Where is the best place to call home to be near the frieght lanes?

[garyatk]

My wife and I are looking into getting into the business as a D unit team. We currently live in northern Michgan and are going to wait until we can sell our house and move to where we will be better positioned to take advantage of location. Until then we will be saving our money and try to learn about the business.

We have spent a lot of time the last week or two in this forum and have found it and the people that use it to be very helpful.

We look forward to making many friends and maybe even meeting some of you on the road in the future.

I have a CDL AXT and drove OTR T/T from 1990 to 1992. I currently drive a propane truck. My wife does not have her CDL yet, and we are looking forward to the next chapter in our lives and spending more time together as owner operator expediters in the future.

Thanks for you help!!!

 

[fastman_1]

I would look to live within 30 minutes of a Large City. One Exception would be Detroit, The Freight there seems to have Died off.

 

[RichM]

If you want to stay in the midwest I would consider Chicago Indianapolis St Louis, East coast would be Philadelphia. South ,Atlanta or Nashville. The Texas cities always seem to blow hot and cold.

 

[ATeam]

If you have not already done so, read Introduction to Expediting.

In view of the times, also read post 1 in Expediters Going Hungry, For Real. (You can of course read more if you like, but the thread goes off topic).

The western suburbs of Chicago or Northern New Jersey would be my two choices for being close to the freight. Los Angeles has been a great express center for us, but freight varies from truck to truck (depending on equipment and team credentials) and carrier to carrier. LA is not good for all carriers.

The best place to be to be close to the freight is in the truck. Making yourself at home on the road makes it much easier to orient your life around the freight than making yourself at home at home.

In these days of $4.00+ a gallon fuel prices, the cost of getting back home from where the freight takes you (often far away) is high. If you are expecting to get home often as expediters by locating in a good freight area, that expectation should be reviewed.

The freight takes you in all directions. Good freight areas are easy to get out of. They are not always easy to get back to.

Wishing you the best as you get ready to make your move. Keep reading. Keep asking questions.

 

[arrbsthw]

Don't move to Atlanta.. too many trucks there at all times.

 

[RichM]

You also need to ask yourself,do I want to live in a truck the rest of my life or do I want to have a home to go to and relax and get away from the rigors of the the expediting lifestyle. Probably 90% of EO members prefer to have a home.
The previously mentioned cities have much inbound freight so if you wish to get off the road for a while there is always a good chance that a trip will take you home minimizing any deadhead costs.

I continue to get amazed at people who sell the farm to buy the apartment on wheels and spend the a good portion of their lives in a depreciating asset with weekends spent at the Flying J or Petro etc. Also be very carefull as too who gives you advice and do not make hasty decisions based on one individuals preferences.

 

[LDB]

Map out Nashville to Toledo and Nashville to Cleveland. Along those routes, 65, 71, 75 and fairly near the cities would usually be fairly good. Also around Indy and Joliet and if you want to stay in MI around Grand Rapids and Battle Creek aren't too bad usually. Read back at least one full year in the general, newbies and recruiter forums to get a good foundation in expediting before making any absolute decisions.

 

[garyatk]

Thanks! All great advice! I was actually hoping to get further south like the gulf coast. We would like to be as far south as possible to be close to home in the winter. It sounds like if there is a natural slow time it is in the winter. We are also preparing to stay out 3 to 4 weeks at a time and take a week off if possible. I think we will have plenty of time to learn and sort it all out as I am sure it will be at least a year or two before we can sell our house in Michigan. We also want be to as financially prepared as we can to start our new business debt free. We believe that the advice to work for a fleet owner first is good, and hope that we can locate the write person when the time comes.

Thanks again! It is real nice to meet such nice people here!

 

[redytrk]

The best place to "Call Home"

 

[TeamCaffee]

We moved from SW Kansas to what we thought would be closer to the freight and easier to get home but have found out better. Where ever you live it seems you will very seldom get a load there! And if it is time to go home all load offers will be in the opposite direction.
We sold our house then moved into an apartment with our daughter so we would be free to stay out as long as we wanted. For us this has had great benefits as when we walk out the door of the apartment and we are perfectly at home in our truck. We can stay out as long as we want and love it that way. We tried OTR once and kept our house and land and found that when out on the road we wanted to be home and at home we wanted to be out driving making money. Now we are perfectly content to stay in the truck as long as we want and only go home when we decide to not when the house is calling our name.

We do live in a great area though, when we decide we are ready to leave the house we do not wait long for a load.

 

[TJ959]

I love northern Michigan and I would live there if my wife could stand it. Where you live doesn't really matter very much in this business because you can't make money at home anyway. I live in the Grand Rapids area and I have no trouble getting out. In fact, I have trouble staying home when I want to. Getting back is an other matter. My company doesn't seem to have much freight into Grand Rapids but bunches of freight into the Detroit area which is fairly close.

 

[terryandrene]

I can't think of any lucrative or high expedite activity along the Gulf Coast of Florida. We have never experienced outbound success from nearby the coast in AL or LA. The TX Gulf coast has a fair amount of inbound and outbound freight at Houston and Brownsville, Tx. You'll be near Larado, TX which is an expedite Mecca for auto parts shipped to and from Mexico.

 

[greg334]

First, garyatk welcome to EO.

You know garyatk, here is some really good advice.

I would get moving into this profession by starting to read the forums, specifically the threads that have 'discussions' in them. Phil (Ateam) mentioned one that may be a pain to read but it is worth the trouble - Expediters Going Hungry, For Real Ignore the fluff.

The second thing I say don't even worry about where the freight is coming out of or going in, that is a pain in the a** to learn and everything changes every day. Atlanta can be very good one week but really bad for a month or two - understand? Here is another part of this, do you really want to make another major purchase just for this work? I mean you may get into this and hate it right from the start or there may be something that happens that you have to give it up. I would say a really good idea is to use this chance to travel to find a real place that you like and want to spend the rest of your life at.

The last thing is don't count on this business being here a year or two from now, it may change it may not - the future of trucking is really up in the air because the country is getting more messed up.

By the way which northern michigan are you in?
Hope this helps.

 

[Broompilot]

[You may want to try this. Do not purcahse a home, RENT for a year somwhere example (Ft. Wayne?) than figure out a year from now where do you drive thru ALOT? It might be Nashville, Charlotte, or Ft. Wayne.

Do not put the pressure on yourself to make everything perfect, let the market guide you and give you the choices and education.

Smart question, I like where your comming from in your thoughts thinking ahead.

Someone gave some solid advice about where to live over the weekends. Truck Stops Stink in more than one way. I believe it was Rich? Do not fall in love with your truck as it will never love you back even if you think it will.

 

[dcalien]

I would look to live within 30 minutes of a Large City. One Exception would be Detroit, The Freight there seems to have Died off.

I am new so what do I know? I get loads almost immediately when in the Detroit area.

Also I live in Battle Creek, and I seem to get loads out of that area a little sooner than I had hoped, if that makes sense.

I have a cabin in Northern lower peninsula of Michigan, and was told that was a terrible place to live cause nothing comes out of there. My thinking on it is when I go there, it is not to work, and I don't care if anything is coming out of there or not.

 

[are12]

I think, between Broom and Greg, they have the right idea. Maybe you should consider renting, when you 1st get into this business, and take some time to travel a little to decide which area you like the best.

Me personally, I would love to live in S Carolina or Alabama - they do not get very cold weather and there are some beautiful area's we have been through - off the beaten' path. Jim would like to be out West - only so he could ride more! But for now, we will keep our home in NE PA. It is easy to get a load out but it is very hard to get a load going there. So when we are ready to go home, we just get as close as possible and DH the rest of the way.

 

[jpalmer]

First, garyatk welcome to EO.

You know garyatk, here is some really good advice.

I would get moving into this profession by starting to read the forums, specifically the threads that have 'discussions' in them. Phil (Ateam) mentioned one that may be a pain to read but it is worth the trouble - Expediters Going Hungry, For Real Ignore the fluff.

The second thing I say don't even worry about where the freight is coming out of or going in, that is a pain in the a** to learn and everything changes every day. Atlanta can be very good one week but really bad for a month or two - understand? Here is another part of this, do you really want to make another major purchase just for this work? I mean you may get into this and hate it right from the start or there may be something that happens that you have to give it up. I would say a really good idea is to use this chance to travel to find a real place that you like and want to spend the rest of your life at.

The last thing is don't count on this business being here a year or two from now, it may change it may not - the future of trucking is really up in the air because the country is getting more messed up.

By the way which northern michigan are you in?
Hope this helps.

Im confused here, The future of trucking is up in the air, Things need to be transported, right? Regardless of gas prices. or jobs going overseas. Things need to be transported/delivered......I think trucking is here to stay.....Companies will come and go like any other industry......

JP

 

[ThibodeauxBayou]

Im confused here, The future of trucking is up in the air, Things need to be transported, right? Regardless of gas prices. or jobs going overseas. Things need to be transported/delivered......I think trucking is here to stay.....Companies will come and go like any other industry......

JP

Of course...... things gotta git from point A to point B

Trucking may/will go thru some interesting evolutional changes, but there will always be a need for trucks.......and someone to drive them. The come and go analogy applies to all companies - trucking companies and drivers.

Gonna be real interesting who's left standing , but i'm quite certain there will be plenty of us.

 

[greg334]

Im confused here, The future of trucking is up in the air, Things need to be transported, right? Regardless of gas prices. or jobs going overseas. Things need to be transported/delivered......I think trucking is here to stay.....Companies will come and go like any other industry......

JP

Yes, the future as we know it is changing in context to the question that this thread is about, not in general.

I simply mean that if one is to count on freight lanes remaining as they are to make a major call on where to move, someone has to point out that the general industry is constantly evolving and what we are doing today, may not be there tomorrow.

Many are already are taking freight that does not require to be expedited but needed to be moved by a single truck - it can be there tomorrow, no hurry. Others are using LTL boards to put together loads to make money and companies are diversifying to capture more types of freight to keep up margins.

Does this all make a little more sense?

 

[blackwood666]

I live in West Michigan however, I have no trouble getting out of anywhere except California, some companies can't get loads in some places "face it" I have great luck in Texas, Carolinas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Wisconsin, and I can even get out of Detroit!
Before you panic ask the company you plan to work for I get home when I feel like it however my company is strong in getting loads and I deadhead (paid) probably more than anyone but I make great money even minus the deadhead.
beware of who you work for I get 1000 miles trips almost every week and then get home olften I am hammering almost 2500 plus miles every week and wait one day or two days in Texas and then I am off back North.
I am moving to El Paso soon, hardly any vans there and over the border frieght however patient is the virtue in Texas!
I would move almost anywhere in the Midwest or South except for Atlanta however I get out of there so the number of vans a company has in an area is important also.
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