp with four way flashers on, and got an hour of sleep just to wake up enough to make it to my stop for the morning. My dispatcher never required me or any other O/O to run that hard but the money was up for grabs if you wanted the $4+ mile loads that had to go 1200 miles in 18 hours or 1600 miles in 36 hours. It got the point where it didnt even matter if I was home for the weekend or not because when I got home I slept until I had to get up and go back to the truck. Then it was balls out with about 10 hours sleep over the next five days. I started my log book and thats where it stayed until the end of the week. I never got checked at a scale and if I heard they were looking I just blew past and no one ever came after me (only did it about 10 times). Red bull and coffee didnt do a thing just made the crash harder. After 10 months I am all washed up with that 24 hour service stuff. Now if I was running legal you could take that income and slash 70% of it right off the bat!!!!!! Im not saying that you should run legal or illegal but just putting in my opinion. I done it and to be honest after 10 months I can honestly tell you that even as good as the $$$ motivated me I cant hack it and I can tell you now I will not do it again. Fortunately I have a fleet of straight trucks that I could fall back on (this was just a trial test more or less). Most of you out here in the straight truck world know as well as I (more so the local guys/gals) that putting an 18 hour day in here and there isnt that bad. As for me I do "alot" of local work, mostly ranging from 15 - 100 mile radious so my drivers or myself are outside moving around loading, unloading, etc just as much as driving and it keeps us awake. Unfortunately, I have been seeing an alarming number of red bull, moster, amp, etc. energy drink cans in the dumpster at my shop and Im not really sure what to do about. If anyone has any ideas of how I can get my drivers to stop drinking this junk without crossing any lines then please, let me know what you think.
