Posted: 1 week, 3 days ago
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Advice on financing tractor trailer for my son....
Reading your post I’m kinda confussed. Did a company he pulled frieght for screw him or a customer, or broker?
Does he have his own authority or is he leased onto another company?? Is he leasing the truck also or did he purchase it.
If he has a Mac trailer I’m guessing it is a flatbed. And a very nice, but expensive one. They also make ag trailers.
Flatbed rates have been in the toliet along with other types and things have been this way the past 2 years. That said if he got his own authority a year ago, that was a bad move from the start.
There are a ton of other questions/potential issues with the situation depending on his exact business model at this time.
I just rented a awesome stepdeck trailer for a specific job and a monthly rental was only 1500 a month.
2300 for a truck payment is steep and its probably a 15-19 yr model as a guess.
I had an expensive repair when I lost a turbo and other parts as a result of the turbo failure. I was down 1 week.
2 months to repair anything is ridiclious. Sounds like either a really major repair and parts were unavailable or some other factors keeping the truck down that long. There have been alot of parts shortages for the last 3-4 years.
I have to agree your son needs to turn the trailer in and sell the truck. We are likely looking at a minimum of 2 more quarters before we see any relief. Capacity is still way to high, resulting in rates staying low.
During the pandimic rates were abnormally raised and alot of people purchased their own trucks/trailers and had high payments. Also paid too much for the equipment. When rates went into freefall and fuel skyrockted there business was unsustainable.
Anyone pulling strictly broker freight, will go broke. You need your own customers for outbound loads from home, then use brokered loads to get back, rinse and repeat.
Without some specific info I can’t give you much more advise at this point. If you have some directed specific questions ask and we’ll see where that goes.
As an O/O I do feel for your sons situation.
Posted: 2 weeks, 1 day ago
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Some of the mega carriers have started letting select owner operators run power only loads for them. The O/O is not leased onto the company. The company pays percentage of the linehaul and what ever else the contract states. Generally from what I know of a couple of them it is no better than leasing onto them or using a broker. They have apps for loads and tracking.
Posted: 2 weeks, 1 day ago
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Yeah I didn’t understand that statement either.
Also not sure why he needed a complete engine and trans after 10 years. My trans is fine and another couple years an inframe should do the trick.
Posted: 2 weeks, 2 days ago
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You have to get out and meet folks and talk to them. Convince them why you are the best choice for them to work with.
I have picked up a couple new clients through word of mouth. Best advertising thete is, is a happy customer.
Posted: 2 weeks, 2 days ago
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Non DOT drivers put on the Road
Justin I have read your posts a few times and still a little confussed what you mean when you say you have to register with DOT.
I own my own company with a for hire DOT authorization. I have never had to register any driver with DOT. I only have to report how many drivers I have.
As far as drug testing goes that is through the drug clearing house. I am required to run drivers through it to ensure they are not prohibited.
The company has to belong to a drug/alcohol consortimum and names are provided to them. They are not DOT or FMCSA. They are the ones who take care of the clearinghouse stuff and also do the random’s.
It may be your company belongs to a very small consortium is why you come up so often. Random’s are always luck of the draw.
I don’t understand how you would have any knowledge of if your boss is following the rules or not on some drivers because those are personnel matters that should not be shared with anyone not in management of the company and the effected employee.
As far as smelling weed on another employee. You have a duty to report that to a supervisor on the spot. Then it is the supervisor’s responsibility to do something about it.
Posted: 2 weeks, 2 days ago
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The climbing ability could be a couple different issues. If it has a dd13 it won’t climb for beans. Also depends on the gearing.
I haven’t driven anything newer than a 15 year model so I don’t know how bad the manufacturers have screwed up performance.
Be careful during your new truck learning curve!!
Posted: 2 weeks, 2 days ago
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The biggest thing you will likely figure out is it doesn’t turn as well as the Volvo did. We had a white Volvo for a couple years. They aren’t all that bad.
Posted: 2 weeks, 5 days ago
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Retired Trucker Looking for Advice
I would add how long they have known you, and they have personal knowledge since retiring you have lived within the USA.
Posted: 2 weeks, 5 days ago
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Retired Trucker Looking for Advice
I also was retired for 1 yr and the notirized letters was all it took to check the box off.
Posted: 1 week, 2 days ago
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Begining the process of becoming a Truck driver.
Welcome,
We are the same age. I do flatbed but I don’t do tarp loads. I can, but slow at it. TMC pulls alot of tarped loads.
Companies are all different when it comes to your particular issues. All you can do is apply everywhere and see who is willing to give you a shot. You can do it now and see what the results are.
When you find a company willing to accept you be upfront on your time frame. The feds require the application to be within 30 days of hire, so they can put you in a tickler file and update it when the time comes.
You will get alot of no’s, but it only takes 1 yes and you will be good. TMC, Prime and Roehl are all pretty picky so I would open my mind to a different company. They all do the same job so it really won’t matter that much.
Hiring has been slow because the industry has been hit hard the past couple of years, so your time frame may actually work better in your favor.
Congrats on turning your life around, that is a hard thing to do.