Comments By John C.

Old School, Thanks for sharing your blog. It's a fun, interesting and inspiring read! Great tips!

This thread has made me curious about how it relates to repair and maintenance.

But first, an newbee perspective: Both leased and company owned trucks break down at roughly the same rate. As a company driver, the company is responsible for all repairs and maintenance. The company compensates your down time...to some degree, and gets you another truck if you need it. As a L/O, the driver is responsible for all repairs and maintenance, right? And when your truck is down, the company does not compensate your down time, or give you a another truck. Just based on that, the whole L/O or company driver question seems like a no brainer for a rookie. To be successful, you'd have to find a way to reduce the the risk of lost income, or the potential for it to outweigh the extra pay per mile is too high. A dedicated savings account for the purpose of covering a year of "worst case" repair costs might do it.

A few questions:

What is the cost of maintenance per year on a Semi? I assume it increases as you get closer to the end of a lease.

Can a L/O buy a service contract to cover all repairs and maintenance? How much would that cost per year?

How much does it cost if you blow a tire?

How about the cost of replacing worn breaks, and how often?

What about a medium level of damage like what happened to Rainy's truck when it got towed.

What if you blow an engine or tranny under circumstances that's not covered under warranty? What does that cost?

How much does a tow cost?

And what happens to your trailer if a L/O vehicle goes down. Does the company send another driver to take your load?

Sorry for so many!

Thanks!

Sorry, no video that I know of. I suppose the driver or I might have caused someone to upload a FB rant post...I'll never know. I'm just a CAD geek, and can't be mistaken for "viral" video material.

I just checked, google maps is out of date. They added a a cement medium strip to Descanso less than two years ago. You have to go around the block and drive straight through, but the driver would not have known that, even if he checked. (I'm guessing out of date road info has to be pretty high on the list of frustrating things for a trucker.)

Here's a link to the outdated image of the intersection if anyone is interested. Right turn, Rancho Santa Fe to Descanso, coming from the 78 freeway.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/112+S+Rancho+Santa+Fe+Rd,+San+Marcos,+CA+92078/@33.1493888,-117.1998775,313m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x80dc751364523eeb:0x5355d3f91b06584!8m2!3d33.149533!4d-117.199038

Congrats!

He tried to make a right hand turn where he should not have. Proper trip planning would have told him to make 3 lefts, going around the block. I saw his predicament before he made the turn and knew he was in trouble. I carry a safety vest in my van, so I put it on and got out and played traffic cop for a couple of minutes guiding him back out while keeping the ****ed off commuters at bay. I was called some wonderful names and flipped off more than once, but I accomplished the mission and sent him on his way...all the while wishing I was driving instead of assisting. I guess I'm getting some trip planning lessons a couple of months before CDL school, thanks to you guys!

Safe travels folks!

Congrats Tractor Man!

Moving those cases will get you in great shape...just don't drink too much of your cargo!

Always nice to have a Computer Geek in the crowd. Sometimes I have a hard enough time OPENING a PDF file, Let alone CREATING one! Thanks for the effort

You're welcome Tractor Man. Look at it this way: I'm on a trucking forum, and don't have a clue how to drive a truck!

I put this awesome thread into a PDF to make it easier to study. The link to the Dropbox file is below. Warning: It's a pretty big file, 91 pages long with large photos. I set it up with one subject per page, and room on the right side of the page for notes.

Brett is going to put it on the Pre-Trip Inspection Study Guide page, but this link should stay active.

All credit goes to Daniel B., I just formatted it for us.

Pre-Trip Inspection - My way PDF

I forgot to check this thread...

Thanks for the info Brett. Good to know. Another helpful article! The resources you have here are some of the best I've found, in any field.

Thanks Jeremy B., I appreciate the response. Sounds like you're on a roll, I could get into a rhythm like that!

Check out this recent thread. https://www.truckingtruth.com/truckers-forum/Topic-18162/Page-1/first-year-pay-totals

Awesome advice Fatsquatch, Cwc, G-Town, Old School, and Errol V.; I didn't ask the question, but sure glad someone did. I've copied and pasted your responses into my notes for future snow & ice reference.

Dido on the copy and paste. Great topic. Thanks for the question and answers!

Another very helpful podcast. Thanks Brett for the realistic viewpoint and great tips!

Thanks for the encouraging stories!

I've had my share of failures and set backs lately, including today. So I went hiking this afternoon even though it was real windy here in San Diego. I stood at the top of a hill looking down on a nursery. Most of the young potted palm trees in the nursery had blown over.

The thought occurred to me how strong the wind was in my face, but I was still standing.

Jeremy B,

Yellow shield or glasses will help for bright lights at night.

You need to oppose the green with an eye shield (glasses?) that's red. Amber or rose should also help, but red is the opposite of green.

That's the color/physics answer. I'm not a driver yet, so maybe there's a different professional answer.

Thanks Jeremy.

This is really helpful, but if you guys don't mind, I have a couple of questions. It would really help to be able to relate pay to miles driven and to time worked.

So how many mile do you drive to hit these numbers ? How many hours do you actually work in a week?

I know this is a lifestyle, so the hours are different from (and more than) a regular job. However, I've worked for myself for a long time. I'm use to working my butt off massive hours each week, just to try to get a good billable week.

Thanks!

Thanks again Oldschool, I have a one long term client that I'm sure will write a letter verifying that I've done work for them consistently over the years. I'll have to see if I can ask any others. Could be hard though, most of my clients have been inventors that are wannabe start-ups. The failure rate of first time inventors is extremely high due to not getting funded, so the clients disappear.

Thanks Miss M, Just watched your video showing the inside of your lightweight. Pretty cool setup!

Thanks for the fast reply Oldschool! I appreciate you guys taking the time to set me straight!

That single link application is a great idea.

Yes, I've filed and payed taxes on the freelance work every year. That's a relief, Thanks!