Where do we start

[gambler650]

Okay, I am sure you have heard this all before. But my husband and I are team drivers. We owned our own truck for 6 years. We sold our truck in March of 2008, and have been stay at homers for the last two years.

Besides being bored, we are looking to put some money in the bank.

We live in Idaho and are worried about getting loads to get back towards the house every once in a while.

Expediting sounds like a great opportunity, but we would rather drive for an owner/operator than buy our own truck. So again

What is the first step, I see that some drivers looking for work are "certified" by a specific company.

Thanks
Steve and Judy

 

[Wolfeman68]

Okay, I am sure you have heard this all before. But my husband and I are team drivers. We owned our own truck for 6 years. We sold our truck in March of 2008, and have been stay at homers for the last two years.

Besides being bored, we are looking to put some money in the bank.

We live in Idaho and are worried about getting loads to get back towards the house every once in a while.

Expediting sounds like a great opportunity, but we would rather drive for an owner/operator than buy our own truck. So again

What is the first step, I see that some drivers looking for work are "certified" by a specific company.

Thanks
Steve and Judy

A lot depends on what type of truck you can drive. Straight trucks and tractor trailers are the types that get loads west more often as a team operation.

Idaho is not a hotbed for expedite freight, so there would be some deadhead mileage involved when you want hometime, and when you go back into service. Fleet owners may not want to pay the fuel and will charge it back to you, so factor that into your thinking.

I would start by putting an ad in the EO classified section to see what type of response you get, and I would contact some of the expedite companies and find out what they can offer. You also might check around your area and in the west to see if there are regional carriers looking for drivers.

When you see ads mentioning that a driver is qualified with a company it simply means that they have attended that companies orientation class and cleared any background checks. Since most expedite companies are headquartered in the Midwest, I wouldn't travel from Idaho to say Ohio just to get qualified. I would wait until I had a ride lined up.

Hope this helps, and good luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

[ATeam]

My wife Diane and I are a straight-truck expediter team. We publish our monthly trip maps here. Notice that we only traveled through Idaho just once in 2010 so far and have stopped there zero times. If getting home is important to you, you will have to make plans and a special effort to get there.

 

[Brisco]

We publish our monthly trip maps here.

And here it is the middle of July and us Blog Followers are still waiting for the June map!!

 

[bludragon13]

we've just completed our 2nd run this year to MT.,1 to AB., 2 into ID., Salt Lake City is the nearest board for us ,we sat less then 24hrs, and got loaded to Houston TX.,yesterday. Never been a bad area for us .

 

[greg334]

To be honest, I would think going with a company that will allow you to find a load back near home and help you book it will solve your problems.

I mean say you are with Panther, then you have that opportunity. Say you are in Georgia but need to get back home in 8 days for personal reasons. You don't need to depend on Panther but can get work on your own. You can hit the load boards, hopscotch back home within those 8 days by booking a load from Atlanta to Memphis, Memphis to St Louis, DH to say Kansas city and pick up there going to say Baker City OR and then you can get home from there. Sure it will be less than you would get if the company gets you a load to your front door but it is a good thing not to dh from Atlanta to your home, right?

FedEx doesn't really allow that by the way, E-1 may, I don't know about the others but it is one solution.

Another solution is done by two who drive for FedEx. They have a freind in St Louis where they can park their truck and they have a cheap car sitting there. They use that location as their "home" base and then drive home to Wyoming. The car gets good mileage (30 plus) and they can drive home for a lot less than the truck. The truck location allows them good opportunities to get out of the area quickly and there are places where it is serviced. So who ever you drive for, this may work out great for you. Leaving you car at the owner's place and having that available to you when you need to get back home.

As for maps, this is one single truck who doesn't get all the loads from FedEx. I woudn't put too much credence in what they are saying for a number of reasons. I will say that they have a good thing going but it isn't something everyone can do.