Fuel for Thought

Starting Life In A Tin Can

Starting life in a tin can is the title of a book I wrote about starting life as a cargo van expediter. It ended up being more of a pamphlet than a book. If I made the letters large and pages small, I probably could have made it look like a book. After cloning a computer hard drive, rearranging files and reformatting a hard drive, and misplacing only one backup drive, starting life in a tin can only exists as a title. Of all my digital property, I only lost two files—the book draft and a new spreadsheet that consolidated all my driving data into one place. It’s amazing how much time and energy can be invested into a couple measly files.

But all is not lost. The ideas are simple and are ideas I’ve already mentioned a number of times on the forums. This blog gives me a chance to re-consolidate it all in stand-alone topics. No need for a book—it’s all here in the blog. So here is the backbone of everything I have to say about getting started as a cargo van expediter.

I do not advise driving for an owner in a cargo van, because cargo vans don’t make enough money to split between two households. Even for a new driver I do not recommend driving for an owner, because the business isn’t that hard to learn in a van. I try to convince people to start in a used van that they buy with cash. I tell them to sell their personal vehicle and use the proceeds to buy the van. Set up the van with the minimum required accessories. And sign on with a standard, regular-name carrier with the plans of staying at least one year.

Before fleet owners and new van dealerships (or irregular-name carriers) thrash me, please give me a chance to expand on these ideas in following installments. Blog postings titled, Tin Can (…) will be referring to what we started here today.

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